Stagnant water

I grow my orchids underlights and they are sitting on shelves. For easier watering I have them on plastic underbed boxes, covered with plastic grid. Anyway, the boxes have indentions in the bottom that water is collecting into. The rest of the water is evaporating. Now I want to find a cheap but effective way to prevent fungus from growing. I'm toying with a dilute cholorine bleach solution, but worry if the fumes might cause problems for the plants. Would a something to treat swimming pools be better? Or will I need to stay with physan 20?

Lisa

Don,t know if you have it in the US but i use Jeyes fluid.Just a little added to the standing water will stop virtually all molds/fungus.

Another beniefit i,ve noticed in my grow room(it does smell a bit like a hospital)
is that i get no insects in there at all.Miltons fluid(used for sterilising in hospitals & for babies bottles etc) does the same job.

I'm not familiar with those brands, but working in a hospital, I can lay my hands on alot of cleaning stuff. Most of it's pretty powerful, but might not put out the same fumes as bleach. I tried using some full strength on my clippers, and it ruined the blades. I could dilute it and see what happens. I'm sure no fungus would grow!

Lisa

THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN DISINFECTANTS

The cornerstone of modern disinfectants was laid by the end of the last century. By then, the growing coal-tar industry was already producing phenol, cresol, creosote fractions and high-boiling tar acids, and it was found that efficient disinfectants could be made by using the distilled tar oils without prior extraction of the phenolic fraction.

In 1877 John Jeyes lodged the first disinfectant patent, wherein it was declared that rosin soap could be dissolved to a clear solution in tar oils or creosote to form a black disinfectant fluid.

This was followed by Damman in 1889, who patented a method for preparing the first Lysol, a disinfectant containing a high proportion of phenols in soap solution which gave on dilution a clear solution in distilled water. This differed from the aqueous dilution of the black disinfectant, which gave a dense white emulsion in water.

In 1903 a third type of disinfectant made its appearance, a white oil fluid disinfectant made by Worrall, which was an emulsion of high-boiling tar oils, of high phenolic content in an aqueous medium. The fluid contained about 30 to 40 per cent of phenols (or tar acids). Apart from their much higher germicidal coefficients they were miscible in sea or very hard water without breakdown or loss in germicidal efficiency. For this reason they were largely indented for by the Royal Navy in preference to other disinfectants.

From the beginning of this century disinfectants have diversified in character and location. In the U.K. the use of disinfectants in the home has changed in preference from the heavy-duty black and white oil disinfectants to the more refined chlorxylenol-pine disinfectants. Lysol, which was popular up to 1930, is rarely used, while sodium hypochlorite has gained as a popular disinfectant by virtue of its deodorising and germicidal efficiency combined with low cost. In the U.S.A., Lysol is still available and holds a section of the disinfectant market, together with high pine-oil content disinfectants. In the dairy industry the disinfection of dairy plant by hot water, steam, and sodium hypochlorite, commands a high usage rating which is being shared by quaternaries, chlor-substituted organic compounds, oxidising and reducing agents.

In hospitals the heavy duty disinfectants may vary preferentially from one hospital to another. Apart from sterilisation by autoclaving, disinfectants of all the above types are in use.