I can't offer any help or advice, but I wanted to mention that I've been reading up on TC lately and will probably get a kit in the fall. One thing that I intend on experimenting with that I doubt anybody else does is an antimicrobial. I do mold prevention in homes for a living and I have access to a patented mold prevention chemical. I'm not entirely sure at which stages I intend on using it in. I might make a small test run of using my product for all stages/surfaces/etc and then work my way backwards from there. I suspect I may not be able to use the product on the plant material and possibly the containers as well, but I am pretty confident I can replace using Isopropyl in other areas for sterilization.
The product is not plant safe (no idea to what extent), which is why I seriously doubt using it on anything that is living .. I have no idea whether container/tool usage would be possible, since it may or may not leach something harmful. I'm somewhat optimistic it might be ok to use for everything but sterilizing the plant material itself - the wet chemical is what is harmful to the plant. Once dry, protected materials may not have any negative side effects (and may actually help prevent contamination). Only time and some testing will tell for sure - I'm counting on sacrificing numerous lemmings to the cause, lol.
I can think of numerous benefits off the top of my head that could be achieved using this antimicrobial:
- A biggie I would say ... Not Flammable
- Kills and Protects - Unless you apply abrasion, the product won't wear off and will offer continued protection for 25 years or more. No re-sterilizing all the time and should help keep cultures safer from contamination.
- Actually attracts contaminants - The product doesn't just keep the contaminants off the surface, it actually pulls them to the surface and kills them. The product can't certify clean air, but it will pull spores and other contaminants from the air and kill them.
- Prevents against more than just mold/fungus .. although this isn't a full list by any means, it shows the extent to which this product protects/kills:
Controlled Microbes List
Since I'm not really into it yet, I have no idea what kind of costs are incurred from constant sterilization. My product runs at about $80 a gallon (sterilizing small areas shouldn't require much though .. and you'd only apply once). I generally cover about 250 floor sq ft in a house with a gallon, which includes the floor, walls and ceiling (just to give you an idea of how little it would take, although that is using a fogging method).
I have an unfurnished basement, so I was considering building a poly corner and protecting all interior surfaces with my product. The basement is currently protected by my product
I'm particularly interested in using seeds not meristem techniques cause that always failed for me. I'm gonna use VFT seeds and that's why this is in this section. 