Quote:
Originally Posted by butterfly_muse
I can't size down one tbls per 5 gallons.
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Think laterally.
Get a syringe (without a needle) and you can measure in quite small volume increments. I have a range of them, from things that let me measure down to about 0.01ml up to whopping great big ones that do 50ml.
I can't work in imperial measurements - I work in the much more numerically sensible metric ones, so I use ml and L for things. A US gallon is about 4.5l and tablespoon is 15ml.
That means each litre of water needs about 3.33ml of the Physan (at the dose you suggest is required- 1tbsp/gallon) (15/4.5). You can do these calculations with any volume measurements and doses. You can also work out how many ml you need for arbitrary volumes once you know how much 1l requires.
If you're not happy about measuring out really small volume increments, you can make an intermediate "stock" solution, by diluting the original chemical in a suitable volume of water (i.e. if you want to double the measurable volume, 50/50 with water, if you want to quadruple it, 25/75 and so on) and then measuring that out. Make sure you use good quality water in stock solutions; I'd err on the side of distilled or RO if you can get it.
If you're sneaky, you can adjust the stock solutions to fall on sensible quantities (i.e. whole rather than fractional numbers). I often have to do this for medicating rodents from medications meant for larger animals, which you either have to measure out tiny quantities of, or use a diluted stock solution. Same thing works for plants of course.
---------- Post added at 10:27 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:17 AM ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by butterfly_muse
In other news, how do you keep track of which sample you send in for testing is from which plant?
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Labels
You don't mail them a whole plant, you mail them a chunk of leaf, putting each in a heavy duty ziplock. With a paint marker or a good permanent "sharpie", you label the outside of the bag with a reference of your choosing. They will then report back per reference what they find.
Here are their instructions:
http://www.crittercreeklab.com/test_...Selection.html
p.s. if you want to get
really paranoid, "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence". i.e. just because you've tested negative doesn't 100% guarantee that plant is
definitely free of virus [there are lots of them and each test is specific, and they have detection thresholds too]. That said, the likelihood of a false negative for a specific virus test is very low.
Thank you for all of the help, btw! 
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