Well, good golly Bill. Zero-tol. Who knew? Never heard of it. Super interesting... I read up on it on Arbico website. Gotta have some by spring. I learned something new today.

It makes perfect sense to choose something specifically designed for plant use, as opposed to random stuff out of the pantry. When one has more than a few plants, some super hard or impossible to replace, it sure makes even more sense. Gracias for your comment. :bowing

---------- Post added at 09:37 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:33 AM ----------

PS An interesting aside about know what you're using and why. I've used isopropyl alcohol for years on plants. Ran out a ways back, and daughter was coming to town and brought me some from her clinic. I got a bit of damage on a couple of plants I used it on, and zero difference on a couple others. Said to myself, huh, that's weird. Read the label and it was medical grade 99%. Frankly I hadn't given it a thought. Yup, double-checking never hurts.

Ray ....... is that H2O2 ? And you used it for media drench with orchid roots within it? I tried root spray at one stage ..... for trial. No plant deaths. But noticed setback of growth rate. As in a relatively long inactive period before growing occurs. Not the same observed pattern as when no H2O2 was applied ...... as in 3% concentration.

Just remember that Hydrogen Peroxide is a weak Bacteria-cide used to treat only bacteria infections (before antibiotics became common). Using it for other purposes, would be a waste of it.

And I do remember having butter put on burns as a child. Did not help with the pain but did make you smell like popcorn.

Zer-tol is a general disinfectant, effective on bacteria and fungi. I don’t recall the final, as-applied concentration specifically, but I seem to recall it being on the order of a third of a percent or something - well below the 3% in OTC stuff.

Somewhere, I have the remains of a very old jug of the concentrate, and it’s about 20%, yet being stabilized with the peracetic acid, it’s still active. I do know that at that concentration, it’ll attack the skin if it spills on you.

Thanks for adding those details Ray. Much appreciated.

Did you use it for benches only? Or the one-third percent mix was poured into media (with orchid roots within the media)?

No, the product was intended for plant contact.

The stronger versions were for disinfecting the area, including algae prevention.

Thanks Ray.

I actually heard the advice here but never tried it. I heard about using Cinnamon on the roots (possibly here) and tried that and killed the roots of a Cattleya...was not happy (many years ago). Grr.

Very early on, I was a big proponent of the use of cinnamon, but always stressed that it should never be used on roots.