Thread: bleach spray
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Old April 29, 2018   #292
b54red
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Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Alabama
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Houston the best thing I can tell you with regards to EB is to remove the leaves immediately and spray with Daconil. I have had the best results deterring EB with Daconil and the best results deterring gray mold with copper. I have only had a bad infestation of EB a few times over the years and it is very hard to stop but it seems to move rather slowly most of the time. I think that I sprayed the whole plant with the bleach spray and followed up with removing all the diseased leaves and spraying with Daconil. I have had EB show up suddenly and fairly widely on a few plants and by the time I removed all the leaves that were obviously infected I had a rather bare plant but they did recover and do alright.

I agree with MissS that you way overdid the soap. No way would that concentration of a regular strength bleach destroy foliage like that. If you are using 6 ounces of 6% bleach to two gallons of water it may well be too weak to be effective at killing anything. Years ago when I first started experimenting with the bleach solutions I found after many errors and quite a few damaged plants that there was a fine line between too little and too much and that either one did damage. Too little did little or nothing in stopping some diseases and too much could damage healthy leaves or way too much could actually kill a plant. Spraying at the right time of day made a difference, spraying with a fine mist and not allowing puddling was important also; but most important was finding the right strength solution for the problem you are trying to treat.

Why don't you find the plant with the worst problems with EB and spray it with a much stronger solution and if no healthy foliage shows damage after 2 or 3 days then spray the rest if you think it helped with the EB on the first plant you sprayed. I have no idea what strength your bleach is but if it is regular Clorox then it should be around 6% sodium hypochlorite. If that is the bleach you are using then try mixing 5 1/2 ounces of bleach to a gallon of water and spray the one plant thoroughly with it. After two or three days if there is no leaf burn showing on healthy new growth then up the solution by 1/2 ounce of bleach and do it again. Keep doing that until you see some minor leaf damage on healthy leaves after a few days and you will know what the maximum you can safely spray with and then back off 1/2 ounce and you should have the ideal spray for your tomatoes. Of course there is always the chance that you could really damage a plant trying this but this is how I found the right amount to use and I keep having to adjust according to however Clorox changes their formulation on their bleach.

Bill
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