Azimuth, as per cardboard and does it need replacing due to rain, no it does not. I place new cardboard Just once a year, when planters are deployed in spring. Rain doesn't hurt them. We don't get a great deal of it in the growing season here - we get more than our fair share in winter - although we are in a unique rain shadow here that serves Victoria very well receiving about half the rain Seattle does each winter and they are not so many miles South of me, by boat, straight line, around 50 in fact. But, all that water is why it is so stunningly lush here in spring, summer, and fall when the sun is out. Anyway, I don't have to worry about these SIPs taking on much water.
The soil has been innoculated all winter and spring with endo mycos, strep, bacillus, and trich's and reservoir are refilled all season long with 1:500 KNF potions, kelp+humic acid, Green Leaf's Sweet Candy, and light to heavy M3ga Cr0p ferts, although this year some are growing using my new RD-Special Worm Castings, and Sweet Candy only, to test for first time this year. I'm very excited about the castings formula I developed, so far I've only grown 2 small cannabis SIPs with it (approx 2 parts promix, 1 part castings and some extra perlite. That weed remains the strongest buzz I've produced in my new indoor setup in the two-plus years I've been running it. Smooth too and its not even fully cured yet. I love that next-day explosion of growth and health that only a dose of worm poop tea provides. It is miraculous shit.
And yes, a nice big huge cannabis tree, 20ft high will grow in those trash-can SIPs, (admittedly they do receive a 3-ft. boost) and they hold 10 gallons of fertigation or water, depending on materials used, which does last a very, very long time esp. if you mulch it so as to maximize (cardboard, or plastic if you want to stretch it to over 14 days in veg, or 7 days at highest demand level, mid/late-flower).
These cukes and tomatoes are going to explode in growth and produce more fruit than you would imagine possible. Surprises me every year, still. Soil is a mix of recycled cannabis Promix, well-cooked super soil from my giant raised bed (can be seen in the background), and leaf compost. Lots and lots of 5-7 year-old leaf compost that I keep in garbage bags in a deep hole. Each bag gets a handful of wormcastings and mycos when 'sealed'. It just keeps things moving faster and in movable, identifiable (by year) package. Every SIP got microbe infusions, worm teas, etc to get started and the first fill is not heavily fertilized but is heavily conditioned with things to feed microbes, install auxins (kelp, willow) and other hormones, and otherwise condition the soil. There's so damn much of it in each SIP, gotta imagine 30 gallons of soil in the trash cans, that I'm very conscious of needing the soil to have the right properties from day one. No screwing around, just like when growing weed. Not here to fuck around and look cool, I'm trying to feed myself the best food possible while only spending money on inexpensive staples like rice and oatmeal, etc. , in bulk at low prices, just like I was living up in the islands, off-grid again.
I don't have to water but once a week at most throughout season, and nothing bad happens if it goes two weeks, although I may yet set these guys up on a gravity-fed, control bucket auto-fill system I made that sources from a 50 gal drum. Next year I mean to set six of these huge SIPs up on this auto-system, waaay up on my roof where I typically keep a nice garden on the flat area. I have damage up there currently however and must fix before next rainy season, but have to do it myself ($$) so it will take all summer. No auto-fed roof-weed this year. Really disappointed, but I didn't have any genetics in time anyway, and its the only hidden outdoor location to grow that I have onsite, outside. I'm an OG outdoor guerilla grower, at volume, so in my heart I always want to grow trees outside. But considering the control I have inside, and with two 5x5 flower tents, each with a 1100w top-end
LED, I really don't have any reasons left to grow outside and risk attracting negative attention.
Dont forget that you can supercharge your diet and your health by sprouting seeds and eating sprouts every day. Nothing is healthier. Mung beans cost pennies, sunflower seeds, wheat seeds (go for the white over everyone else's recommendation the red, the white is far less prone to mould, and most large Victoria, Seattle, Vancouver grocery stores carry in bulk. I also grow for wheatgrass and juice it after 7 days. You can always grow some food in the empty spaces under your grow lights... I do.
These couldn't be simpler to build, and the growth, the produce is stunning. I'll keep this thread intermittently updated with pics of these guys in particular, though I'll show you my 12, 5-gallon tomato plant SIPs soon also. I find that now, since having indoor equip that I can use to keep growing more seedlings all the time, growing vegetables this way is extremely efficient, and a much different experience to what you may have had in the past, as I've mentioned. I choose to decorate with those succulent plants because I have a bajillion of them (I sell them in the summer) but it means I really can ignore the whole area for a week at a time if I have to, which, unfortunately, is happening quite a lot lately.
I've developed a serious problem with my swallowing. Specifically, I can't anymore. It always gets stuck 1/3 the way down and then has to come back up. Every. Single. Time. Some days I struggle even to take water, although I recently developed a procedure requiring me to tuck my chin in and down as much as possible to successfully swallow liquids. Fun. I've been living on juiced wheatgrass, slimfast and vitamins for weeks, nay, coming on months now. Cannot get a proper diagnosis yet, a swallow test ruled out some things but wasn't diagnostic.
However, in my research, I have discovered that it has an across-the-board 80% mortality rate in 24 months., this means regardless the cause or specific mechanics, age, whatever, 80% of people with this problem die in 2 years! Yeesh! I'm in my forties! So, we're gonna get something figured out because I'm losing 5 pounds a week presently, reliably. Now, because I'm a natural genius I made sure that I was plenty overweight before all of this started a few months ago. Brilliant when you think about it. ha!
