Orchidguy wrote:

Ethyl is made of grain , where as Isopropyl is made of wood , I think that
is correct ...its been along time scince chemistry in school...
Good Growing



Actually methanol is usually considered 'wood alcohol', I think.
You can get it by 'distilling' wood, or cooking it at high temperature
to drive off various gaseous fractions. One of those fractions is
methanol. I'm sure it is made in a more efficient synthetic process by
some chemical plant somewhere. It is used _a lot_ in organic chemistry
and industrial organic processes. Ethanol is a by product of yeast
metabolism. The other major product is carbon dioxide. That is why you
get bubbles in beer and bubbles in bread, although any sugar source will
work for a yeast, it doesn't have to be grain. While there is a
synthetic method for making it, it is almost certainly cheaper to make
ethanol using yeast. I'm not sure where isopropyl comes from. To the
point at hand, you can't substitute one for the other. You can indeed
disinfect things with 70% ethanol (which, curiously, is a better
disinfectant than 95% ethanol). We used it all the time in the tissue
culture hood. And it will indeed kill critters, ethanol is a pretty
potent poison (in mammals as well). I've heard, however, that spraying
ethanol on your plants isn't particularly good for them, perhaps because
it is more membrane soluble. I've never tried it.


In the random trivia category, it is a bit of an 'old wives tale'
that you can kill yourself with methanol poisoning by distilling your
own spiritous liquor. Like our american backwoods favorite 'moonshine'
(also called white lightning, a corn liquor). That is probably a myth
started by the government to discourage home production (and gather more
in liquor taxes). Methanol is not produced by yeast in any significant
amount, and there isn't really a mechanism for it being created when you
distill ethanol out of a fermented beverage. At least not at
temperatures you are likely to use... Now I'm sure you could kill
yourself with moonshine, but it probably isn't methanol poisoning.


Also curiously enough, methanol was (maybe still is) being marketed
as part of one of those 'wonder-grow' formulas here in the US some time
ago. Evidently a little methanol in your fertilizer enhances orchid
growth (as do some other, more expensive, alcohols). Of course it might
also make your new growths floppy and prone to disease, but that doesn't
seem to dissuade people. Ethanol won't have the same effect, nor would
isopropyl. They are all alcohols, but that just means they have an OH
group attached to a carbon somewhere. There are all sorts of alcohols
(hundreds if not gazillions), and they all have different chemical
properties. If I recall properly, the synthetic form of estrogen
(estradiol) is an alcohol (actually a double alcohol - diol). It
certainly behaves differently than ethanol.


All of that said, I have trouble believing that Reka can't get
isopropyl alcohol. I'd suggest asking the pharmacist (or
chemist/apothecary/or whatever your local word may be) for it by that
name. I'm sure it is available, it might just be called something else.

--
Rob's Rules: http://www.msu.edu/~halgren
1) There is always room for one more orchid
2) There is always room for two more orchids
2a. See rule 1
3) When one has insufficient credit to purchase
more orchids, obtain more credit
LittlefrogFarm is open for business - e-mail me for a list of
minicatts and oncidiums )