I hate to say it again, but... HELP!!!

[TheFury]

Man, the n00b blunders again.

I'm whipping up a new batch of media. I decided to do it right this time after screwing up first by not rinsing anything, second by adding vermiculite. Now I'm doing it right: 3 parts peat, a little less than 1 part perlite, a little more than 2 parts sand. First I rinsed the sand. Now I'm sterilizing the whole mix with bleach. Next I'll soak it several times in boiling water. I'm tired of algae and fuzzy crap growing in my pots!

I digress. The last batch I made, I used Hoffman Western Desert sand. It's a nice coarse white sand. Thought it would be great. And I had read several previous threads where there was no clear thumbs down given on the stuff. But in my infinite stupidity I forgot to double-check by giving it the white vinegar test.

While making this current batch, I tested my new sand (Mosser Lee Desert sand) with vinegar. No bubbles. Nice. I went to add a bit of Hoffman sand and decided to test that too. What do you know, bubbles all over the place. This stuff is chock full of carbonate minerals!

Now here's my problem: over half of my CPs are potted in a mix that contains a healthy portion of this mineral-rich sand! So far they seem to be OK, but it's been less than 2 weeks. Should I take drastic action and repot everything, or is it not as big an emergency as I think it is?

Man, I'm gonna get this right SOME day...

 

[Exo]

2 weeks huh?.....hmm....well, neps, cephalotus, and mexican pings wouldn't be harmed by that kind of sand, but sarrs, flytraps, and most sundews might if there were enough of it. I would think that you would see signs of fried leaves after two weeks though....hmm.


I say leave them be, but let others give you thier opinions.

 

[amphirion]

i would replace it. peat serves as a good buffer but reacting with the sand will cause it to break down and harm your plants. the remaining minerals found in the sand that wasnt neutralized by the peat will then start to break down your plants roots. yes. i would change it. just because it's been two weeks doesnt mean that your plants arent in danger.

 

[jimscott]

Pool filter sand, peat, and LFS (orchid moss) is a very simple, tried and true CP recipe.

 

[kgrudz]

silica sand (blasting sand) also works really well.

 

[Millipede]

now i'm sterilizing the whole mix with bleach...

whaaaaat?

 

[TheFury]

Yeah I forget who here mentioned it but they said they use a weak bleach solution on their mix. Obviously I will be rinsing it, soaking it, and letting it sit overnight to make sure all the chlorine is out.

 

[amphirion]

@thefury: you should buy dechlorinator (pet/fish store) just to be thorough.

 

[RL7836]

I've never heard of anyone using bleach on a porous media - who recommended this? Adding chemicals to peat / LFS (especially to try and remove something) feels wrong - similar to using an algae-killer product in a planted aquarium instead of dealing with the causes of the algae.

On the mineral-laden sand - I'd repot. There are plenty of variables with growing CP - why knowingly add another which, at best, is neutral and, at worst, will kill your plants? This is especially true with a newer grower who may lack the experience to see the earlier, more-subtle clues of a deteriorating plant & only see the signs of a death spiral once it's too late ...

 

[amphirion]

@ron: and that too---i've heard of using bleach to sterilize my fishtanks, but not used to clean planting media...

 

[RL7836]

@ron: and that too---i've heard of using bleach to sterilize my fishtanks, but not used to clean planting media...

Yup - there's even a quick bleach wash for aq plants to remove some of the potentially nasty algae...

 

[TheFury]

I believe NaN recommended a treatment with weak bleach solution to avoid fungus. Personally, I'm willing to take his word for it! I'm not concerned, to be honest. If I put in a 10% bleach solution, rinsed the media 5+ times after treatment, and let the mix sit overnight, most harmful levels of chlorine should disappear by then.

Sure, I'll try dechlorinator too just in case (there's a pet store a few blocks from my apartment; I'm sure they'll have some). But given the sub-optimal resources available to me in the area, I want to make sure I'm doing all I can to avoid mold, fungus, and algae.

 

[TheFury]

Alright - I repotted all my plants out of the offensive mix. I had bleached the media with a weak solution, rinsed it 5 times in total with boiling water (including an overnight soak), and finally added a few drops of dechlorinator on the last rinse to get at any remaining chlorine. Let's see where this takes me.

 

[Millipede]

i wonder if spraying the top of the soil with hydrogen peroxide would prevent algae and moss from growing for a while... ive done a couple of peroxide treatments in my aquarium before and it totally destroys algae on contact and stays gone for a looong time. the reason i suggest this over bleach is because hydrogen peroxide break down into just water and oxygen in a matter of hours. other than that, i would rather heat sterilize my soil than use bleach... i hope it work for you tho

 

[seedjar]

You can discourage algae by simply spraying the media with plain water every day or so. By agitating the top layer of media you'll break the algal colonies apart and slow their growth. After a while, with the combination of algae pulling nutrients from the media and daily watering leaching it, the top layer will be nutrient-poor enough that algae can't take hold again. Works on carpet moss too, but you have to be more aggressive.
~Joe

 

[TheFury]

Haha, we shall see how this goes. I have a natural tendency to pull the nuclear option early... Bleach AND heat. If the bleach treatment is going to be bad I feel like I will begin to see ill effects VERY shortly. I'll post up later with results.

 

[flytraplady5]

IMHO Bleach is not too extreme and does not appear to harm LFSM, in diluted solutions
if you wet the entire back of NZLFSM the faint hint of chlorine eminates from the bag

 

[TheFury]

Well, 24 hours in and my plants haven't melted yet. Here's hoping for 24 more hours!

 

[Steve Booth]

Steady up on the bleech!! It is an alkaline and as such will deacidify anything it touches, at the very best after tons and tons of washing your media will be neutral (assuming the water you use is distilled or PH neutral) and tharefore not very benificial to your plants.
Carnivorous plants should only see bleech safely locked in a bottle from 30 yards away in my opinion.

Cheers
Steve

 

[Tamlin Dawnstar]

Holy cow! You REALLY hate that green guk don't you!

First off, I want to say that I am all for experimentation. The bleach and hydrogen peroxide ideas may have some merit, and I'm happy you have that quality that doesn't just accept cultivation dogma. New advances are made by those who break the rules.

At the same time, I wouldn;t want you yo lose anything prized or special. I would advise you be more conservative with important plants. So my feelings align with Steve as his comments regarding the alkalinity of laundry bleach...and really, it is a bit of overkill providing you use good media materials like Jim Scott mentioned. In the genus Drosera, all that is really needed is sand, peat and LFS, and personally I avoided adding anything else to the mix. Since my plants all thrived, there was little motivation to find anything better. I can't speak for other genera, but for Drosera I found both perlite and vermiculite to be superfulous. If you use just the elements Jim lists and rinse before using the peat and sand, I believe your problems will be solved, although weekly syringing from the top with pure water will also help, as will frequent changes of the water in the tray. Even with utmost care , problems with algae and such are inevitable. Repot into clean mix annually and let the rains leach out your old potting media. I have noted Drosera do better using older vs fresher peat provided the salts are weathered out.

Hope all this contributes to a good clean growing protocol for you!