Hydrogen Peroxide - Usage and Substitutes

[Pondracer]

For the last couple of years I have ran hydrogen peroxide in my mixes. Starting after seedling through harvest with 250 -175 ml per 60 gallon reservoir in a base of RODI water. Generally I can get about 17% food grade without a problem though I just latched onto some 34% food grade by the gallon.

The system is coco with bi-daily main fertigation events and 2 gallon containers. Growth cycles are around 120 days to harvest. So far I have had zero problems with root slime though I do flush every ~40 days with a batch of Flora-Kleen.

H2O2 is expensive and I am curious if there is an alternative. I pay about $90 for a gallon of 34% delivered to the door. Since I am using RODI I do not have any chlorine to deal with so this is mainly for sterilization. Is it neccessary? Is there an alternative?

 

[tobh]

not really, at least not one that will provide the added benefit of the extra oxygen h2o2 provides.

i too run 34% h2o2, and pay maybe $40 USD a gallon for alchemist liquid oxygen at my local grow shop.

if you're only concerned about sterility you can use pool shock. make sure to get the non pH buffered variety and make your own concentrate at 5g/gallon and use 5ml per gallon of total solution volume. so, for 60 gallons you'd use 300ml of shock. it'll keep your res sterile though is more volatile than h2o2 so you'll need to be consistent on adding it to your res on a progressive downward scale that aligns with whatever your res volume is every couple days.

using shock you lose the DO benefits of h2o2.

my advice is find a local source. $90 a gallon is highway robbery. You can likely source lab grade unstabilized h2o2 online for cheaper at that price.

edit: pool shock is like $6 USD for a container that will last you a lifetime unless you're running a massive op.

 

[GNick55]

ya wow $90 a gallon! holy.. should be more like $50-60 canadian..

 

[tobh]

ya wow $90 a gallon! holy.. should be more like $50-60 canadian..

you canucks and your fuckin taxes man. swear canada is like california, the damn places even start with the same letters. from a lab supply co i've seen higher concentrations for less than $30 USD but i'm not about to get on a watchlist by buying from places like that lol

 

[Dirtbag]

I pay $35 for a gallon of $29%. Same bottle 5 years ago was $20.

With anything chloride based I would avoid using it in the last half to 2/3 of the flower cycle. Excess chlorides in dried pot equals weed that burns poorly. Hot and black. As per several studies done on tobacco crops, and more recently my friends in house R&D with their LP.

 

[Pondracer]

30-35 wouldnt be bad at all. I can look around locally. At the moment I am having everything delivered as much as possible.