Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2)

*St0ney* · 06-18-2002, 03:00 PM

I found this at a commercial site

but, thought it would be a good addition to our boards. So, I’ll just quote it.

*note this article has been sterilized and guaranteed to be SPAM free for your protection

Quote:

Hydrogen Peroxide and Horticulture
By Bryce Fredrickson

Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2) is a clear sharp smelling substance very similar in appearance to water (H2O). Like water it is made up of Hydrogen (H2) and Oxygen (O2), however H2O2 has an extra Oxygen atom in an unstable arrangement. It is this extra atom that gives H2O2 its useful properties. H2O2 has been used for many purposes including cleaning, bleaching, sterilizing, rocket fuel, animal feed treatment and in addition many miraculous claims about its health benefits have been made. This article isn't about any of these; instead it will concentrate on horticultural applications. H2O2 is of great use for both hydroponics and dirt/soilless gardening.

What Does Hydrogen Peroxide do?
H2O2 is an unstable molecule, when it breaks down a single oxygen atom and a molecule of water is released. This oxygen atom is extremely reactive and will attach itself to either another O- atom forming a stable Oxygen molecule or attack a nearby organic molecule. Both the stable and O- forms will increase the level of dissolved oxygen. This is the method by which H2O2 is beneficial. Pre treating the water supply with H2O2will drive out the Chlorine many cities use to sterilize it. This will also degrade any pesticides or herbicides that might be present as well as any other organic matter. Well water can be high in methane and organic sulfates, both of which H2O2 will remove. Many disease causing organisms and spores are killed by Oxygen, the free Oxygen H2O2 releases is extremely effective at this. H2O2 will help eliminate existing infections and will help prevent future ones. It is also useful for suppressing algae growth. The free Oxygen atom will destroy dead organic material (i.e, leaves roots) in the system preventing them from rotting and spreading diseases.

Over Watering
Roots require Oxygen to breathe and low levels are the main cause of almost all root diseases. Both soil and hydroponic plants often fall prey to the same syndrome although it is rarely recognized as what it really is. Hydroponic crops often fail due to "root rot" and soil crops succumb to "over watering." The real cause of both these problems is a shortage of Oxygen at the root zone. In a soil system the soil consists of particles, a film of water on the particles and air spaces between the particles. When too much water is put into the soil the air spaces fill with liquid. The roots will quickly use up what Oxygen is dissolved in the water, if they haven't drunk enough of the liquid to allow air back in to the soil spaces they will stop working. In this situation roots will start dying within twenty-four hours. As the roots die the plants ability to drink water and nutrients will decrease, this will cause symptoms of nutrient deficiencies (mostly pale, slow, weak growth), and strangely they will start to wilt like they don't have enough water. It is easy to make a fatal mistake at this point and add more water.

In a Hydroponic system the cause is a more direct simple lack of oxygen in the solution; this may be from inadequate circulation and/or aeration. High reservoir temperatures also interfere with Oxygen's ability to dissolve in the water. Temperatures above 70F (20C) will eventually cause problems, 62F-65F (16C-18C) is recommended. The same symptoms will appear as with soil plants but you can also check the roots. Healthy roots should be mostly white with maybe a slight yellowish tan tinge. If they are a brownish color with dead tips or they easily pull away there is at least the beginning of a serious problem. An organic, ‘dirt like’ rotting smell means there is already a very good chance it is too late. As roots die and rot they eat Oxygen out of the water, as Oxygen levels are even further depleted more roots die, a viscous circle may be well under way. Reduced Oxygen levels and high temperatures both encourage anaerobic bacteria and fungi. The plants may still be saved but you will have to work fast.

How Hydrogen Peroxide prevents root rot/over watering.
When plants are watered with H2O2 it will break down and release Oxygen into the area around the roots. This helps stop the Oxygen from being depleted in the water filled air spaces until air can get back into them. High Oxygen levels at the roots will encourage rapid healthy root growth. In a Hydroponic system H2O2 will disperse through out the system and raise Oxygen levels as it breaks down. Strong white healthy roots with lots of fuzzy new growth will be visible. This fuzzy growth has massive surface area allowing for rapid absorption of the huge amounts of water and nutrients needed for rapid top growth. A healthy plant starts with a healthy root system.

How to use it.
H2O2 comes in several different strengths 3%, 5%, 8% and 35%, also sold as food grade Hydrogen Peroxide. The most economical is 35% which we recommend be diluted to three percent before using, as at this high concentration it can cause damage to skin and clothing. When working with food grade H2O2 it is very important that you clean up any spills or splashes immediately, it will damage almost anything very quickly. This is extra important with skin and clothing. Skin will be temporarily bleached pure white if not washed cleaned. Gloves are strongly recommended when working with any strong chemical.

Food grade H2O2 can be diluted to three percent by mixing it one part to eleven parts water (preferably distilled). The storage container should be opaque to prevent light from getting in and it must be able to hold some pressure. If three-liter pop bottles are available in your area they are ideal for mixing and storing H2O2. There are twelve quarter liters (250ml) in three liters, if you put in one quarter liter H2O2 and eleven quarter liters (250ml) water in the bottle it will full of three percent H2O2 and the bottle can hold the pressure that the H2O2 will generate. Three percent Hydrogen Peroxide may be added at up to three ml's per liter (2 1\2 tsp. Per gallon), but it is recommended that you start at a lower concentration and increase to full strength over a few weeks. Use every watering even on fresh cuttings. For hydroponics use every reservoir change and replace twenty-five percent (one quarter) every day. Example: In a 100L reservoir you would add three hundred ml's (3%) H2O2when changing the nutrient. You would then add seventy-five ml's more every day.

Where to get it.
35% food grade: called food grade because it has no toxic impurities. Of course your local hydroponics retailer, whom you can locate over the web.(there may be shipping restrictions on high strength peroxides). The local feed supplier may have it in small towns. Prices range from fifteen dollars per quarter liter to eighty dollars a gallon. One gallon will treat up to fifty thousand liters of water.

3%5%, 8% Can be found at most drugstores or pharmacies, prices start at a less than a dollar for a one hundred-ml bottle that will treat one hundred liters.

What to do if you already have root rot.

In Dirt:
Use peroxide water with an anti-fungicide and a high Phosphate fertilizer (9-45-15, 10-52-10, 0-60-0) for root growth. Or any other product with rooting hormone dissolved in it is helpful in regrowing roots and is strongly recommended. Water heavily until liquid pours out the bottom of the pot. This sound like bad idea, but it flushes out stagnant dead water and replaces it with fresh highly oxygenated water. Don't let plants sit in trays full of water, the soil will absorb this water and stay too wet. Don't water again until the pot feels light and the top inch or two of the soil are dry.

In Hydro:
Change your nutrients. Add H2O2 to the system. This will add oxygen and chemically eat dead roots. If roots are badly rotted and can be pulled away by hand you should pull them off. They are already dead and will only rot, causing further problems. Add a fungicide to kill any fungus that is probably present in the rotted tissue to prevent it from spreading. Increase aeration of the water, get an air pump and air stones, or more of them, for the reservoir. An air stone under every plant is usually very effective, but will require a larger air pump. Models that will do from forty to four hundred stones are available. Decrease the reservoir temperature, oxygen dissolves better in cold water and disease causing organisms reproduce slower as well. A good temperate range is 62F to 65F; anything above 70F will eventually cause a problem. It is also a good idea to remove any wilty plants from the system and put them on a separate reservoir so they don't infect plants that are still healthy.

Summary
The key to big productive plants is a big healthy root system and Hydrogen Peroxide is a great way to keep your roots healthy. It is a must to ensure the biggest best crops possible and to increase the chances of your plants thriving to harvest. Peroxide users will rarely lose plants or crops to root disease and will harvest larger and more consistent crops.

Now i bet you want to know how much to add right?

Here is Ozgrowa's H2O2 formula:

Quote:

US Standard
1.28*G/C= Liquid Oz's per day

Metric
10*L/C= Ml per day

C= % concentration of H2O2
L= Number of liters in reservoir
G= Number of Gallons in reservoir

Example: How much 3% H202 should I add to 7 gallons of nutes?
1.28*7/3=2.986 Oz's each day.

And a quote from Oz explaining if it's safe to use.

Quote:

Hydrogen Peroxide breaks down to hydrogen and oxygen within 3 days of being added either to a hydroponic solution or a soilmix. There is no residual with it, it becomes oxygen and hydrogen gas. It is not un-natural in the least, it forms the basic building blocks of life, its just a stable liquid form of oxygen.

Wolfman, myself and a lot of others use this both in our Hydroponics grows (me) and in soil grows (wolfman), the pictures speak for themselves, the additional chloroplastic activity as a result of the chlorophyll deeping will give you much thicker stems and larger leaves, with much deeper green. Yes the plants can absorb more light. the solution will also be much cleaner as the organic matter is oxidized to make...oxygen

So, there you have it everyone!

Now, go get your bottle of H2O2 today!

You know what.. on second thought.. This would be better in the Nursery so, I’m going to move it.

BongoQP · 06-26-2002, 03:50 PM

i've read about these things called beneficial nematodes and would like to use them later on in my grow. will they be adversely affected by h202? they are alive after all...

Weedhopper · 10-02-2002, 09:24 PM

O.K. So I get 3% hydrogen peroxide & then use only two and one-half TEAspoons of that per gallon ?

That is what I just used ...

Seems a bit weak .. what is that ... one three-hundredth strength ?

I have gnats all over . Is that mixture strong enough to kill them ?

Someone said (or joked ? ) that it would fizz in the soil .
I didn't see or hear anything ...
Thanks !

MayorJuana · 10-04-2002, 07:19 PM

Weedhopper,

I used one part 3% h2o2 to five parts water for fungus gnats. This works out to roughly pouring in 2 cups of 3% h2o2 into a gallon milk jug and filling the rest with water.

This recipe WILL make the soil fizz and kill any larvae living in the soil. Make sure you use enough to see the solution seep out the bottom of the pot.

Any gnats that are left flying around you will have to spray individually with soap solution. Also keep spraying the top of the soil with soap solution for about a week after the h2o2.

I used to kill hundreds of gnats a day with the soap solution but they just multiply too fast to keep up with. The h2o2 gets 'em where they start...in the soil.

Also, deris dust works wonders too.

MJ

Inthewind · 12-07-2002, 12:10 PM

OK st0ney, I have a question. Why buy 35% and reduce it to 3%? Can't you just use 3% from the start? It's cheaper and more readily available, no?

Crapon · 12-07-2002, 08:00 PM

Ok... I just bought some 35% food grade h202... Also I asked the hydro store guy about the difference between that and the store bought 3%. His opinion was that they were two different types of h202. Personally I have had to do a lot of fighting with the 3% in high quantities. I use about 5 32oz thing of 3% h202 per week. That is about $1.50 per 32oz (about $8.00 a week), while I just bought the 35% flavour and it should last for about 3 weeks and only cost $9.00.

Also I have noticed a lot more bubbles and "Algae fighting" from the equivalent use of 35% then 3%. I would add like 12oz twice a day of 3% to my 23 gallon tubs, and now I only have to add about 1oz of 35%, and it seems like it is working a lot better..

Just a quick learning experience... Don't f*ck around with 35% h202. It likes to burn skin in its concentrate form. Turns like a white paint color. Very fun stuff...

Anyways... My vote is stay away from 3% because it is a pain in the arse to work with and for me cost a lot more in the end.

cheers

philosopher · 12-09-2002, 12:45 AM

I figured since so many people were reading this I should add my thoughts. I work as a chemist and am very familiar to the world of peroxides. If you have the high concentration stuff keep it refrigerated or it will degrade very rapidly. Also never shake a bottle of the concentrated stuff, besides making it degrade faster there is a chance that under the right conditions it could explode violently. If for some chance anyone ever finds a place to get 70% don't buy it, at my lab it is mandated that anything 70% or stronger must be opened behind a blast shield if that tells you anything. Anyway I just wanted to add this info to an already great post.

Philosopher

3hounds · 12-09-2002, 03:53 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by BongoQP
i've read about these things called beneficial nematodes and would like to use them later on in my grow. will they be adversely affected by h202? they are alive after all...

Yup.
h202 will kill many beneficial soil microbes... those who rely on organic nutes might want to rethink using it routinely.

HydroSan · 12-09-2002, 09:00 AM

good point 3hounds, when I was using a bioadative it actually said don't use with H2O2 on the bottle

we discussed this in the NFT thread in my sig and basically decided it was biobugs OR H2O2 but not both as they're pretty much at opposite ends of the spectrum, being either a sterile rootzone with higher disolved O2 for the H2O2 and a more organic rootzone with the biobugs. H2O2 won for the NFT system, but for soil, I'd think that with the right soil mixture (well drained) I'd only use it to treat root problems caused by fungus or bugs, if at all.

Sanster

12-09-2002, 10:38 AM

i think a lot of folks see hydro as a "sterile" growing environment, and many hydro people see that a the big plus to hydro over soil. the environment is sterile, clean - no bugs, no parasites, etc. the plant's life is completely managed by the grower.

on the other hand, container gardeners tend to be more "natural" (not meant to offend anyone here) and enjoy working the dirt, the decaying organic material, the bugs, etc. for them, it's ok that nature has her ways.

so if you think about it in those terms, h202 might be a useful addition to the hydro regime to enhance the sterility, and biobugs or other organics would not be welcome additions. likewise, h202 would not be a welcome addition to soil or container growers, because it is contrary to the basic regimens of "dirt".

just my 2¢

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