austinl01

I wonder if Freezepruf would help pseudostems overwinter under the crawl space or in the garage by providing a little extra warmth. Any thoughts?

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Austin
Arkansas River Valley

Average January Low: 31°F, Average August High: 92°F
Extreme Winter Lows: 5-15°F, Extreme Summer Highs: 100-112°F, Annual Precipitation: 52 inches

51st state

Not too sure about that. I'm no chemist but my understanding is that what it's doing is coating the plant to stop water being in direct contact (which in a freeze would turn to ice crystals) not sure exactly how it stops the water contained within the plants cells from freezing? can anyone provide more info.

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JuniPerez

From the explanation I see, it absorbs INTO the plant as well. It helps reduce damage from ice crystal formation within the cells.

jeffreyp

I bet a good root soaking of the stuff would help protect stems once it is taken in throughout the vascular parts of the plant.

51st state

Do we know for definite that Freezepruf contains PEG? Does it list contents on the side of the bottle?

I've found a source for PEG 300. and as this stuff is neat 5 litres of it at 2% will make 250litres. enough to spray for years.

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crawler

Ok People, that's all nice, but who will buy it and then send it to me ???

...and the lucky winner is.. !!!

JuniPerez

Yes, the ingredients are on the side of the bottle. It's all classified as "food-grade" ingredients that are already used in the food production industry... so I'd say any substitute ingredients you use should fall under that category.

The PEG shows up as Polyethylene Glycol 8000 (MSDS: http://www.sciencelab.com/xMSDS-Poly...l_8000-9926627), if I remember well. I'll list the ingredients once I get home... unless someone else wants to beat me to it. = )

51st state

cool, I can get food grade, so just need to figure the concentration

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jeffreyp

In the beginning of this thread someone posted it, it was 2%.

JuniPerez

Okay... here are the bottle's listed ingredients:

Active Ingredients: Polyethylene glycol 8000 8.00%, Glycerin 0.25%
Other Ingredients: 91.75% (Water; Bicyclic Oxozolidines; Silicic Acid; potasium salt; Silicone Polyether Copolymer)

This is on a 1 Qt concentrate bottle. This you mix with water at a 1:3 ratio to make one gallon of FreezePruf.

figafita

Does it works? Anybody tried it?

JuniPerez

Well, I don't know at what temperatures the Musa basjoo or sikkimensis would get damage, but mine had no damage that I could see, even along the edges, after temperatures falling below freezing and barely climbing to the 40's in the days for a few weeks. I had sprayed them a couple of weeks before. Someone else had a basjoo with damage in the upper 30's or low 40's somewhere. The canna lilies are still up and unharmed and those are supposed to be much less hardy than the bananas. They were sprayed too. I'd have to have left one plant of each to see what damage it suffered compared to the FreezePruf'd ones, but I couldn't leave one out. Fatherly instinct I guess... lol.

jeffreyp

It's probably great stuff if you live in the south and have occasional freezes throughout the winter or up north if you want to extend the gardening season. You'd need some sort of non toxic high concentration of antifreeze that could penetrate the plant entirely for a plant to survive hard freezes.

51st state

[quote=JuniPerez;107007]Okay... here are the bottle's listed ingredients:

Active Ingredients: Polyethylene glycol 8000 8.00%, Glycerin 0.25%
QUOTE]

thanks for that, in a post 9/11 world I'd better not try and bulk buy the Glycerin. I'd end up with a swat team at my door

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jeffreyp

wonderiring the purpose of glycerin ? Perhaps a surfactant? you could probably get that from glycerin soap...

JuniPerez

I think Glycerin is used as a protectant (??). I read somewhere it's used to preserve leaves or something.

jwmahloch

Freezepruf works and it will not harm your banana plants. I have been using it since early October on my banana plants (musa basjoo and Musa Bordeleen). As of today (Nov 17) my banana plants still look great. I live in St Peters MO 9St Loius metro area). We have had a couple nights below freezing here (low of 30 on Oct 18th). My neighboors bananas were toast after the freeze a month ago. I bought the concentrate and mixed it in a pressure sprayer. I needed a ladder to get the top of my plants since they are about 12 feet tall.

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Jeremy

mjdsinsacto

We cannot cannibalize our children for the sake of science.

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bananabeginner

Hi just wondering if this stuff is like RV antifreeze, which is also none toxic? I will see if I have some around here to check the ingredients.

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jwmahloch

According to Liquid Fence Co and Dr. David Frankco Freeze pruf is non-toxic. I listened to an online radio interview with Dr. Frankco and he said you could drink it and it would not harm you. Its pretty expensive so I wouldnt recommend drinking it. Dr. Frankco told me in an email that he tested freeze pruf on musa basjoo and the plant was unharmed at 28 degrees. Below 28 freeze damage will begin to occur. I used it on my canna lillys and no damage at 30 degrees.

It hasnt gotten below 30 here in St Louis yet this fall so I am still waiting to see what happens. - Jeremy

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Jeremy