Bill, I have a question for you. Can the bleach spray be used on freshly picked tomatoes? Freshly picked, almost-ripe, blemish free tomatoes develop anthracnose spots once they sit on the table for a few days to finish ripening. I have to assume that spores are present on the tomatoes when they come in. Would a quick dip in your bleach solution before bringing them in fix that? If so, would they need rinsing after a while or would the solution just evaporate off?

I don't see any foliage problems on the plants other than the occasional EB.

[QUOTE=GoDawgs;741702]Bill, I have a question for you. Can the bleach spray be used on freshly picked tomatoes? Freshly picked, almost-ripe, blemish free tomatoes develop anthracnose spots once they sit on the table for a few days to finish ripening. I have to assume that spores are present on the tomatoes when they come in. Would a quick dip in your bleach solution before bringing them in fix that? If so, would they need rinsing after a while or would the solution just evaporate off?

I don't see any foliage problems on the plants other than the occasional EB.[/QUOTE]

Yes. A mild bleach mix can be used to clean off picked fruit with no harm as far as I have seen. I think it is even considered organic or approved by those who set the standards of what is organic. It seems I read that somewhere a while back.

Remember no soaking just wiping off or misting with the bleach solution. I use a mix of 5 or 5 1/2 oz added to a gallon of water for this purpose. I'm not sure what would happen if bleach mix was strong but since bleach destroys cellulose in strong concentrations I would think it would do the some damage to fruit in those concentrations.

However you may be seeing the results of stinkbug stings or leaf footed bug stings on your ripening tomatoes. Their stings don't usually show up much until fruit is ripe or nearly ripe. Years ago I thought I was seeing anthracnose on ripening tomatoes and bell peppers but was informed what I was actually dealing with was stings from stinkbugs or leaf footed bugs.

Bill

Thanks so much for the reply, Bill. I've got your recipe filed away for both the old and newer Clorox concentrations and will have to check and see which I have. I'm going to give it a try. I've not seen too many stink bugs about on the tomatoes but for sure on the leaf-footeds.

Thank you so much for sharing your experience, Bill

I wash picked tomatoes with Dawn. I rinse well and then dry with a towel. I do this mainly to make sure I get off any chemical residue from my antifungal sprays but I've noticed a much longer shelf life on my tomatoes since I started doing this last year. It makes sense that a mild bleach solution would work as well or better than the Dawn.

Bret

Will it just evaporate off?

Yes it will, Bleach is a solution of chlorine which is a gas.
Most of this chemical element is locked up in salts

Warning rabbit hole.

[URL]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorine[/URL]

Last night when it was almost dark I picked all the ripe, 3/4 ripe and 1/2 ripe tomatoes off one tomato plant that has EB. Then I sprayed that one plant with the bleach solution and also misted the tomatoes with them. When the tomatoes had dried they had no bleach odor at all.

I've brought the sprayed tomatoes in and kept them separate from unsprayed ones. We'll see.

We had a couple of days with some light rains and overcast afternoons the past few days and surprise, surprise most of my black varieties of tomatoes had gray mold on them yesterday. I sprayed with the bleach solution yesterday evening and will give them a dose of copper today along with another spray of the Permethrin, Dawn, and DE. The spider mites are not totally gone but they have definitely been knocked back. I'm hoping this will be the last time I have to use this mite spray this season as the weather forecast is for more rain over the next ten days and hopefully it will be enough to actually soak the ground. I can't remember ever going four months without enough rain to really get my beds wet enough to give the plants a boost but that has been the way it has been here.

Bill

Thanks so much for the Bleach recipe. Been thinking about bleach. Hoping to get them through their issues and will be more vigilant next year. And buy a GOOD 2g or so sprayer that doesn't spray one leaf at a darned time (taking suggestions)

I sprayed a couple of times with bleach, but I'm not sure if the brand available here (Ace) is stronger or weaker than Clorox. There was no damage on the plants, at least.

I was using it for stains and house mold, now for spraying tomatoes and saving tomato seeds too. But I learned to be more careful with it the hard way. I once tried to clean the drain and managed to mix chloric acid and bleach. A puff of chlorine gas emerged, and I ended at the emergency room for a couple of hours on steroids and oxygen. If I deliberately tried to make chemical weapon I wouldn't be able to do it. But by accident...

[QUOTE=meagain;744057]Thanks so much for the Bleach recipe. Been thinking about bleach. Hoping to get them through their issues and will be more vigilant next year. And buy a GOOD 2g or so sprayer that doesn't spray one leaf at a darned time (taking suggestions)[/QUOTE]


Here is one I have bought and used for many different applications:

[URL="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000E2D3J4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1"]http://https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000E2D3J4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1[/URL]

Chapin 2 gallons "Sure Spray" sprayer with brass tip.
I have yet to have one fail, though I have not used it for chlorine spray.
(I use the 1/2 gallon hand sprayers that either Aldi or Home Depot sell for about $5.)

Notice that Chapin has other less expensive 2 gallon sprayers, BUT they do not have the brass tip, which I find much more durable and reliable than the plastic nozzles the others have. Worth the extra few bucks for that brass tip.

Amazon has 2-day delivery with Prime.

It seems that Clorox has returned to what was close to the old bleach mix. I haven't seen the 8.25 % bleach in a few years now. It was called Ultra I think. What I have been using for the past couple of years is a 6% solution that now seems to be the new standard. I mix 5 1/2 ounces into a full gallon of water with a little liquid soap and spray with a fine mist all surfaces especially the undersides of the leaves.

I found what is nearly a perfect sprayer for spraying the bleach solution. There might be others out there as good as the Hudson SP2 but I'm not aware of them. It is a backpack sprayer which might be too large for someone dealing with just a few plants but I have been using mine for well over a decade and have run hundreds of gallons of the bleach spray through it along with the usual fungicides and pesticides and even Roundup. It looks pretty beat up by now but it still keeps working and when it quits I will get another. It is designed to resist the corrosion of bleach and it has a very powerful spray that makes spraying a strong fine mist much easier with less pumping.

[url]https://www.hdhudson.com/product-page/sp2-piston-pump-bak-pak-sprayer[/url]

I know it isn't the cheapest but mine has been going strong for well over 10 years and I think when I bought it way back then it was around 160 dollars so the price hasn't gone up that much.

Bill

I just pulled the trigger on this purchase:
[url]https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200646314_200646314[/url]

Bill, Did you mean 7 oz. of the 6% Clorox in your post directly above or am I confused? I have been adding 7 oz. of the 6 % to a full gallon of water.

BL

[QUOTE=bbjm;744306]Bill, Did you mean 7 oz. of the 6% Clorox in your post directly above or am I confused? I have been adding 7 oz. of the 6 % to a full gallon of water.

BL[/QUOTE]

I always start with 5.5 oz of the 6% Clorox bleach and increase it if it doesn't do the job or if the leaves are wet. I always like to start with the mildest mix just in case the bleach is stronger than indicated and I have run in to that a few times so it is better to be safe than sorry. You can always use it again the next day if necessary. The 7 oz. of 6% bleach would be a strong enough solution to work with most problems except Late Blight. Late Blight has to be sprayed as soon as you recognize the symptoms and every day for the next few days in order to stop it from spreading. I have used as much as 10 oz. of the 6% but leaf burn will almost definitely be a factor.

Bill