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You've probably seen a lot of people recommending hydrogen peroxide to treat root rot or roots that have been overwatered to the point where they're almost brown, almost black
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And hydrogen peroxide comes up a lot. But in this video, I'm going to show you why you should or shouldn't use hydrogen peroxide for your orchids
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Hi, I'm Amanda Matthews, and thank you for watching this video at Orcadaria
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To understand what happens when you apply hydrogen peroxide to the orchid roots, you have to go back to its chemical components
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Now, I am not a chemist, but what happens here is hydrogen peroxide is H2O2
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So it's like water with an extra oxygen in it. This formula is actually very weak, and anything that comes into contact with it can oxidize quickly and separate those
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and what we get is OH and OH, which is perfect for orchid care
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And why do I say this is perfect? You're going to use hydrogen peroxide on the roots
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That's where I hear most people using it. And so the hydrogen, when it comes into contact with the roots
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it's going to destabilize and oxidize, and these components are going to release two gases
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oxygen and hydrogen over here and oxygen and hydrogen over here. So these gases are going to give the roots what they need because they probably got into this state by overwatering in the first place or being in a media that didn't have time to dry out
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Now that would be awesome if that was the only way hydrogen peroxide breaks down
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Remember hydrogen peroxide can also break down into water and an extra hydrogen
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The extra hydrogen does not do anything to kill bacteria if on
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that root. Well, the other component, water, it's like giving a drink to an orchid that's already
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drowning. So that does absolutely nothing for your orchid. So when you put hydrogen peroxide on the
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orchid roots, it's going to fizzle. That sound you hear is the oxidation of it breaking into these
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two possible reactions. Now, I wish it would always break down into oxygen, hydrogen, oh
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and oh h that would be perfect though we don't have control over what it breaks down to now if it's
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just a 50 chance and you know your the other byproduct is going to be water why not i tell you why not hydrogen peroxide has its fame because it was invented in 1799 and it wasn even invented for its practical uses today It was invented to find a formula to purify air believe it or not
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And what they came up with was something totally different. Since it didn't work to purify the air
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it does have other practical uses. For example, it's very cheap to make. So, in the same, it's very cheap to make
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the war, they would use hydrogen peroxide to treat minor lacerations. If any of the soldiers came home, came back with little minor cuts that didn't need any
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major surgery on them, they would put hydrogen peroxide on it. And you already know the bond is very weak that kicks these elements together
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So when they come into contact with blood, they will oxidize and they will bring all the
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bacteria up to the surface. So it's not exactly a bacteriocyte, even though I've heard that and I've read that
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What it does is it just fizzles up the bacteria to the surface where then it can be wiped off
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So even though hydrogen peroxide does come into contact with the bacteria on the roots, it does not kill them
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It just fizzles them, gives them a little tickle, and brings them to the surface
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But most orchid roots already are on the surface because they're on the outside
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Also, hydrogen peroxide when exposed to light, remember the bond is very, very weak, so even the light will break this bond between the hydrogen and the oxygen
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So the light breaks this down. That's why they're sold in non-transparent bottles
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You know what else hydrogen peroxide is used in? Cleaning products, such as Tide and OxyClean laundry detergent
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You can read on the components that there is hydrogen peroxide. in there. It's used as a mild bleach. Marlon Monroe is known for using hydrogen peroxide to get that
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blonde color. One positive point of using hydrogen peroxide is to sterilize your equipment. And I do
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want to open a parentheses here. The Food and Drug Administration FDA has approved my hydrogen
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peroxide since decades ago as a safe antimicrobial agent. So, maybe that's the confusion. If you use hydrogen peroxide to wipe down the instruments you use to
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prune your orchid, that is good to remove the bacteria. And what you're doing is you're not
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killing the bacteria You physically removing them from the surface of the instrument So many people have associated oh hydrogen peroxide it was used in the war It used as a cleaning agent
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It's used as bleach. It sterilizes. It doesn't really sterilize. It's the mechanical action of wiping that instrument clean with the hydrogen peroxide that
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removes the bacteria because the bacteria just comes to the surface and it's easily removed
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Now here is why I don't. like hydrogen peroxide because it comes into contact with the roots. That's great. It forms the
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reaction between which you get two possible answers. That's great too. But when it comes into contact
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with velloman, that's where the problem is because the vellumon, which is the covering of the
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actual steel of the root, which is a very thin line. The vellum is the thicker coating on
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on the outside of it. The vellum is the Velloman reacts to hydrogen peroxide and burns
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But the hydrogen peroxide doesn't know what a good root is and it doesn't know what a bad root is
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So it's going to interact with all the roots. So on the bad roots, it's going to interact bringing that bacteria to the surface
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which is easily removed. And on the good roots, it's going to interact with that velloman
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Now, the velloman, the only function of the vellumist is to absorb
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and bring whatever it's absorbing back up to the stem of the orchid. So it's going to get that hydrogen peroxide, which burned it
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and it's going to pull that hydrogen peroxide all the way up back to the stem, burning it all
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the way up. That's where hydrogen peroxide comes, a horrible, horrible ingredient to treat root rot
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Now, you can use hydrogen peroxide to clean the leaves. Like if you miss the leaves in your water
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it has a high mineral deposit on it, at least those little white spots
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or splatches on their leaf. It's great for that because you can wipe off the leaf
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It does not hurt the leaf. It does not burn the leaf in that sense, but it will
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burn the velloman on good roots. Okay, I am not done talking about
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hydrogen peroxide, but I notice people click away when I say this. So hold
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on. If this video is providing any useful information about orchid care, please give it a thumbs up or a like
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that helps me know what videos to do more of. I am new at YouTube
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I'm not new at OrchidCare, but I am new at YouTube. So I'm still learning
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I have tons of stuff to learn. So feedback is great Even if the video was not great you can tell me that too And I appreciate it And if you really want to know a fun fact about hydrogen peroxide in its concentrated form
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because this is 3%. You can not buy this in local pharmacies above 3%, because in its concentrated
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form, it's actually used as rocket propellant because that extremely interesting, stable bond, it blows up. Bear with me here. Let me try to read this with a straight face
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Concentrated hydrogen peroxide is called high test peroxide, is extremely reactive and for that
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reason is used in rocket propelled. The intense explosion, it produces at high temperatures
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propels the rocket for it. I'm sorry, I just have these visions of my orchid just flying through
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space. Hydrogen peroxide cannot be boiled since it explodes before it reaches boiling points
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You really want to put this on your orchid. So in all seriousness, if you have used hydrogen peroxide
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in the past, it probably did not kill your orchid, and that's why you're still using it
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again and again. But now that you know that it does harm the good vellum and the good roots
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and it does harm that all the way up back to the stem. It's a very slow process
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Refrain from using it. It's not the best. If you're going to clean your orchid roots
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you can use another product like fizaan 20 or any other bactericide or fungicide that is proper for plant care or orchid care
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But hydrogen peroxide just doesn't cut it. Will it kill your orchid completely
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I doubt it because it's been used and recommended so many times
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And even respected orchid growers use it, but I don't know how
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I don't. So these are my recommendations. And even though there are videos where I will say, yes, put hydrogen peroxide on it
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Now, that's because it's an attempt to salvage something. You know, when you're desperate, you use what you got
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So use it in those situations. it can form the bond that we want, oxygen and hydrogen, two of those, but not always
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So keep that in mind in your orchid care. Thank you so much for watching
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I'm sorry for all the goofiness. So this, use it wisely, use it sparingly
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I hope to see you in the comments below and happy cultivating
