Bleach on plants?

[Verdant_lotus]

I was out of town for an extended weekend and my mother-in-law volunteered to water the seedlings while I was gone.

When I got back I saw that the leaves were turning yellow, and noticed an uncapped bleach bottle. Apparently she rinsed it out, filled it with water, and used that to water the plants. It still reeked of bleach.



Outside of facepalming, is there anything I can do?

[Worth1]

Flush the soil with plenty of fresh water.?

Worth

[tam91]

One member here, B54red I think?, uses diluted bleach to treat diseases on tomatoes. So such a low dilution really shouldn't kill them, in theory. Did she actually rinse out the bottle first?

Secondly, I wonder if she got it on the leaves (again, in theory shouldn't cause this). Couldn't hurt to rinse the leaves off though, while getting plenty on the soil.

But I actually wonder if something else might (coincidentally) be wrong. Could this be the start of early blight, or some other disease?

[Verdant_lotus]

Originally Posted by tam91

One member here, B54red I think?, uses diluted bleach to treat diseases on tomatoes. So such a low dilution really shouldn't kill them, in theory.

That's good to hear.

I'll start checking on the tomato disease guide and see if the yellowing continues to worsen.

[barkeater]

It had to have been an accident. I've never heard of a mother-in-law trying to sabotage her son's wife.

[TZ-OH6]

I agree with Tam91. Dilute bleach is sometimes used as a spray leaf disinfectant in greenhouses, and is also used to sterilize orchid seed and seedlings during flasking (tissue culture) so I would be surprised if very dilute bleach (i.e. residual from a rinsed out jug) would be a problem.

[b54red]

If she didn't rinse out the bottle and it had a good amount of bleach still in it it could cause some damage but it would take a fair amount. I have used diluted bleach poured on the soil in a planting spot with very bad fusarium to give a new plant a little time to develop before having to deal with fusarium and it didn't seem to hurt the plants. I waited a day to give the bleach time to oxidize before planting and it does seem to help but it is not too good for the worms in that spot but they come back pretty quick.

[Worth1]

I just went back and looked at your first post.

You said seedlings, I was thinking large plants due to where I live.
Are all of the leaves turning yellow?
How tall are they?
If they are in a commercial soil I wouldn't think it was a disease.

It is common for the first set or two of leaves to turn yellow early on depending on how tall the plant is. Bushy tall not scraggly tall due to poor sunlight.
As a matter of fact throughout the life span of the plant the lower leaves will turn yellow and die when you see them start to turn yellow like that pick them off.

Worth