Hi Dr.RW
I've read this idea before...it's a good one for wicking, just not sure about what's in those towels, my husbands got a ton of them in his garage, just not sure I want to put them in my plants. Never heard of Fullers earth, my husband uses a shovel of dirt from the yard if he needs to soak up a little oil.
I used a 75/25 perlite/vermiculite mix I made from 6 scoops perlite and 1 scoop fine verm and 1 scoop course verm. I think the course verm holds moisture a little longer than the fine. It seems to have worked, their only 3 weeks old today and look pretty good to my uneducated eye. I've been using a pH between 5.6 - 5.9.
How did you make homemade pH down?
I was catching up on my subs a couple days ago and somebody's journal made mention of a forum dedicated to homemade tonics...I thought this was a great idea. I think it was Blue Planet Nutes...We'll have to talk to him more on this...