Attention, not for novice or whiney gardeners. Do not attempt this if you are faint at heart. Do not attempt this if you are accident prone. And definitely do not attempt this if you need to ask someone what droopy or spotted leaves on plants mean. Have a re-occurring mildew problem that just won’t go away? Tried everything on the market and am not convinced they work as well as they say? What are you to do? Make your own remedy of course. Now, we need to make an effective remedy that is so strong that you will see results the next day, safe for the plants when applied, leaves little or no residue when done, and is preferably consumed by the plants as a fertilizer while killing that dreaded white powder. Sounds too good to be true? If so stop reading, this post it is not for you. Now the key ingredient we will be using is sulfur, not the solid form found in most mildew controlling agents as that’s highly ineffective and relatively useless, but a liquid form….one you will be making via chemistry. What you will need is a source of 10% Sulfuric Acid, Peroxide, Copper, two 5 gallon cleaned plastic paint pails, a large colander, a sturdy plastic stir stick, some rubber gloves, a pair of eye protectors, and some non Anti-bacterial soap. *10% Sulfuric Acid can be found as sink unclogging solutions which are readily sold in plumbing stores as well as Home Depot. Not all sink unclogging solutions are sulfuric acid but most are so you’ll have to read the labels. *Peroxide can be attained at any pharmacy or any facility that sells cleaning reagents. The higher the concentration the better. *Copper can be from copper pipes found in any plumbing store. Do not use pennies as it is illegal to destroy money plus they provide more contaminants than copper. It is also worth mentioning at this point that when selecting the copper source, look for one that is badly oxidized and avoid the really shiny ones. More will be explained later. *Plastic pails, colander, gloves, soap and eyewear? Well you need not proceed if you don’t know where to get those items. A brief description of what we are doing and then a step by step guide to assist you. The sulfuric acid will be diluted with pure water and mixed with peroxide and copper to form a copper sulfate ion solution. When performed accordingly, the constituents in the solution will be consumed and the solution will consists of nothing more than copper sulfate solution and water. The copper sulfate will be extracted and collected to make a spray solution to treat the infested plants. Both copper and sulfur are required micronutrients so what we are essentially using is a fertilizer to kill the powdery mildew problem. Cu + H2O2 ==> CuO + H2O CuO + H2SO4 ==> CuSO4 + H2O Diluting Acid ---------------- Make sure you are in a well ventilated area such as a garage when you do this step. Put your protection gear on and start by pouring 200 mL of sulfuric acid into your empty bucket. Then add 4 liters of pure water gently and carefully into the bucket. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO ADD ACID TO WATER---ONLY ADD WATER TO ACID. The immediate chemical reaction you will encounter will be that of enormous heat being released as the acid is diluted. The purer the acid the more heat is involved. I use a 99.9% pure acid and have no problems attaining temperatures of up to 100 C and higher. This exothermic reaction is so because of the purity of the acid. For chemical refineries to extract purer acid, their initial formula must be subjected to intense heat to purify. When the pure acid is diluted, it will release this intense heat back into the environment. At this stage, we need to stabilize the hot bucket and can do so by leaving it in a cool environment for about an hour. A laundry sink filled with cold water, a pile of snow, freezing outside temperatures,…be creative. It should be noted that if you use a less than sturdy plastic pail, you will have a meltdown situation. Making the Potion ---------------------- Once the bucket is warm to the touch you may proceed to the next step. Now, sulfuric acid is one of the most corrosive acids on earth so try not to spill it all over the place as it not only consume metals but it will also incinerate wood, eat concrete, burn holes in your clothes etc….The Sulfuric acid (H2SO4) will consume the copper (Cu) but very slowly. This is so because the acid can only dissolve the copper if it is oxidized or CuO. To wait for copper to naturally oxidize would take too long for this little gardener so an oxidizing reagent is needed; peroxide. Add 500 mL of peroxide into the mixture gently and give it a good careful stir. (Whatever you used to stir the mixture with be sure to rinse off thoroughly later). After the stirring is complete, add about 250 grams of copper into the bucket carefully. The more surface area you can provide for the chemical reaction the better ie. Smaller pieces instead of one large chunk. You will notice the solution begin to turn blue. Move the bucket into an environment that is out of place and is around 20 C for the reaction to progress more effectively. Let it sit for a day until all the copper is dissolved. If after a day and there still remains copper, add more peroxide to facilitate the reducing. DO NOT ADD MORE ACID. The more blue the solution is, the better. Extracting Crystals ---------------------- Now that you have a bucket of copper sulfate solution, it’s time to extract the copper sulfate out of the solution. This can only proceed if the solution is a dark royal blue color. This is a relatively easy step as it entails freezing the solution until the copper sulfate crystallizes. This can be accomplished, by placing the bucket into a freezer for a day or just by leaving it outside in freezing cold temperatures. If left outside, place a lid over the solution to avoid contamination with passing debris. Collecting Crystals ----------------------- You will now see beautiful royal blue crystals formed all along the sides of the bucket much like those purple amethyst crystals found in the core of some rocks. If you don’t, you haven’t dissolved enough copper into the solution. Go back and add more peroxide and copper. The crystals will only form when the solution is saturated with CuSO4. With as little agitation as possible, carefully pour the remaining solution into another plastic bucket, outfitted with a colander, giving much attention not to disturb the crystal colony. A sudden avalanche here can be detrimental to your health. Gather and collect the remaining crystals into the colander and quickly rinse them in cold running water to wash off any excess solution. Do not rinse them for too long as it is unnecessary and will dissolve the crystals away. Store them in a plastic container. They will be wet, and shall remain wet as copper sulfate is a penta-hydrate, (each CuSO4 molecule attaches itself to 5 H2O molecule). It is also worth mentioning that the amount of crystals you receive will depend on the amount of acid and copper in the mixture as those are the key ingredients. The rate at which the copper is dissolved is controlled by the amount of peroxide present. Making the Spray Solution -------------------------------- The crystals are utilized by dissolving them into pure water again. Depending on the level of infestation, you should be using 1 to 7 grams per liter with 2 to 3 drops of soap as a wetting agent. Apply twice a week, for 2 weeks, 30 minutes before dawn. Spray until entire plant is completely wet including branches and stalks. Start low and work your way up to a higher concentration if needed. It can be applied from cuttings to the third week of flowering safely. Spraying anything, including pure water, after the third week of flowering will burn your trichs and turn them a dead brown color. You will see the powdery mildew infestation stopped immediately. Living PM looks soft and delicate and can be easily blown off with a gentle breeze. Dead mildew is nothing more than a hardened little white patch that may be removed with a firm rubbing of the fingers over the infested area. You will also notice the extra sulfur the plants consume will make them more resilient to the problem in the future. This solution will also kill other fungi and algae problems as well. It is not a controlling agent. IT KILLS THEM DEAD. Some of the best things come in blue.
