Effect of ozone on plants
 

I recently had a mishap with my RO water in my growing area that soaked some of the rug in my basement. One of our cats is close to blind, and doesn’t always make it into the litter box so, of course, the water reached the area he has soiled. Now, even though the carpet is largely dried out, the cat urine odor has been weaponized, and I need to remove it before in laws come later this week. I have a good sized ozone generator that I use for odors in cars, that will easily treat the space. My question is, what, if any, effect will the ozone have on my plants, in a short term (a few hours) treatment situation. I’m aware of the health effects on people/animals, as well as to plants; and will take measures to air out the area after treatment.

Before anyone asks, it is in the plans to replace the carpet with a non absorbent, hard surface in the near future…but it won’t be completed in the next three days.

If concentrations are high enough to harm people and animals, there is a high likelihood it will harm your plants. Plus the ozone will not be able to react with all the urine in that short a time.

Look up Nature's Miracle odor products for pets. They really do work for dogs. I don't have cats.

I don't have a cat now, but at one time I did... I can vouch for Nature's Miracle odor products for cats.

I would suspect that deleterious effects of ozone would be during the "operation", that it would break down to molecular oxygen pretty fast. If you plan to remove plants (and people and pets) from the area while you're treating it, getting the ozone concentration down to "harmless" should be pretty quick and easy.

I ended up doing a hybrid of sorts. I closed off the growing area and turned off the grow lights to slow/stop photosynthesis (according to various research papers, daytime is when the damage occurs), treated the area with ozone for 2 hours, aired out the basement, then treated the carpet with Nature’s Miracle (we buy it by the gallon). That, coupled with today’s installation of a large carbon filter and air handler seems to have gotten the awful smell out of the area. There seems to have been no deleterious effects to my collection, but I’ll monitor for any issues going forward. Tomorrow I’ll add a dehumidifier to the mix to hopefully stop any future issues.