# How long until plants bought from a nursery are frog safe?



## mattolsen (Feb 26, 2009)

I have a really nice nursery by my house who offers tons of hard to find tropicals. I know that they use, as well as most greenhouses, pesticides and such. My question is how long should I quarantine the plants until I use them in a frog viv? I know many suggest using a 5-10% bleach solution to kill any bugs and such but I was wondering if this method cleans the plants of the pesticides? Thanks in advance.


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## gturmindright (Mar 15, 2006)

I am a turf guy but I would guess anything that isn't rinsed off is systemic so it'll be within the plant. Since the frogs don't eat the plant it should be safe. Most modern pesticides are very easily broken down within the soil. I usually rinse away all the soil from plants that I use though.


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

Ahh, but microfauna does eat the plants, and frogs eat the bugs. I have seen 6 weeks mentioned as a decent time to wait for most of the systemics to wear off/break down.


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## gturmindright (Mar 15, 2006)

Good point.


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## Judy S (Aug 29, 2010)

I'm glad that there is mention of a 6-week period for the plants to cleanse themselves of systemic chemicals. However, there are too many plants that can't survive after the 10 percent bleach...cleansing of the soil...how do people deal with this problem?


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

Judy S said:


> I'm glad that there is mention of a 6-week period for the plants to cleanse themselves of systemic chemicals. However, there are too many plants that can't survive after the 10 percent bleach...cleansing of the soil...how do people deal with this problem?


Are you assuming this or do you have a list of plants that won't survive bleaching? I have seen a couple of mosses that didn't fair well but they still bounced back. Besides the moss, every plant I've ever bleached has done fine. I have been doing a 5% bleach soak for 10 minutes, making sure that the plants were properly hydrated first. Using Antone's advice (Frogtofall) I will be adding soap to the mix to take care of hardier critters like scale.


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## littlefrog (Sep 13, 2005)

Has anybody tried calcium hypochlorite instead of sodium? Common bleach is NaClO.

Why I ask is that some years ago there were several papers describing the benefits of using Ca(ClO)2 instead of NaClO for the sanitation of orchid seed. Orchid seed is small, and fairly fragile, but we need to remove surface contamination and bacteria prior to germinating it (long story). 

If this is threadjacking, ignore me. I'm just thinking that pool sanitizer might be safer for plants than chlorox...


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## frogparty (Dec 27, 2007)

I think it's a good question, but I would need to find a source for it first, then I'd love to test it.

As to the OP, I usually wait a month, in addition to asking sellers about the products they use. Soap and water, then 10% bleach is my routine. Never had a plant die from the 10% but all mosses seem to not be able to take it


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## littlefrog (Sep 13, 2005)

calcium hypochlorite is pool shock. 5 bucks a bag at the megamart.

Rob


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## frogparty (Dec 27, 2007)

Hmmmm. I could run a comparison experiment at work. I could culture some plants, plate out some colonies and expose them to both types of hypochlorite and see which works better to kill off more colonies


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## littlefrog (Sep 13, 2005)

frogparty said:


> Hmmmm. I could run a comparison experiment at work. I could culture some plants, plate out some colonies and expose them to both types of hypochlorite and see which works better to kill off more colonies


Better you than me, I have the materials but lack the time. We might want to start a new thread for the results, though. *grin*


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## frogparty (Dec 27, 2007)

Uugh I've been working graveyard at the lab for the last month...I have a bit of free time there. Plus if it works better and is cheaper than bleach I might be able to use it there to do yeast kill off after our fermentations are done


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