On Sun, 05 Jul 2015 13:37:24 +0100, Chris Hogg wrote:

I've never come across the use of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) for watering
pot-plants. What strength do you use? I imagine it would have to be
really quite dilute to void damaging the finer roots; H2O2 is a powerful
oxidising agent, after all.


Seems to be a standard technique according to google, I discovered it
because the dope gro-- erm, "indoor culture fellows" seem to use it a
lot. They're a good source for pots (no pun intended) and stuff like
mycorrhizae. I know a few other maple folks that use H2O2.

As for strength, lets see if I've got the arithmetic right. The
recommended dosage is 2.5/10000, at 35%. I have that as ~ 0.009%. I got
some 35% on a finger once, the skin turned bleach white.

As to rain, I think regardless of how high up the droplets form, by the
time they reach the ground they will be saturated with oxygen. But in a

I don't know much about the molecular dynamics of surface tension, but I
thought that would be key to the question. Imagined a chemist might know
offhand if that was a red herring.

water butt there's a lot of sludge and organic detritus that gets washed
in over time, which will absorb that oxygen, and the limited open
surface and lack of agitation will slow the rate of dissolution of fresh
oxygen. How long that water takes to recover after it's been tapped off
from the butt, I don't know, but I would think it would take more than
just pouring it between buckets a couple of times.

These really are 'how long is a piece of string' questions.


Well yes, many speculations can be cast this way. But in essence I'm
asking if watering with "stale" water entails some risk, or at best lack
of benefit, for the plant.

Why not rig up a solar-powered fish-tank bubbler in your butt, to keep
it fresh?

My son has long favoured the "solar-powered raisin peeler" as the perfect
Rube Goldberg device, so he would certainly approve of this
suggestion! In practice, it's in deep shade, anyway.



--
Gardening in Lower Normandy