bleach spray

[ChrisK]

It is easy to calculate to scale to any volume using the dilution equation: C1V1=C2V2

C1= Initial concentration
V1= Initial volume
C2= Final concentration
V2= Final volume


You want a 0.31% final concentration of Sodium Hypochlorite. You start with 6% Sodium Hypochlorite (or whatever your bottle says) in the bleach solution. You want to fill a 32 oz spray bottle which is the final volume.


Thus:
C1= 6%
V1= unknown
C2= 0.31%
V2= 32 oz


6% * V1 = 0.31% * 32 oz

Rearrange

V1 = (0.31% * 32 oz)/6%

V1 = 1.65 oz (1.65 oz = 3.3 tablespoons = ~9.5 teaspoons)

Put 1.65 oz of 6% bleach into your spray bottle and fill to 32 oz.

Originally Posted by raindrops27

Thanks B54! I was just thinking about your bleach solution when I noticed some type of disease today I will try it out tomorrow.. Since I've only seen a problem on one plant I was going to use a standard spray bottle how much bleach should I add to that?? TIA

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by ChrisK

It is easy to calculate to scale to any volume using the dilution equation: C1V1=C2V2

C1= Initial concentration
V1= Initial volume
C2= Final concentration
V2= Final volume


You want a 0.31% final concentration of Sodium Hypochlorite. You start with 6% Sodium Hypochlorite (or whatever your bottle says) in the bleach solution. You want to fill a 32 oz spray bottle which is the final volume.


Thus:
C1= 6%
V1= unknown
C2= 0.31%
V2= 32 oz


6% * V1 = 0.31% * 32 oz

Rearrange

V1 = (0.31% * 32 oz)/6%

V1 = 1.65 oz (1.65 oz = 3.3 tablespoons = ~9.5 teaspoons)

Put 1.65 oz of 6% bleach into your spray bottle and fill to 32 oz.

See-who says algebra isn't useful for real life!
Marsha

[mashermike]

Bill

Which copper spray you using? I'm pretty much in the same boat as you.

Mike

[b54red]

Originally Posted by raindrops27

Thanks B54! I was just thinking about your bleach solution when I noticed some type of disease today I will try it out tomorrow.. Since I've only seen a problem on one plant I was going to use a standard spray bottle how much bleach should I add to that?? TIA

I don't know how large your standard bottle is but you can just adjust the mix according to the volume of the bottle. If it is a quart bottle use 1/4 as much water and 1/4 as much bleach. If it is a pint bottle use 1/8 as much of each. Make sure to check the strength of the bleach you are going to use before mixing it.

Bill

[b54red]

Originally Posted by mashermike

Bill

Which copper spray you using? I'm pretty much in the same boat as you.

Mike

The one I have is by Bonide.

I went out this morning to spray and it was still raining lightly. I mixed up my spray using 8 oz of the 6% bleach added to a gallon of water since everything was dripping wet and got out and sprayed everything very well. I couldn't wait because the new outbreak of Gray Mold on my BTDP plant had already spread to 7 or 8 leaf branches when I only saw it on 2 yesterday. I may have to spray again tomorrow because of the amount of water on everything may have diluted the mix too much. I really put the spray on heavy where the Gray Mold was visible on a couple of plants and the rest I sprayed normally. I am going to have to wait for the rain to completely stop and the plants to dry out before I can use the copper fungicide.

Bill

[tammy]

My tomatoes were wilting, curling and dying, my county extension agent was sure it was late blight. I went out this morning before this confirmation and heavily sprayed with the bleach solution. Do I still need to follow up with a copper product? my agent recommended copper dragon.
tammy

[b54red]

Originally Posted by tammy

My tomatoes were wilting, curling and dying, my county extension agent was sure it was late blight. I went out this morning before this confirmation and heavily sprayed with the bleach solution. Do I still need to follow up with a copper product? my agent recommended copper dragon.
tammy

You could have Late Blight but you could also have Gray Mold which can look very similar. The biggest difference to me is Gray Mold usually starts in the middle or lower interior of the plant while LB usually starts showing the first symptoms higher on the plant. If you do have Late Blight then most plants showing the symptoms are going to die soon and the bleach will speed that along. That is a good thing because Late Blight will spread to the other plants in your patch. I have only seen Late Blight once this early in the year and that was quite a few years ago. It was the first time I had ever encountered it and it started on only a few plants but within two weeks every plant had it and they all died. I tried every fungicide I could buy but none of them helped. A friend of mine about a mile away lost all of his plants in an even shorter time that month from the same thing. To get LB this time of the year down here is a disaster because the plants are loaded with fruit that is just starting to ripen and LB can ruin most of the fruit.

I started seeing LB a little more often when I started growing fall plants but it is still fairly rare for me. I have had it three times in the fall and the last time I recognized it immediately and started the bleach spray that day and repeated it every couple of days for about 10 days and I only lost two plants and had one or two others sustain some minor damage. I think keeping up the bleach spray stopped the spread by killing the spores before they could get going in the plants that weren't showing any symptoms yet and thus it really did work on Late Blight. That was the third time I used it on LB and the most successful. The first time I waited far too long and the second time I waited a little too long and ended up losing half my plants. Just pulling out and removing the plants showing symptoms will not stop the spread of LB or at least it didn't for me the first time I tried that. I think the disease is already sending out spores when you notice the symptoms so you need to kill the spores before they can infect other nearby tomatoes. I spray every plant in the garden when I get LB and I spray the ground around the infected plants. I also increase the strength of my mix just a little when dealing with LB because it is so deadly. I'd rather have a little leaf burn than no plants.

I wish you could post some good pictures showing the disease on your plants both the whole plant and the diseased areas close up.

Bill

[b54red]

Originally Posted by tammy

My tomatoes were wilting, curling and dying, my county extension agent was sure it was late blight. I went out this morning before this confirmation and heavily sprayed with the bleach solution. Do I still need to follow up with a copper product? my agent recommended copper dragon.
tammy

Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus can cause the symptoms you mentioned also; but it looks totally different than Gray Mold or Late Blight. The bleach spray will have no effect against TSWV as it is systemic once symptoms show.

Bill

[bcday]

Bill, there are pics posted in another thread.

If that is LB, I would expect to see large black blotches on the stems for the amount of damage showing on the leaves. The stems seem to be fairly clear considering the dismal condition of the foliage, and the discoloration on the leaves doesn't seem to be as black as it should for LB either.. I have strong doubts about this being LB.

I am astonished that the county extension could diagnose LB over the phone without seeing the plant or at least a pic.

[b54red]

Originally Posted by bcday

Bill, there are pics posted in another thread.

If that is LB, I would expect to see large black blotches on the stems for the amount of damage showing on the leaves. The stems seem to be fairly clear considering the dismal condition of the foliage, and the discoloration on the leaves doesn't seem to be as black as it should for LB either.. I have strong doubts about this being LB.

I am astonished that the county extension could diagnose LB over the phone without seeing the plant or at least a pic.

He couldn't over the phone unless there has been an outbreak in that area and he has seen a lot of it lately. Gray Mold and LB look very similar in many ways often being mistaken for each other. If it is Gray Mold then the plants not wrapped up with it can recover if treated early enough unless it stays rainy and then it can be kind of hard to stop.

Bill

[tammyinwv]

I described the plants, and she seemed sure that was it. I wondered about not seeing it as well.
Here are some more pics. Since I replaced the 6 dead plants, there is only the areas shown in the first 2-3 pics that are of concern in the bed where I removed the dead ones. The others are in a nearby bed.The rest of the plants are about 2.5-3 ft all, and look good, except some are slightly less green.
Tammy

[tammyinwv]

You are right. The stems, until close to the end,look pretty good. I opened up the stems of the dead plants I pulled and they are white inside. I just posted several pics, but so far they are not showing up
Tammy

[b54red]

Tammy the pictures help. It does look like you have some Gray Mold so the bleach spray should help with that and the other foliage diseases. It looks like you may have the plants a little crowded which encourages plant diseases to develop. It would also help if you kept them to only a few stems at most to aid in air flow and sunlight.

The last bleach spray I used seems to have knocked back the Gray Mold and so I removed all the dead or dying leaves and sprayed with a copper fungicide as a preventive. I should know if it is effective very shortly. From my experience in my humid climate, once you get Gray Mold it keeps popping up every time it gets too wet.

How did the bleach spray work on your plants?

Bill

[Master_Gardener]

Good idea on testing it on a plant or two before dosing the entire garden. Thanks for calling out the change in bleach strength. I'm sure I would have missed that.

[socalgardengal]

Here's my update un using bleach spray on Chayote squash that had Anthracnose. I sprayed 3 days ago both tops and undersides of leaves and the soil in the pot. Today all the larger leaves are dried up and falling off but the new smaller ones at the base of the plant are ok. No leaf burn or signs of disease. Should I cut the vines completely off, as there are no new leafs growing on them? I do have a back-up plant that's doing fine. Thanks