Slowly and steady
Very nice! You will like the esp32, very capable board. I will probably end up porting my code to it at some point.
Now that Home Assistant looks very interesting. This is the first time I have seen it; after a quick read on it looks to make the wireless interface much, much easier than what I am doing.
Look forward to the progress you make with it.
Yea this thing connected to stuff I wasnāt even aware it could right away. Pretty nice system That makes everything look clean
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If u donāt have a colored solo cup u can use paper and duct tape and make a sleeve for the cup. Make sure light cannot penetrate the sleeve tho. If u run peroxide water thru it to kill the algae make sure u run clean water thru and follow with a good feed. Peroxide will wash out all the good stuff u need in the plants soil but will rid of the algae. Good thing this happened in a small container lol. Easy fix for the transplant
Hi Mark,
I cut up an old fabric pot and made some sleeves for them, so I got the light cut off now. I ran the peroxide through yesterday but havenāt followed up with clean water flush. Sounds like the peroxide can deplete the nutrients in my FFOF soil?
I have decide this grow to just top dress with dry amendments for feeds and try not to use any liquid nutrients. It just sounds like a easier way to provide what they need. What are your thoughts?
@PharmerBob what do you think?
To be honest, I am on the fence about just starting over since I am only 2 weeks in. Still debating on that. I just hate making a mistake like this so early.
Iāve always been a hydro guy so I feed often.
Pretty neat with super soils tho
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Finally got it up off the ground and runningā¦limping? Ah whatever itās a step forward
Running dedicated server and made everything mobile to be able to access and code from anywhere
Added a few cards I found around the house while I wait for actual material. Was good weekend project thank you!
Iām late to the game which is a minor bummer but you donāt need peroxide to kill off the algae at all. Just covering them up for now and transplanting into a larger container later will kill it off anyhow. It needs light to survive, so cutting off the light kills it.
Anyhow peroxide wonāt flush out enough to be too concerned about at the seedling stage. Dry soil amendments will be just fine but Iād start top-dressing now so it has time to dissolve into the soil and make itself available for the plants when theyāre ready to start pulling the nutrients out.
Regarding reusing FFOF, I see no problem with it at all - itās ultimately just fancy compost with perlite mixed in, so reuse with dry amendments added and well-blended would be the same (if not better) as a fresh bag. I already add worm castings and blood meal to my FFOF (because itās already hot, naturally I wanted to make it hotter). I see no reason it canāt be done after a grow too.
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Wow! Sounds like that came together fast. Once you get your bits and pieces you will be going in no time. I am going to look into the Home Assistant when I get some free time, might be something I would want to play with.
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Thanks for the reply! The good news is I learned about this problem and how to solve it. Next time I will take precautions to prevent it from happening in the first place.
The reason I mixed some old FFOF with new is I was afraid it would be to hot for the seedlings. Do you go straight into your amended soil with your seedlings?
I am planning on using the recipe for this grow:
- Fox Farms Ocean Forest (new)
- Dolomite limeā¦ 1 tablespoons per gallon of soil
- Espoma Plant Toneā¦ 4 tablespoons per gallon
- Worm Castingsā¦ 20% by volume
- And maybe Perliteā¦ maybe 25-30% by volume
Can you critique my plan a little?
Thanks!
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Yep. Sure do. I have had one or two seedlings who seemed unsure about life for a little extra while they adjusted to the nutrients but none have up and died on me.
Iām not sure if FFOF is simply weaker now than perhaps it had been in the past, or if Iām just really mean to my plants. Iāve not had an issue with it being too hot for anything, but have had plants decide it wasnāt enough (hence the amendments).
Iām not convinced you need that much by way of worm castings. I add about a cup for every 3gal fabric pot. My only real reason for bringing it up is that I know it will raise your ph up closer to 7. I havenāt personally used dolomite in anything plant related so Iām not sure if that ratio is enough to combat the raise that could happen from the worm castings. The point of all this unsurity being that you may be inviting ph weirdness, but I canāt be sure.
I can certainly ask @JaneQP - sheās the soil guru (in my opinion anyhow)
Great info! Thanks!! And yes if @JaneQP had a minute to weigh in I would be very appreciative.
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I did spend some looking over the Home Assistant and I am impressed with what I seeā¦ lots of cool home automation I wouldnāt mind playing with. Thanks for turning me on to that one!
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I think going straight into ocean forest had a hand in slowing my autos down. I didnāt get any weirdness, but they never really took off great.
@Graysin Thanks for the tag. Soil Guru? LOL - just a retired chemist that likes to research and experiment a bit LOL
@AxisCat. Here is what I could find
I could not glean a lot from the FF site other than FFOF is composed of:
Peat Moss (slightly acidic)
Earthworm casings (neutral)
Bat Guano (5.1-7.3 pH but can drop to the range of 2.7-4.1 over time)
Fish emulsion - this one is touch since it depends on the preparation since acid can be added as a stabilizer. pH will vary from 3-7.
Crab meal (slightly acidic).
Your additional additives are:
Dolomite lime (pH 8-9)
Espoma Plant Tone (no pH information but has a lot of good microbes!)
Worm Casings (nuetral)
Perlite (neutral with a pH of 7.0ā7.5) , but it has no buffering capacity. You definitely want to add some for properly aerating the soil). 20-30% is normal.
For soil grows the optimal pH range for the root zone is between 6.0 and 7.0. Another study states the optimal range for soil growing conditions is 6.2 to 6.7. Soil is much more forgiving especially since you are growing organic and microbes will be your best friends!
Here is a soil pH chart showing nutrient availability:
My only recommendation would be to do a soil slurry test of your mix and make sure it is between 6-7. If it is too low you could add more of the dolomite lime. Also if you start seeing any kind of nutrient lockout in your girls I would recommend you check your soil again. The information I found about the bat guano IMO is a bit scary but hopefully it is only a small component of the FFOF.
I am not a soil expert like I said - I just do a lot of reading on this site and research what I donāt know until I am thoroughly confused 
Best of grows to you!
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This actually makes a lot of sense, myself and @ReelOfishalTrees and probably others have consistently hit a PH problem with FFOF around week 5-6 and needed to flush - if bat guano drags the PH down that hard, it may be the answer to a lingering question which has been āwhy was my soil ph fine and suddenly awful?ā
If nothing else all of this reinforces that Iām making the right decision phasing out my soil grows entirely. My brain canāt handle watering daily, let alone watering daily and checking my runoff and flushing when it changes overnight 
Thanks for the info @JaneQP - you under-value yourself and definitely shouldnāt 
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When I read that about bat guano I also did the scratch of the head wondering it could be related to the āhotā batches of FFOF.
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Perfect! I especially like the PH chart. And a slurry test is a great idea. Thanks for taking the time to help me out!
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My pleasure. It is my way at giving back since I received a lot of help from the community throughout my grows!
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