Hypochlorous acid? Can it be used for…..

So I’ve recently switched to Athena nutes and they have a product called “Cleanse” which the main ingredient is “Hypochlorous acid”. I understand that it’s not harmful to humans or plants and can be used as a insecticide.. Does anyone have experience using Hypochlorous acid as a pesticide against spidermites and if so, how effective was it against those little bastards? I know there are a ton of different pesticides for spidermites, but it’s almost like they are becoming resistant to a lot of them so thought we might try something new (ps… this will be tried on outdoor ladies)

max316420 said:

So I’ve recently switched to Athena nutes and they have a product called “Cleanse” which the main ingredient is “Hypochlorous acid”. I understand that it’s not harmful to humans or plants and can be used as a insecticide.. Does anyone have experience using Hypochlorous acid as a pesticide against spidermites and if so, how effective was it against those little bastards? I know there are a ton of different pesticides for spidermites, but it’s almost like they are becoming resistant to a lot of them so thought we might try something new (ps… this will be tried on outdoor ladies)

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It’s worth a try. You can get a hypochlorous generator for cheap to make as much as you want but the half life is very short so probably not worth making much at one time. But it is way cheaper to make yourself then too buy it. It’s only water and salt and I found the generators for as low as 30 bucks

Might as well just stick with citric acid since it works, is dirt cheap, and you can use it as your PH down too.

Hypochlorous acid is a weak acid that forms when chlorine dissolves in water and can't be isolated

It's a common disinfectant, not a pesticide

I'm guessing that "Cleanse" is 10x more expensive than simply using chlorine

What @Billy the Mountain said.

It's a cleaner and disinfectant, i dunk clones in it. But it doesn't stave off pests to my knowledge.

I have friends that use neem oil and peppermint oil mixed with water for outdoor peat management and it works great

Billy the Mountain said:

Hypochlorous acid is a weak acid that forms when chlorine dissolves in water and can't be isolated

It's a common disinfectant, not a pesticide

I'm guessing that "Cleanse" is 10x more expensive than simply using chlorine

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Of course it is.

Hypochlorous acid will only be effective against microorganisms, I wouldn’t have thought (polite way of saying IT DOESNT) it would have any efficacy against spider mites.
Depending on concentration & how your HOCL is made (ie:chemical acidification of Sodium hypochlorite or an electrolytic process using sodium chloride solution)
it may have residual salt left behind which some would argue is not helpful for plants.
However, a small amount in low concentrations can be enough to work for Mildew or root rot, and salt would be negligible IMO and it’s probably the safest most effective biocide available.

Cleanse is for sterilizing your root zone and keeping micro organisms out of your resovoir. It also cleans scale from salt build up. If you are looking for a product for mites you would want to use the IPM product from them which is made up of oils

Theres an alternative called hydro cleanse, its a bit cheaper. Made by soft jamb

Pool shock, or even bottled bleach, is a LOT cheaper to achieve the same end

Literally orders of magnitude cheaper

HOCl is a weak acid that is formed when chlorine gas dissolves in water. It is used as an active ingredient in sanitizers and disinfectants because of its ability to break apart cell membranes, similar to the mechanism of action of sodium hypochlorite (bleach) or hydrogen peroxide.

It works by oxidizing lipids that make up the cell membranes of microorganisms.

Billy the Mountain said:

Pool shock, or even bottled bleach, is a LOT cheaper to achieve the same end

Literally orders of magnitude cheaper

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Gotta Love pool shock ! Its the killer of waterborne molds ! The acid in it cleans keeps my drips from clogging up with salts/scale from using salt feeds