We are getting direct sun from about 11 until 5 now, was longer in June.
Yes they flew up really, the main time consuming thing was bringing all the soil downthere.
In terms of food, they had the fresh soil which doesn't contain much nutrients, We've top dressed once with worm humus, and twice just recently with powdered bat guano. And that's been it, plain water through the drippers 2-3 times per day for an hour each time, depending on what the weather is saying.
really it was just what was cheaply and readily available too us, it's abit of a ballache to order things from the net.
We will replicate these planters in more locations next year, We've started using them inside with photoperiods too and it really saves a lot of effort and nutrients in comparison to individual pots
We may well look into the smart pot material and copy some folks over the pond, but again, we will draw conclusions from this years result and rethink over winter