It is currently Thu Mar 28, 2024 6:37 am

All times are UTC - 6 hours




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 8 posts ] 
Author Message
PostPosted: Mon Sep 15, 2003 2:57 pm 
Offline

Joined: Sat Sep 13, 2003 9:28 pm
Posts: 17
Location: winnsboro.s.c.
Hello All,
I need an alt. to bleach or lysol to sanitize propagation pots.It can not contain any chemicals.It still needs to kill viruses and dieseases.I will be using a cold frame and pots to propagate outside,
please let me know.If all fails it seems that maybe can buy throw away containers,would rather not do that due to it is already a throw away society and also the costs.Thank-you for your time
LAP


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Sep 15, 2003 9:02 pm 
Offline
Moderator
Moderator

Joined: Mon Mar 31, 2003 9:18 pm
Posts: 1093
Location: McKinney,TEXAS
Orange oil is the answer to all your safe cleaning and sanitation needs. Go here for an explanation: http://www.texastko.com/
Tony M


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Sep 16, 2003 10:27 am 
Offline

Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2003 10:51 pm
Posts: 747
Location: Garland, Texas
Orange TKO is a great and versatile product. It is a very good cleaner, but to my knowledge it does not sanitize (disinfect).

_________________
Keeping it clean and green here, Boss.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Tue Sep 16, 2003 3:47 pm 
Offline

Joined: Sun Apr 06, 2003 10:59 am
Posts: 277
lou ann pack wrote:
Hello All,
I need an alt. to bleach or lysol to sanitize propagation pots. It can not contain any chemicals.It still needs to kill viruses and dieseases. I will be using a cold frame and pots to propagate outside, please let me know. If all fails it seems that maybe can buy throw away containers,would rather not do that due to it is already a throw away society and also the costs. Thank-you for your time LAP


If your pots are clean -- no caked mud or dirt -- then you might try concentrated hydrogen peroxide. Maybe 10% H2O2; kitchen strength peroxide is not very effective on a number of bacteria species. You might also try alcohol, provided you're not using it near a fire. With alcohol, it mostly is the drying/desication that does the job, so let it dry. Depending on what the material is, you could use steam. Another thing you could use is sunlight, provided you can expose the surfaces to the ultraviolet. If the pot surfaces are free of dirt and grease, soap and water should go a long way by washing off the microbes. Using extreme pH also can be effective, so doing an acid bath (probably vinegar or 10-20% acetic acid) followed by an alkaline bath (baking soda, dilute lye water, washing soda) should work to some extent. I'm not entirely informed about borax, but it might help. If your pots are not plastic, you could rig a solar autoclave to heat-sterilize them. I believe the go of the orange oil-as-anti-microbial claim is that its detergent/solvent character makes food and/or attachment substrates unavailable to bacteria in the micelle domain. I can't say whether that particular claim reaches viruses and fungi, though. It's possible that D-limonene could have an adverse effect on some plastics, but that would easy to test. A combination of eucalyptus and alcohol (i.e., Listerine) should work, but the eucalyptus might be costly.

Obviously, you're concerned with plant pathogens, so I'd focus on the likely candidates and choose a method to address them. A better question might be whether sterilizing the pots is effective or necessary.

_________________
In theory, theory and practice are the same; in practice, they aren't -- lament of the synthetic lifestyle.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: sanitizing pots
PostPosted: Tue Sep 16, 2003 6:07 pm 
Offline

Joined: Sat May 10, 2003 5:48 pm
Posts: 806
Location: Weatherford,TX
tony m, I went to the website you posted and couldn't find anything related to disinfecting pots. Could you tell me where it is ?? Also, why the need to sanitize pots; whats wrong ??

_________________
The "soap" you use is normally chemicals, etc. Use real SOAP !!


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Sep 17, 2003 9:25 am 
Offline
Moderator
Moderator

Joined: Tue Mar 18, 2003 3:45 pm
Posts: 2884
Location: San Antonio,TEXAS
What's wrong with bleach? A capful in a gallon of water is all you need. It barely even smells. And after a day, all the chlorine is gone and you can reuse the water in the garden or on your compost pile.

Can you use alcohol if bleach is a problem? At least alcohol is organic.

Hydrogen peroxide (Oxyclean) is a good one, too. It is a chemical, though.

_________________
David Hall
Moderator
Dirt Doctor Lawns Forum


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Sep 18, 2003 9:41 am 
Offline
Moderator
Moderator

Joined: Tue Mar 18, 2003 3:45 pm
Posts: 2884
Location: San Antonio,TEXAS
I just read elsewhere that you have a health reason for not having chemicals around. So my previous suggestions won't help you.

If you are using excellent compost in your potting soil, you should not have a problem with viruses and disease. When pots are cleaned out, one good sterilizer is sunlight. If you could put the pots in the dishwasher and heat dry them, that should take care of any disease. Then keep them in the sun to stop anything else from growing. If the pots are plastic, you might ruin them with the heat cycle but the dishwasher should be fine otherwise.

I've seen amazing things in organic greenhouses. One of the local guys has huge fish tanks in his gh. He has four 10,000 gallon tanks with bubblers running off of an automobile air pump all the time. That 40,000 gallons of water under glass keeps his greenhouse very warm and humid all year long. Plus he gets fish all the time. He has no biofilter in his tanks, just compost. His floor is cedar chips if I remember correctly.

One of the amazing things I saw was a soil experiment he was doing. He had eight little plants (wish I could remember what plant) in 8 inch pots. They all started out with Wal*Mart potting soil but with his additives. All the plants were jammed together on a tray so that the leaves were all touching each other. One of the plants was covered in aphids but the others were aphid free. The aphids could easily walk from one plant to the other, but they chose that one plant. Before I saw that I believed that once a greenhouse got "infested with bugs" it was all over but the spraying. Now I understand that healthy plants will fight off pests and that healthy plants come from healthy soils.

Good luck with your endeavor. I hope I was more helpful this time.

_________________
David Hall
Moderator
Dirt Doctor Lawns Forum


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Nov 16, 2003 12:32 pm 
Offline
Moderator
Moderator
User avatar

Joined: Mon Mar 10, 2003 9:10 am
Posts: 1278
Location: Dallas,TEXAS
Dchall_San_Antonio wrote:
What's wrong with bleach? ...Hydrogen peroxide (Oxyclean) is a good one, too. It is a chemical, though.


I like using hydrogen peroxide. I stopped using bleach. Just a day in the sunlight can do a bit of good as well, especially in the summer. I would think that letting the pots dry out a while would kill most pathogens. If the pots were clay, you could put them in the oven, maybe.

_________________
Nadine Bielling
Moderator
Gardener Exchange Forum

The Laws of Ecology:
"All things are interconnected. Everything goes somewhere. There's no such thing as a free lunch. Nature bats last." --Ernest Callenbach


Top
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 8 posts ] 

All times are UTC - 6 hours


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
Powered by eWeblife