# Disinfection of plants



## AlexSakkeFolkmann (Jan 10, 2017)

I've read some posts here how to disinfect plants (slugs, snails and other insects mostly) 

Summery: bleach/water 1/10 
1 ml of bleach to 10 ml of water. 
Plants submerged for 5 minutes and rinsed with water afterwards. 
Right?  

Is it really safe to broms, ferns and co?


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

Maybe I need another coffee, but what the heck kind of plant is a "co"? Are you abbreviating something?

Don't feel bad about this one, as virtually everybody does it. No, 10 parts water and 1 part bleach do not make a 10% solution. Think about it. Cut a candy bar into 10 pieces. Remove one. Do you still have 10? Or do you have 9 pieces left?
A 10% solution is ONE part bleach, to NINE parts of water. 

Don't forget to wash all the old soil out of the roots. The soil can carry bugs and eggs. Wash all the old soil out, under running water. Be gentle, but some damage is fine. Personally, I'd rather massacre a few roots than risk the possible critters.
Then, and this is important, hydrate your plants FULLY! You want them to be dipped in bleach...you do NOT want to force a thirsty plant to drink bleach!! I toss mine in a bowl or sink full of room temperature water for 10 minutes.

Your bleach dip is generally done for 10 minutes, not 5.
Some people prefer to use a 5% dip for 10 minutes.

I keep a lot of delicate plants, and they all get bleach dipped before going into my vivs. Moss does not do well. Bleach is a death sentence for moss.

What is "co"?


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## mark c (Jun 17, 2010)

Maybe co is company?

I like to do a dish soap water bath as well. It seems more effective than bleach for killing snails & co.


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## rjs5134 (Feb 1, 2017)

Learned a lesson today... bleach is probably not anacharis safe. 2 minutes in about an 8% solution bleached most of the plant.


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## serial hobbiest (Mar 5, 2017)

The whole "10% bleach solution" is meaningless, considering not all bleach is equal. For instance, standard Javex I believe is a 5.25% sodium hypochlorite (NaClO) solution, Javex-12 is 10.8% NaClO, the stuff I use is 8% NaClO, and I've seen some cheap generic brands as low as 3.5% NaClO.

So just what the heck is a 10% bleach solution? I dunno- it's meaningless.
I believe the target for plant disinfection is 0.5% NaClO, but I'm not 100% certain on that.

I disinfected my plants with a 0.4% NaClO solution, bare rooted, and dunked for just 2 or 3 minutes. Everything survived, but my maidenhair fern barely made it.


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