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Mop water with Mr. Clean
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Posted by raysizemore3 z5/6 N.OH (My Page) on Tue, Jul 12, 05 at 22:48
| I mop my business floor almost every morning, using 2-3 gallons of water and about 4 oz. of Mr. Clean. Outside, we have a half whiskey barrel planter full of flowers. The obvious question: will the leftover mop water be helpful or harmful to the plants?
The active ingredient in Mr. Clean is 0.34% sodium hydroxide, which would translate to a small amount (1/74th of an ounce) in my bucket before mopping. This ingredient will presumably push the ph of my potting mix up-- will this be a noticable effect, given the tiny amount of NaOH? Will the other properties of Mr. Clean (antibacterial, "grease-cutting" ingredients in the other 99.66% of the solution) have any effect, or will they be neutralized by dilution and/or heavy bacterial loads from the floor?
Thanks in advance for any advice.
--Ray |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Mop water with Mr. Clean
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| You will kill your plants. |
RE: Mop water with Mr. Clean
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| Not that I'm disagreeing, but which ingredient(s) in what concentration be problematic? --RLS3 |
RE: Mop water with Mr. Clean
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| Ray - from a technical standpoint, I can't answer that - lol!! However, I will say that when I filled a 5-gallon bucket with lukewarm water & added just a capful of Mr. Clean (far less than 4 ounces), & when finished poured the bucket outside, it killed the grass. |
RE: Mop water with Mr. Clean
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| Sodium hydroxide is lye. If you want to pour lye on your plants, have at it. Here's a link with more info. |
Here is a link that might be useful: sodium hydroxide
RE: Mop water with Mr. Clean
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| Hi Ray, switch to one of the orange based cleaners and you'll get a better value for your money. Orange oil in low concentrations makes things smell wonderful and acts as a low grade, non-problematic insecticide. I've used a weak solution for watering my houseplants when they had bugs or slugs/snails and had NO problems with the plants, just nice clean soil. |
RE: Mop water with Mr. Clean
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| As long as it gets the floors as clean, that could be a win-win. And frugal! |
RE: Mop water with Mr. Clean
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| Yep, orange oil based products are much better....and reusable! Definitely a win/win. |
RE: Mop water with Mr. Clean
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| Use ammonia when cleaning--makes a great fertilizer later. |
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