My husband sent a picture of my REI with leaves all dried up except for the shoot. He said he didn't water them since it was raining. I asked how heavy is the rain. Not too heavy. I told him to still water the tree if it's a light rain. And he has to observe all the trees since some need heavy watering than others.

I dare not think what will happen to my trees for the next two weeks before I am back home. Do you think my trees will survive without me?

Norhayati

Before I was out for a week on a business trip my wife watered our plants for a couple days while I watched. Worked out great for us.

 I know that helpless feeling you are experiencing, not being able to do anything about it.   I've been in there.   I hope the plants recover. 
Soni

I have to put sticky notes all over the house to remind them to water the plants, how to operate the washing machines. My boys are too dependent on me. Its good that I am away so they can become independent. Or...the house will be a total mess when I get home?

Norhayati

I feel your pain. I left town Wednesday and won't return until Sunday. I just talked to my wife and found out that she has not yet watered any of my pots AND she decided to leave town for the weekend. I think she hates my figs.

it is that time of the year, when they drop leaves regardless. So, no worries, the husband is more important than the fig tree and they rebound also... no stress.

When we went to Nicaragua last year for 11 days I had my dad water things.  He really likes watering!  He saturated everything.  He claimed he brought one tree back to life which had been doing poorly but I did have problems with some young trees suffering from rot afterwards.  He farmed over 1,000 acres, mostly corn, and just says "plants need water to grow, you know!", LOL.  I explain to him that they also need air.  When we went to Idaho for a week earlier this year I set things up to where the larger trees were crowded in my shadehouse and watered with overhead sprinklers on a timer so that he wouldn't mess with those.  My smaller trees I just put in trays and told him how much water to put in the trays and asked him to water just on our 3rd and 5th day away from home.  That seemed to work out pretty well.

It takes a fair amount of planning to make sure others understand the water needs of our plants, that's for sure.  Of course, if you don't have someone that give any priority to watering them, you've definitely got bigger problems.

I leave my plants with my neighbors or hire local kids to water them... last time I left my husband with the job he managed to kill my bamboo in a week....
As for leaving boy and Dad home alone for a while had too once when my Dad was sick and I came back to towers of pizza boxes... some still have a piece or two in them...
Laundry they are good with i make my kids start learning how to do that starting age 8...

Drip irrigation and a timer.  They're the best!  Leave for two weeks at a clip and come back to a lush and healthy fig forrest.

My wife and I cannot go away together during the summer due to the Fig trees. I can safely leave my trees in her hands knowing that the trees will be watered, even during a light rain. I can't say this makes her happy, as frequent complaints are registered on an almost daily basis. It is a job, I will admit, given the number of trees I have. Even though she complains, I always come back to thriving trees and she always cleans up any fallen leaves and has the trees arranged in perfect rows.