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#1
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A cocktail for your Orchids?
At the last orchid society meeting Weyman Bussey from Abunda Flora in Texas
spoke to our group. One of the ideas he mentioned was that 180 proof alcohol (moonshine or grain alcohol) added to the water will make the roots very happy. He claims it extends the life of the organic media and kills a few pests too. His recommendation is 1 teaspoon per 5 gallons of water. Is anyone else out there doing this? What do the rest of the readers think? Good growing, Gene |
#2
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A cocktail for your Orchids?
Hello! Interresting....
Where can you find a 180 proof alcohol! Isn`t the max 100???? anyway, I do use pure bleach, 7 drops per liter of water once a month to clean roots and it seems to keep them happy as well. Claude "Gene Schurg" wrote in message ink.net... | At the last orchid society meeting Weyman Bussey from Abunda Flora in Texas | spoke to our group. One of the ideas he mentioned was that 180 proof | alcohol (moonshine or grain alcohol) added to the water will make the roots | very happy. He claims it extends the life of the organic media and kills a | few pests too. | | His recommendation is 1 teaspoon per 5 gallons of water. | | Is anyone else out there doing this? What do the rest of the readers think? | | Good growing, | Gene | | |
#3
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A cocktail for your Orchids?
"Gene Schurg" writes:
His recommendation is 1 teaspoon per 5 gallons of water. Lessee. 5ml (your teaspoons are probably more like 3ml, but who cares) of more or less pure alcohol per 4.5*5 (?) litres is 0.005/22.5 = 0.02% of alcohol by volume. Sounds like a homepathic remedy to me. I am more interested in what had happened if he had tipped a bottle of ale into those 20 litres. There are lots of nice sugars and vitamins in there. Still - whatever is good for you is supposed to taste bad, and moonshone _does_ taste awful. Geir |
#4
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A cocktail for your Orchids?
Well, lessee here. 1 teaspoon = 5 mL, and 1 gallon = 3800 mL
(approximately). So, that's 5 mL into 19000 mL, if my math is correct. That works out to about 1/4 mL per liter. For some kinds of tissue culture work, it is normal to dissolve certain chemicals in ethanol or other solvents because they do not dissolve well in water. They are then dispensed and autoclaved normally when diluted in the media. Due to the high level of dilution, not all the alcohol boils off. As substantial quantities of ethanol, methanol, and other solvents may be used to compound media (several mL in some cases), it is likely that more than the concentration stated above (1/4 mL per liter) remains in the media during autoclaving. As a result, the constant exposure of plants to these solvents in vitro is assured. Interestingly, there are morphological differences with plants raised under these conditions, and there are different results with different concentrations- showing that at least *some* of these solvents do, in fact, remain behind. I've never tried to quantify them. Anyway, these changes vary wildly between different plants. That plants are capable of chemosynthesis is not unexpected; orchids derive virtually all of their carbon from the sugars in the media- it's sure as heck not from the 400 ppm carbon dioxide that gets in through the vent. Even unvented tissue cultures will grow, with plants accumulating more carbon mass than would ever be possible from the small amounts of available atmospheric air. Other organisms use chemosynthesis as well; while an undergrad, I attended one lecture from an astronomer turned biologist who tried to poison freshwater mussels with organic solvents like toluene. The concept was to develop a quick-and-dirty bioassay for organic solvent levels in water. Remarkably, the mussels survived high concentrations (the memory fails me, but 500 ppm of some very nasty solvents), and grew faster than the controls. That the critters were capable of chemosynthesis of aromatic organic solvents seemed the most reasonable explanation. I remember the concentrations were so high that there were problems maintaining such high levels of solvent in aqueous solution. The e-mail address in the header doesn't work. Sorry. -AJHicks Chandler, AZ |
#5
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A cocktail for your Orchids?
"Proof" is not equal to percentage.
In alcoholic beverages, the proof is generally considered to be twice the percentage of alcohol in the overall liquid, so 180 proof = 90% ethanol. That dates back to when spirits were graded with gunpowder rather than hygrometers. Gunpowder was saturated with the spirit, and if it would flash when ignited, the spirit "proved" itself, and was defined as 100 degrees "proof" (100°). This has since been found to actually be at 57.15% ethanol. -- Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com Plants, Supplies, Books, Artwork, and Lots of Free Info! .. . . . . . . . . . . "Quelqu`un" wrote in message . .. Hello! Interresting.... Where can you find a 180 proof alcohol! Isn`t the max 100???? anyway, I do use pure bleach, 7 drops per liter of water once a month to clean roots and it seems to keep them happy as well. Claude "Gene Schurg" wrote in message ink.net... | At the last orchid society meeting Weyman Bussey from Abunda Flora in Texas | spoke to our group. One of the ideas he mentioned was that 180 proof | alcohol (moonshine or grain alcohol) added to the water will make the roots | very happy. He claims it extends the life of the organic media and kills a | few pests too. | | His recommendation is 1 teaspoon per 5 gallons of water. | | Is anyone else out there doing this? What do the rest of the readers think? | | Good growing, | Gene | | |
#6
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A cocktail for your Orchids?
Thanks Ray!
"Ray" wrote in message ... | "Proof" is not equal to percentage. | | In alcoholic beverages, the proof is generally considered to be twice the | percentage of alcohol in the overall liquid, so 180 proof = 90% ethanol. | That dates back to when spirits were graded with gunpowder rather than | hygrometers. Gunpowder was saturated with the spirit, and if it would flash | when ignited, the spirit "proved" itself, and was defined as 100 degrees | "proof" (100°). This has since been found to actually be at 57.15% ethanol. | | -- | | Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com | Plants, Supplies, Books, Artwork, and Lots of Free Info! | | | . . . . . . . . . . . | "Quelqu`un" wrote in message | . .. | Hello! Interresting.... | | Where can you find a 180 proof alcohol! Isn`t the max 100???? | | anyway, I do use pure bleach, 7 drops per liter of water once a month to | clean roots and it seems to keep them happy as well. | | Claude | | "Gene Schurg" wrote in message | ink.net... | | At the last orchid society meeting Weyman Bussey from Abunda Flora in | Texas | | spoke to our group. One of the ideas he mentioned was that 180 proof | | alcohol (moonshine or grain alcohol) added to the water will make the | roots | | very happy. He claims it extends the life of the organic media and | kills | a | | few pests too. | | | | His recommendation is 1 teaspoon per 5 gallons of water. | | | | Is anyone else out there doing this? What do the rest of the readers | think? | | | | Good growing, | | Gene | | | | | | | | | |
#7
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A cocktail for your Orchids?
Interesting stuff Ray!
It's party time!!!! In the spirit of things, picture this, a greenhouse with a bunch of blooming, 'drunken' orchids???? But the proof of the ethanol indulgence would be what they looked like with a hangover???? *G* -- Cheers Wendy Remove PETERPAN for email reply "Ray" wrote in message ... "Proof" is not equal to percentage. In alcoholic beverages, the proof is generally considered to be twice the percentage of alcohol in the overall liquid, so 180 proof = 90% ethanol. That dates back to when spirits were graded with gunpowder rather than hygrometers. Gunpowder was saturated with the spirit, and if it would flash when ignited, the spirit "proved" itself, and was defined as 100 degrees "proof" (100°). This has since been found to actually be at 57.15% ethanol. -- Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com Plants, Supplies, Books, Artwork, and Lots of Free Info! . . . . . . . . . . . "Quelqu`un" wrote in message . .. Hello! Interresting.... Where can you find a 180 proof alcohol! Isn`t the max 100???? anyway, I do use pure bleach, 7 drops per liter of water once a month to clean roots and it seems to keep them happy as well. Claude "Gene Schurg" wrote in message ink.net... | At the last orchid society meeting Weyman Bussey from Abunda Flora in Texas | spoke to our group. One of the ideas he mentioned was that 180 proof | alcohol (moonshine or grain alcohol) added to the water will make the roots | very happy. He claims it extends the life of the organic media and kills a | few pests too. | | His recommendation is 1 teaspoon per 5 gallons of water. | | Is anyone else out there doing this? What do the rest of the readers think? | | Good growing, | Gene | | |
#8
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A cocktail for your Orchids?
I thought Weyman Bussey was out of business. Have a contact # for him?
K Barrett (Now my society's VP for 2004) "Gene Schurg" wrote in message ink.net... At the last orchid society meeting Weyman Bussey from Abunda Flora in Texas spoke to our group. One of the ideas he mentioned was that 180 proof alcohol (moonshine or grain alcohol) added to the water will make the roots very happy. He claims it extends the life of the organic media and kills a few pests too. His recommendation is 1 teaspoon per 5 gallons of water. Is anyone else out there doing this? What do the rest of the readers think? Good growing, Gene |
#9
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A cocktail for your Orchids?
On Sun, 23 Nov 2003 17:54:44 GMT, "K Barrett"
wrote: I thought Weyman Bussey was out of business. Have a contact # for him? K Barrett (Now my society's VP for 2004) Congratulations on the new title.... or should that be condolences on the new job? G SuE http://orchids.legolas.org/gallery/albums.php |
#10
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A cocktail for your Orchids?
"Susan Erickson" wrote in message
... On Sun, 23 Nov 2003 17:54:44 GMT, "K Barrett" wrote: I thought Weyman Bussey was out of business. Have a contact # for him? K Barrett (Now my society's VP for 2004) Congratulations on the new title.... or should that be condolences on the new job? G SuE http://orchids.legolas.org/gallery/albums.php Bigtime condolences. My club's nick name is 'The Little Red Hen Society'. Its motto is 'You can have your fill of all the food you bring yourself.' K |
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