Heat treatment for mosaic virus
Rodger Whitlock (Thu, 09 May 2013 11:30:23 PDT)
On 9 May 2013, at 0:22, Alberto Castillo wrote:
Well, the standard procedure involves using hot water and the temperature to be
reached to be effective is 46 C at the bulb core for one hour. It gave good
results but the bulbs were pretty battered by the treatment and took long to
recover. The reason is evident: to reach 46 C at the core the outer portion must
be almost boiled.
Oh, Alberto, no need to boil your bulbs!
I once used the same method in an attempt to clear thrips from a badly infested
garden gladiolus. Brought the water up to the desired temperature, immersed the
bulbs, then carefully watched the thermometer, adjusting the heat under the pan
(nothing more than a big sauce pan) up and down as the temperature fell and
rose. I was able to keep the water temperature within a degree or two of the
target for however long the bulbs were in the water - about an hour, iirc.
The key to this is an accurate thermometer. It's been a long long time, but I
probably used a lab thermometer that was a souvenir of my days as a chemistry
grad student.
Even better would be a thermostatically controlled water bath, but hand
adjustment worked fine for this one-off experiment.
I never did hear from the grower whether the treatment was successful.
--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Z. 7-8, cool Mediterranean climate