Aftaburn Posted January 5, 2005 Report Share Posted January 5, 2005 Does anyone know about any adverse effects of using alum to sterilize plants?? Found the trick in a book which suggests: Add on heaped teaspoon of alum to 1 liter of water soak plant for 5 mins & wash thoroughly. The plants to be cleaned will be back in tanks which will have spawning fish of various species. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke* Posted January 6, 2005 Report Share Posted January 6, 2005 I've heard alum is fine, there will be info on the net. Also at www.simplydiscus.com. I use potassium permanganate (pink solution - soak plants for half an hour in bucket) You can pick up PP from chemist shops. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aftaburn Posted January 7, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2005 What strength solution potassium permanganate? Have you had any adverse effects? Alum is toxic to snails (any mollusc) any idea on potassium? I ordered alum however they didnt place the order so if theres a better alternative... Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aftaburn Posted January 7, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2005 And some plants are extra sensitive to KMnO4: after a dose of potassium permanganate, Vallisneria can melt away as if it were Cryptocoryne. Found that... I have both those plant species. If I can use alum for those safely then great. Not sure of complete plant list but it includes a fern (apparently only true underwater fern there is if my info is correct) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke* Posted January 7, 2005 Report Share Posted January 7, 2005 PP comes in a powder, you mix it with water to desired strength. I haven't had any adverse effects from it but it destroys anything organic, so if it's too strong it will kill your plants. I use to do a strong mix for 10mins but find a light solution for half an hour is safer. It stains a lot too so you might want to use gloves, but then again i don't and it hasn't really stained before. PP definitely kills snails and eggs well but i don't know if it's anymore or less effective than alum sorry as i haven't used alum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aftaburn Posted January 8, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 8, 2005 As I see there's a bit of interest in this thread as further info comes to hand the results will be posted here. Good article on use of Potassium permanganate at: http://www.arborman.com/ Look under Pond and Water Garden Topics 4-7-00 A potassium permanganate protocol developed by Dr. Roddy M. Conrad for treating Koi I will be picking some up later today & observing the effects on plant species under microscope. If I notice any serious problems I will post info under this thread where I can identify plants which may have problems with PP as a bath. Treatment cost... 15x 0.2gram lots (each sufficient for 100 liters at final dose rate) for the chemist to make up $25.00 mostly handling & labour containers. Dilution series: Mix 0.2grams PP with 1 liter of water. 100ml of this solution is enough to bring 9.9 litres of water to 2ppm final dose rate. more to follow... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.