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Old 17-06-2011, 06:31 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening
Jake Jake is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Feb 2011
Posts: 795
Default Jeyes fluid in the garden

On Fri, 17 Jun 2011 15:58:35 +0100, Moonraker
wrote:

Is Jeyes fluid a suitable disinfectant for used pots and bird feeders?
If now what is good and readily available please?


I've been using diluted Jeyes for years with no problems. I have two
giant buckets - one filled with the diluted solution (at about half
the strength mix specified on the can) and the other with plain water.
The former lasts through the washing operation, the plain water is
changed about every 100 pots. Pots get dunked in theJeyes bucket and
left for a few minutes, then rinsed well in the plain water and left
to drain on the patio (on a sunny day, everything is dry before the
pots are stacked up to go away). As I'm doing this about now and won't
reuse the pots till next spring, any slight residual smell has long
gone. Remember to wear rubber gloves though!

I would not use Jeyes on a bird feeder; for that a very diluted bleach
solution and a really thorough rinse afterwards. I believe (but stand
to be corrected) that if you don't have finches visiting your feeders,
you can use plain water as it's only finches that are really
susceptible (and can die from) to some nasty bacteria (which again I
can't remember the name of). It's more important to bin uneaten food
(after a couple of days) and replace with fresh rather than simply
topping up.