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Old September 11, 2012   #30
greentiger87
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Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Houston, TX - 9a
Posts: 211
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Septoria leaf spot, and potentially early blight. Early blight destroyed my spring plants, though I was still able to get a great harvest. But I'm accustomed to oversummering the plants and enjoying a new crop right about now..

You can add bleach to dilute vinegar and no chlorine gas is produced. I usually dilute the vinegar first and then add the bleach. This doesn't mean that *less* chlorine gas is produced. The concentrations (really, pH in this case) actually affect which reactions happen - in this case, *no* chlorine gas is produced. We're talking 1-2 oz of vinegar per gallon, at the most. Also note, I have hard water - just trying to bring down the pH to close to neutral. When the pH is about neutral, you can use just 1 tablespoon of bleach per gallon as a very effective sanitizer.

This was common practice for germicidal applications, and still is for small scale operations like small farms, animal shelters, home brewers, etc. The danger comes when people mix undiluted table vinegar (5%) with undiluted common bleach (5-6%) - that produces the toxic fumes people are warned about.

So that you don't think I'm totally nuts, here's a reliable source that concurs:
Cleaning and Sanitizing Fresh Produce and Fresh Produce Handling Equipment, Utensils and Sales Areas

Molasses is more of a sticker no? I don't think it has any true surfactant/spreader qualities. Shouldn't be mixed with bleach - some of the organic compounds may be quickly oxidized and use up the hypochlorite.

I've always wanted to use soap nuts! We have so many of them around here, but I never get around to it. I was thinking to use it more like an insecticidal soap substitute though.
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