Quote:
Originally Posted by Cole_Robbie
I mixed 8 oz of 6% bleach in 1 gallon of water and sprayed. That was way too strong. I burnt my plants pretty badly. They look worse than before I sprayed.
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Plants always look worse after spraying because diseased leaves that are not showing symptoms to the naked eye will also be damaged by the bleach spray.
If you got damaged healthy leaves there are a few things that could have caused it.
1. It was not cool and shady enough when you sprayed or the plant were still hot from the sun.
2. I always advise starting out with the lowest concentration to start with and with the older bleach you can use between 6 and 8 ounces to the gallon. I never start out with the maximum concentration with a new bottle of bleach because I worry that the solution may be stronger than stated on the label which has actually happened to me three or four times over the years resulting in some healthy leaf damage.
3. The spray was applied so heavily that puddles formed on the leaves which will sometimes damage leaves that are otherwise healthy. I use a high pressure sprayer that forms a very fine mist which many sprayers can't do. Before I got the good back pack sprayer now in use, I tended to use a weaker mix because of the coarser spray my old sprayers produced. If that didn't take care of the issues then I would up the concentration gradually until I got better results.
4. The diseases were much more extensive than you thought. This is frequently the case as I found out this past week.
I sprayed my plants for the second time this week because of the extent of gray mold damage I was experiencing this year. The first time I sprayed I lost most of the leaves on the lower half of the plants that were badly infected. I latter clipped all of that off and resprayed the worst plants and lost a few more leaves. I used the new Clorox bleach and at the rate of between 5 and 5 1/2 oz. to the gallon. I sprayed all of my tomatoes the first time and all of my cucumbers and squash. I was also surprised at the amount of disease that was present but after 6 days of rain in a row and 100 degree temps and humidity to match for nearly a week I shouldn't have been.
Bill