SIP'ing Suzanne

[Azimuth]

Lots of things but primarily I think using coco and lack of nutrition in early seedling stage may have been the biggest factor, not had many other problems than that as far as I can see with my limited knowledge Definitely invaluable to see it done right and compare though your 100% correct.

Ah yes, lack of nutrition would do it. Coco has none so the plant needs it from somewhere else.

I have two small clones from earlier in the year that I keep small for space reasons. One is in a SIP and the other is not for comparison purposes. The SIP plant shot ahead early but, since neither gets fed, they both knid of look the same at this point.

So that answered a question I had about whether it is just the SIP structure or if other things factor in.

 

[Weffalo]

Ah yes, lack of nutrition would do it. Coco has none so the plant needs it from somewhere else.

I have two small clones from earlier in the year that I keep small for space reasons. One is in a SIP and the other is not for comparison purposes. The SIP plant shot ahead early but, since neither gets fed, they both knid of look the same at this point.

So that answered a question I had about whether it is just the SIP structure or if other things factor in.

SIPs all the way! It was just down to me not even realising I had coco lol, I think you pointed it out actually so luckily the plants recovered or it would have been worse.

My new seedlings are both doing well in SIPs having been directly planted so hopefully those can be used as a better comparison when I'm looking at what skilled growers can do in these planters

 

[lootznbootz]

Very interesting to see how big Suzanne is in just a short period of time, my SIP'd autos are more than double the time along and I think only marginally bigger

Thank you @Weffalo I posted this reply in your journal but wanted to document it here as well for mine.

I don't know that yours are only marginally bigger than mine for any other reason than your autos are as big as they want to be.
Looking over your journal there's no real difference other than like you said the coco drying that happened early on but you watered from the bottom developing that water from below method from the onset same as starting in the SIP.
Maybe allowing the tap root to find the bottom of the bigger pot sooner played a part?

 

[lootznbootz]

Ah yes, lack of nutrition would do it. Coco has none so the plant needs it from somewhere else.

I have two small clones from earlier in the year that I keep small for space reasons. One is in a SIP and the other is not for comparison purposes. The SIP plant shot ahead early but, since neither gets fed, they both knid of look the same at this point.

So that answered a question I had about whether it is just the SIP structure or if other things factor in.

I think it goes hand in hand @Azimuth

With Suzanne she was on the same feeding as my others in plastic pots and hasn't once showed the need to feed.
She seemed completely content during all of the massive growth she put on.
They went into plastic pots from RR the same day she went into SIP. Same soil mix no nutes.
That would argue that the SIP played a bigger role than nutrition no?

 

[Azimuth]

That would argue that the SIP played a bigger role than nutrition no?

Yes, but nutrition is also key component. My test was to see if the SIP would work its magic on its own and the results have proven that it's truly a package deal. Much like the wet/dry cycle, proper watering is important or you fail your plant. Our pots just do all of that automatically with no learning curve.

 

[Greenvein]

Hey @lootznbootz been a busy weekend for me but just had a catch up.. think the sip definitley needed her own story and she's looking good them roots surprised you don't have more built already could have transplanted the rest into them but would need more room.

Next time when she's dry maybe see how much she takes to get that little run off then cut back on the watering after to save cleaning your res later on?

Love that cloning idea I might give it a try myself as I have all them parts sitting in the garage. And thinking to take a clone to to with whilst I run some autos

 

[lootznbootz]

Hey @lootznbootz been a busy weekend for me but just had a catch up.. think the sip definitley needed her own story and she's looking good them roots surprised you don't have more built already could have transplanted the rest into them but would need more room.

Next time when she's dry maybe see how much she takes to get that little run off then cut back on the watering after to save cleaning your res later on?

Love that cloning idea I might give it a try myself as I have all them parts sitting in the garage. And thinking to take a clone to to with whilst I run some autos

Thank You! I'm just standing back as much as I can and letting her do the work! She has surprised me for sure!

This is something I have been thinking about and growing a bit concerned with as I've seen her develop.
Having all those roots in the res like that worries me but also comforts me
I don't know how to feel about it really. As we get along here, she's only going to get bigger and "res changes" on her are not going to be practical.

Also, will they be needed? should we even have to worry about how big the root mass is in the water? or what is really left in the water after a feeding?
The water is either SIPped by the plant through the soil keeping it moist.
As well as just full on Chugged by the massive number of roots in the water.
So, it begs the question will it even be a problem or is it going to be a huge PITA later on.

Just some things I've been pondering myself as this thing really picks up.

I've looked into getting the grow bucket inserts to make things much easier and avoid the 2-bucket method as we have here.
Not entirely because I'm questioning out DIY just, I've never grown like this and don't know what to expect.
From what I've seen thus far I'm only growing in SIP from now on its just a matter of which one.
If I can harvest Suzanne no problem, then I may jump back into the DIY route there's just questions that have arisen as we've gotten further along that I feel the 1 bucket method has already worked out.

I've seen this method used before but not many have I seen using it for a plant as finnicky as cannabis.

I love my cloning bucket hopefully it proves faithful and doesn't let me down. It worked so well in the past! I'm pretty sure I saw @InTheShed's write up a WHILE ago and based it off of that.

Anyway, sorry for the winded response your comment made me think all day

 

[lootznbootz]

Day 23​

Just a quick update to bring us up to speed.

Shes just chugging along. and there's not much to report really

Yesterday I watered the rest of the garden and so I topped of her res with
7ml of Cal/mag in 1gal PH'd to around 6

Shes been growing steadily, and her branches are far thicker than anything else in the garden.
I finally began pulling down her top 2 branches and now the mainline is in full motion.

The clones are just cloning.
I've had to fill the bucket just a bit and when I did, I added some clonex to the water I can't remember what journal I was reading they mentioned it and I realized I had missed that step when I took my clones.
They still look full of life like the day I cut them so that's a good sign.

The yellow traps have collected a few of the dreaded FG and then I realized some of the glue has gotten on the rim of the bucket and caught a good amount of them as well.
Which made me ask my dad... "Do we have any honey?"
"why" he replied...
"It's easier than using shit" I said


The look of pride on his face seeing me drop a bit of knowledge on him like that unsuspectingly was priceless!

I may actually try and line the rim with honey in hopes of drawing them out and killing them with a sweet and sticky but slow death!

My hate for these things is developing to unreal levels

OK quick story this reminded me of! While deployed we had an infestation of mice on the FOB we were on. I was a part of an "S" shop and so I worked on the base in one of the HQ tents.
It got so bad that at one point almost everyone on the base had their name on a board in each tent and a number of corresponding mice caught tallied next to them.
There were DIY traps everywhere!

The ideas guys would come up with was as impressive as some of the things I've seen here on 420!

My personal favorite not to drag this on too much longer was the tight rope...

1. Get deep bucket and put a little less than half in bucket of water
2. Build ramp for mice to climb to top of bucket
3. place weapons cleaning rod with tp roll over mouth of bucket
4. place peanut butter just out of reach on tp roll
5. listen for splash to reset tp roll

OK sorry for memory lane where were we?!

Oh yea!

I will be letting her drink up what she has in her res when she empties it, we will feed and carefully watch how much it takes to get a runoff.
Although it may not matter because I won't know the exact level of the water table every time to know how much to add to get the same runoff every time.
Regardless, when she's empty, we'll feed to a slight runoff then fill her up with Cal/mag water in her res

Man am I stoned or what!

Thanks for Stopping by. I'm going to get back to this apple fritter!

 

[Greenvein]

Thank You! I'm just standing back as much as I can and letting her do the work! She has surprised me for sure!

This is something I have been thinking about and growing a bit concerned with as I've seen her develop.
Having all those roots in the res like that worries me but also comforts me
I don't know how to feel about it really. As we get along here, she's only going to get bigger and "res changes" on her are not going to be practical.

Also, will they be needed? should we even have to worry about how big the root mass is in the water? or what is really left in the water after a feeding?
The water is either SIPped by the plant through the soil keeping it moist.
As well as just full on Chugged by the massive number of roots in the water.
So, it begs the question will it even be a problem or is it going to be a huge PITA later on.

Just some things I've been pondering myself as this thing really picks up.

I've looked into getting the grow bucket inserts to make things much easier and avoid the 2-bucket method as we have here.
Not entirely because I'm questioning out DIY just, I've never grown like this and don't know what to expect.
From what I've seen thus far I'm only growing in SIP from now on its just a matter of which one.
If I can harvest Suzanne no problem, then I may jump back into the DIY route there's just questions that have arisen as we've gotten further along that I feel the 1 bucket method has already worked out.

I've seen this method used before but not many have I seen using it for a plant as finnicky as cannabis.

I love my cloning bucket hopefully it proves faithful and doesn't let me down. It worked so well in the past! I'm pretty sure I saw @InTheShed's write up a WHILE ago and based it off of that.

Anyway, sorry for the winded response your comment made me think all day

Sorry bud I'm so bad for that like I said before I can think for hours about Suzanne specially after a smoke
It's true we can think all day but most of them questions will be answered at the end of the grow.
I will wait for your final masterpiece probably 3rd sip grow then build that beast myself

 

[Azimuth]

This is something I have been thinking about and growing a bit concerned with as I've seen her develop.
Having all those roots in the res like that worries me but also comforts me
I don't know how to feel about it really. As we get along here, she's only going to get bigger and "res changes" on her are not going to be practical.

When I grew with the false floor type I was actually surprised at the lack of roots in the reservoir. I was expecting roots like we see in dwc buckets, but mine were confined to the connector pot and a few ventured out just a little into the water, but not much.

Also, will they be needed? should we even have to worry about how big the root mass is in the water? or what is really left in the water after a feeding?

I don't see very do a res change, but in early veg I let the water level drop until pretty low before refilling with my regular mix, not adjusted for whatever is left behind. In flower I'll keep the reservoir topped off because they go through it much faster.

As well as just full on Chugged by the massive number of roots in the water.
So, it begs the question will it even be a problem or is it going to be a huge PITA later on.

Won't be an issue.

I've looked into getting the grow bucket inserts to make things much easier and avoid the 2-bucket method as we have here.
Not entirely because I'm questioning out DIY just, I've never grown like this and don't know what to expect.
From what I've seen thus far I'm only growing in SIP from now on its just a matter of which one.
If I can harvest Suzanne no problem, then I may jump back into the DIY route there's just questions that have arisen as we've gotten further along that I feel the 1 bucket method has already worked out.

I'd say try the one bucket design like we talked about before. Easier and faster to build, and I get better root development in them. You only need a bucket, a food storage container and a fill tube.

Shes been growing steadily, and her branches are far thicker than anything else in the garden.
I finally began pulling down her top 2 branches and now the mainline is in full motion.

Be careful as you train her. The limbs get much thicker in these and if you try to bend it too much or too quickly you can snap. Better to do it early while they're still flexible and in stages over several days I you have to.

I will be letting her drink up what she has in her res when she empties it, we will feed and carefully watch how much it takes to get a runoff.
Although it may not matter because I won't know the exact level of the water table every time to know how much to add to get the same runoff every time.

Yet another reason for a shorter fill tube. I slide a stick down and measure the water level that way.

 

[lootznbootz]

Day 28​

It's been far too long since our last update. My apologies.
Things have been busy in the garden. I blame the lack of updates on the ease of use with the SIP

Please excuse me for pulling this from my other journal. with an edit or two it led to an amazing conversation in my other journal worth checking out.

"The other night I stayed up late! Reading all about VPD, soil moisture, water vs. nutrient uptake and how all of it works together.
I sat back and looked at what was going on, comparing what I was seeing to what we're aiming for.

That led me to making a few changes to the environment in the controller.
I realized that at the temps we were reaching keeping up with humidity is much harder to do obviously.
Luckily for us the environment outside the tent has the ability to be much cooler. Thus, lowering the max temperature, we are able to achieve in the tent.

To do this I simply shut off the heater yesterday during lights on, let the temperature in the garage drop and let the
the lights do all the work. I did need to drop the intensity of the lights to 50% yesterday to let things cool off a bit.
Once it finally did, we were able to reach the humidity and VPD we were aiming for.
I brought the temps to 73F. Humidity then rose to over 50% and we achieved a VPD of around 1.1 like we wanted
I had to set the inline fan to only go on when the humidity limit (55%) was reached otherwise I had it shut off so not to constantly vent out the humidity we had just built up.
I also decreased the high heat limit so the inline fan would turn on at 74F to ensure we maintained the numbers we were looking for.
With those limits set it ensures the inline fan turns on periodically to refresh the air in the tent like were supposed to.

At lights out I turned on the heater on low power and set the thermostat to max. It kept the tent temperature around 64F. The temp of the garage was about 67F.
Then I turned the thermostat down to the point where it clicks off and stop. We now have our limit set to maintain the temps during lights out.

At lights on today I turned the off moved it out the way and turned the lights up to 10 were now back into the parameters we want.

One thing tackled on to the next.

I feel like even tho I've been in the tent and practically working exclusively on the grow, I've been sitting idle.
There was more that could be done.

The Fungus gnat situation has turned into the 100-year war. But I do feel there is an end in sight with my latest moves.
I noticed so many gnats on the small pots at the pot the bottoms.
I put the sticky traps in around the bottoms of the pots intertwined between the pots and it helped but then I saw it and realized it.
I never put perlite in the bottom of the pots when i transplanted to 1 gal plastic pots. And the little bastards were using the bottoms of the pots instead of the tops it seems.

A trip to the local hardware store was in order.

I picked up a couple of things that I feel are going to make a big difference going forward although simple and everyday things.
Sometimes it's the small things ya know?

• Perlite
• Diatomaceous Earth
• Spray bottles
• Pump sprayer
• PVC cutter (Finally)"

...Annnd we're live again!

I finally did away with the chimney stack on the SIP. I wanted to find a Santa to put on top of it for a picture but to no avail. @Azimuth I'm sure your finally relieved to know my bucket is finally OSHA approved

I did however after removing the dry layer of soil on top that had gnats crawling throughout it add a layer of DE to the top of the soil. Then I added a layer of fresh soil that had been treated with SNS left out to air out and dry then brought in to finish drying and warm up. I then added perlite and myco to the soil and this was put on top of the layer of DE. I then added a layer of DE onto this fresh top layer.

The number of fungus gnats at the top of the soil has decreased.
Tho the res seems to be the new place all the cool gnats like to hang out at.
So, I added a piece of screen to cover the hole still allowing fresh air and water to past through but make it more of a challenge and deter them a bit.

I have also been continuing the training with the quadline. It is becoming more difficult because she seems to now be wanting to stay squatter and she has started to stagger her nodes.
Her branches are also much thicker than anything else in the garden so extra care has to be taken not to snap any limbs.
She is already bushy again and looks like she could use another haircut to keep things a bit cleaner and easier.

I flushed her res. tonight with R/O water PH to about 7.5
I made the mistake of feeding her in her res at the last feeding for the tent and it was needed to flush out as much as I could. This also allowed for more of the mosquito dunk bits to come out and a not so healthy-looking film that was in the water.
I flushed it out with a gallon of water until the water was clean and the res was full.
NO MORE NUTES EXCEPT CAL/MAG IN THE RES!
With this type of SIP and the nutrients we are using I do not believe it to be a good idea to exclusively use the res.
Feedings must be done through the soil and only water should be allowed to be absorbed by the soil.
I look forward to results from the 1 bucket growbucket style to see if results are any different regarding nutrients in the res or feeding through the soil only.

I think it makes the most sense to feed the soil water the res.

Her clones look very good all still alive none have dampened off and I even think 2 of them might have pushed the growth tip out a bit more since being in the bucket which is usually a good sign.
Although I have yet to confirm roots.
Also, the leaves look to be yellowing a little bit after a week which is also a good sign that they may be using those leaves for nutrients as they establish themselves.
The hope is they all root soon as the bucket is needed for teas that I would like to brew as well as the space that it's taking up. I would much rather fill it with rooted plants.

Other than that, she's been doing her thing just making her way. If she doesn't start stretching a bit more, we made have to give up the quadline and just let her do her thing with another topping or 2 before flower as I suspect she should be close to it with a little more size to her.

Thank you for stopping by
Happy Holidays!
Thank you for stopping by!

 

[Azimuth]

Yes, I fully support cutting back that "eye poker" of a fill tube you had going there. That thing made  me nervous and I'm not even in your garden.

 

[lootznbootz]

Day 33​

OOOOH what an update I have in store for you all!

This journal has been slow going my apologies. It may have been made prematurely I admit, BUT we now have enough action to generate some traction!
Let's dive in!

We cut clones about 10 days ago. I noticed the yellowing on their leaves and knew it wouldn't be long.

12/27 We had our first visible roots out of the RR! so that's what? 8 days?!
My trusty old bucket strikes again!

4 for 4

I knew I had to act quickly I ordered the Gro Buckets on the zon and they were delivered same day!
I also went out and got 2 Bags of Roots Organics LUSH soil.

This is supposed to be their most complete soil and should be enough to feed the plants for up to 8 weeks!
Couple that with a SIP and does this even count as growing anymore?

I let the first one sit another day in the bucket while I gathered supplies and in 24 hours it was no more waiting, we had to move!

Assembly of the Gro Buckets was as easy as drilling a hole in the bucket and filling it with soil.

The kit came with 3 inserts I had 4 clones of the PBK 1. All had varying stages of root development.
I put 2 into SIP's and the other 2 RR went into 1-Gal Pots.
I didnt want to constrict the RR not in sips to the confines of a solo cup. I wanted them to be able to reach out much further than a solo cup.
It's not completely fair as the SIPS have 5 gal buckets to reach out into but in 2 weeks, we should be able to see the difference between the RR to a soil medium under normal conditions and a RR to a SIP directly.
Will the SIPS take time to adjust?
In 2 weeks, we know what to expect from a clone in soil how will it compare to its counterpart in a SIP.

As for Suzanne, I let her go her limbs were getting too hard and her main top branch began to split I elected to let her heal and just do what Shes going to do.
I gave her a defoil as she was so bushy and the nodes are so tightly spaced she responded well to it.
I will top her again maybe one more time and she will be going to flower soon.
I also filled her res with just Cal/mag at 6.3 until I got a bit of runoff.

when she empties her res I will feed her from the top just enough to keep soil wicking and then continue with water in the res as usual.

After another topping we may start prepping her for transitioning to bloom by switching the feed after her next depending on how ready she is.

CONTINUED…

 

[lootznbootz]

CONTINUED.

So Suzanne gave us 4 clones.
This journal was meant to document their journey as well as we transition our garden to a sip army!
Although 2 will be done in plastic pots as a side by side of clones and how they compare.

The SIPS were transplanted into the SIP directly I sprinkled plenty of myco into the holes and watered in 1 gal of Cal/mag
I then added water to the tube and filled until I got a bit of runoff. I made sure the fill indicators worked and adjusted lights above them all there is to do now is let them work


I had some help in naming them but let me introduce you to the newest members of the garden

Inspired by my one true celebrity love

SADE’

She was the first to root and is the one you saw pictures of in the previous post that after 24 hours her roots had exploded out of the RR

STACY

Stacy did not have AS explosive root development out of her RR but roots were clearly visible

STEPH

Like SADE’, STEPH had some impressive growth out of the rapid rooter not AS much but 2nd out of 4.

And last but not least…

SASHA

Sasha had the smaller tap root coming out of the RR just enough that I could tell it was a root and with the yellowing of the leaves on her I decided it wasn’t worth waiting for her to go another day and we’ll keep it all even as far as transplant days.

Today being day 1 for them
Until my outlet adapter from A/C gets here tomorrow and the humidifier.
They have been on 24/0 until I can properly dial in their environment.
Leaving the tent open and lights on 50% made that possible in the meantime and I didn’t want them freezing at lights out today after having just watered them especially.

I will update as we make adjustments. I’m on my way to them now so we will make necessary changes to accommodate the new equipment and get them set up for success

Everything in both gardens will be using LUSH soil from now on now that I have a reliable source for it. As all of these are in LUSH now we will maintain that going forward.

Thank you for your time and thanks for stopping by!
Any questions or feedback please don’t hesitate!

 

[lootznbootz]

@sjb504 I forgot I saved a picture for you!

I didn’t cut these off just for you! They are freaking huge! These were her first true fan leaves we may see if they can make it to harvest on her!

 

[Azimuth]

Alright, game on for the experiment. I'm looking forward to your observations.

 

[Emilya Green]

Oh boy! Another SIP thread! I have pulled my big pink lawn chair up close so I can see every detail!

 

[lootznbootz]

Oh boy! Another SIP thread! I have pulled my big pink lawn chair up close so I can see every detail!

Thank You! Honored to have you here.

Things are just starting to pick up but as we all know with these SIP's it doesn't take very long!

 

[lootznbootz]

​

IMPORTANT UPDATE​

Last night while in the garden it was time to feed. This included Suzanne.
While moving things in and out of the garden I realized there has been another wave of Fungus Gnats.
They seem to be holding on to the loss of their ancestors over the centuries a lot more than previous generations.

It wasn't long until I saw where they were not only hanging out at but coming from.

It pains me to say it, but Suzanne's SIP as constructed is an FG farm!
There is a space between the 2 buckets that seems to create the perfect environment for them to thrive and not be affected by most if not all the measures we've been taking.

Yes, there are fallen soldiers on the sticky traps but seeing how many were crawling all over the bucket was so disheartening to see.

ALL IS NOT LOST

I closed off her air hole with a bit of screen and tape and that is a great solution.
But if there is a will there is a way and these bastards seem to have all the will in the world collectively!
I took her out of her second bucket and did not like what I saw.
There were fresh fuzzy white roots growing out of the net cup yes. But the mass that had previously grown far into the water was what seemed to be stained very badly by the nutrient solution we previously put in the res.

I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH! NO NUTRIENT SOLUTIONS IN THE RES (AT LEAST WITH THESE 2 BUCKET SIPs)

There may be a way or a nutrient that works well in absorbing through the wicking foot in my experience Roots Organics is not that product. I would honestly just avoid it and feed through the soil and only add water with at most Cal/mag PH'd into the res nothing more.

The roots were not slimy again just looked pretty stained and damaged due to having dried out.
Living with the plants part time I hadn't noticed how fast she was emptying her res.
Much more attention will be paid to this Suzanne going forward. She lacks the controls of a float measure or even large enough fill tub to see into to measure water level. Having closed off the air hole with screen I can longer just peek inside.
It will be critical to keep her topped off with water. I may just make it a daily practice to add water to her if I will be remote.

To address the space between the buckets I simply added more duct tape to close it off, but this means she's locked in from her out.

Hopefully what we've learned and what we plan to do going forward will be enough to address any issues that have or may arise. We won't be able to open her up so easily anymore. Nor do I want to as we go into flower.

I'm not saying the 2-bucket method that Suzanne is in is a total disappointment. There are ways to improve the original design that luckily, I learned in time. But the 1 bucket method @Azimuth suggest negates a lot of these issues.
I felt this was VERY important for anyone building a bucket similar to this style.
Looking on the tube most videos of builds will show this style. It needs to be properly equipped to handle these issues ahead of time.

I didn't get many pictures of it as I was trying to react.

I fed Suzanne to a runoff while she was out of her bucket to rehydrate her soil. I will give her res Cal/mag water tonight to restart the wicking process.
I took a couple of leaves off of her to open it up and allow for light penetration.
Her secondary branching from the 4 branches we kept are starting to come up pretty nicely.
She also has pistils showing and branching is now fully nonparallel. I have not been training her. I'm letting her reach and will train as the secondary stuff needs it.

I'm thinking I will be flipping her to flower soon. I'm not really worried about yield too much with her.
My thinking is that with this experimental bucket it may be better to get to the end and retire this 2bucket method before we have any issues, we can't recover from.

We have the Clones from her in the Gro buckets to see this strain in a more refined method while still keeping true to the SIP.

They are just establishing themselves in their new homes. The yellowing has continued but not too drastically to cause concern. I'm sure once they reach out into that LUSH soil, they will be more than happy.
The controls in the 1Gal pots are looking the same and were just waiting as they establish themselves and take off.

The ACI smart plug came in so now the lights are controlled on an off with the controller.
The humidifier and clip fan arrived as well, I set those up too.
I dialed everything into the parameters we set in the 2x4. I also raised the cobs a bit and took off the reflectors. I don't want to stress them too much or make them work too hard. We've learned that lesson already.
We now have 2 fully functioning tents! We will be acquiring the parts to get the 3rd tent up and running.
That won't be until we need the space for both our current tents to flower.

Until now we've been using the A/C Infinity ecosystem. But lately I've been drawn to the VIVOSUN. It's a similar system but looking deeper has some elements that I'm really interested in. The fan in the middle of their aero light is really interesting. More importantly tho is the control that their ecosystem apparently provides. It seems like you can customize it far more specifically to grow cannabis and that is obviously why we're here is it not?!
They are also a sponsor and being an active/contributing member of these forums that matters to me a bit.

I believe that's all for now as far as an update.

I wanted to make sure I made this update ASAP tho because it's important for anyone looking in and thinking about transitioning to a SIP. *The 2 bucket method that's popular in DIY videos do not address these small elements that could cause issues later on.

Other than that HAPPY NEW YEAR I hope everyone stays safe and here's to another year of Frosty buds in our gardens!

Thank you for your time & Thank you for stopping by!

 

[Azimuth]

Happy New Year, Lootz! Thanks for your observations and cautions. It's important to know about the bad as well.

It pains me to say it, but Suzanne's SIP as constructed is an FG farm!

Yikes! That's not good. The FG's lay their eggs in, and like, a wettish topsoil so if you can let it dry out some that will help.

To address the space between the buckets I simply added more duct tape to close it off, but this means she's locked in from her out.

You could use an old towel or t-shirt or something to allow continued access down below. That duct tape makes you look kinda committed to your idea, though.

I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH! NO NUTRIENT SOLUTIONS IN THE RES (AT LEAST WITH THESE 2 BUCKET SIPs)

Why do you say this? Were they not effective or you just didn't like the look? Any actual problems with the roots?

The roots were not slimy again just looked pretty stained

If they were slimy that would be an issue, but sounds like it's maybe just color?

I'm not saying the 2-bucket method that Suzanne is in is a total disappointment. There are ways to improve the original design that luckily, I learned in time. But the 1 bucket method @Azimuth suggest negates a lot of these issues.