Interesting Question

[bohica]

As I was talking to one of our reps today, they asked me how much Hydrogen Peroxide I added to my fertilizers before applying them?
Of course I've never heard of this so I decided to research a little.
It is a very interesting concept to add a tiny amount, I've seen from 3/4 to 3 cups per 20 gallons of water/fert to increase the oxygen for the plants.
Peroxide works by releasing oxygen. It acts as an oxygen supplement for plants.
Although I havent tried this yet, I can't see how this could be much different than using products such as Oxy-Cal to add Oxygen and boost oxygen levels.
Has anyone experimented with this? There is supposed to be a visible difference.
Tom

[dice]

It seems like it would be kind of harsh for beneficial
microbes in the soil if one soil drenched with it (it
would kill something like the streptomyces strain
in Actinovate and bactilis subtilis in other preparations
right off on contact; maybe not all of them, but anything
that it touched before reacting with other organic matter
in the soil).

As a foliar spray, it would probably be ok (kills pathogenic
organisms on the foliage). I remember hydrogen peroxide
added to liquid house plant fertilizer for this purpose, adding
oxygen to the container mix, but beneficial microbes were not
much of an issue for those, and a lot of those container mixes
were years old and had broken down to pretty much silt
around perlite, so getting them some oxygen chemically
probably made a visible difference in the health of the plant.

My guess would be that this practice is a relic from the "all
chemical nutrition in sterilized soil" method of farming.

[bohica]

Dice,
Thanks for the reply, I have my reservations about it, in the competetive growing community, Peroxide is used to try to kill off disease.
I am always open to new ideas and really like to hear what others think.
The analytical side of growing is part of what I enjoy the most.
Thanks again.
Tom

[dustdevil]

Hi Tom. It might turn a red tomato into a yellow tomato;-)

[dice]

You could try it with a couple of test plants, both in containers
and soil. (If you are spraying BT for caterpillars and/or
fruitworms, a foliar spray with hydrogen peroxide will likely
kill the BT, too.)

Hydrogen Peroxide spray works fine for some foliar diseases
if there are no particular reasons not to spray it. It does kill
microbes of various kinds on contact, and it does not persist
in the plants or environment in any way.

I use it for the first watering when seed-starting, to disinfect
the seed-starting mix (seems to prevent damping off). I do
not add the first beneficial microbes until potting up the first
time from seed-starting cells to larger pots, by which time
the hydrogen peroxide will all have reacted with organic
matter around it and become something else.

[bohica]

Good Info, thanks again.
Lmao Dustdevil!