Sous vide immersion cooker for "hot water treatment"

8 years ago

For those who may want or need to do a hot water treatment on your beloved bulbs, I suggest using a sous vide immersion cooker. I use an Anova brand cooker immersion cooker for sous vide cooking (I purchased mine from Anova several years ago and purchase one for my parents for Christmas a couple years ago). Because you can dial in the proper temperature and keep it at the desired temperature, it is ideal if you need to do a hot water treatment on your bulbs. Today I did a hot water treatment on several bulbs that were clearly infested with mites and mealy bugs. They were all potted together in a wine barrel planter. I treated the bulbs twice with a systemic insecticide, but it didn't seem to be getting rid of the critters. Today I decided to pull the bulbs from the pot and do a hot water treatment. I put the bulbs into a gallon sized Ziplock bag and put it in the water bath with the sous vide at a temperature of 115 degrees for 3 hours (2 hours may have been sufficient, but I wanted to be sure to kill the little buggers!). Now, I'll wait for new growth and see what I get!

Featured Answer

Julie Wignell

8 years ago

This is such a wonderful idea you have put forward, berkeleysgr8! After reading your recommendation I acquired a good secondhand Anova
sous vide immersion cooker to try myself, and couldn't be happier with
it and the results. Before this, I didn't have the nerve to risk my
bulbs with inaccurate water temperatures- had a horror of inadvertently
overdoing it and cooking them! Or putting bulbs through the stress of
all this for nothing.....with inadequate temperatures to fix the problem. I
am so pleased with this alternative.

Couldn't be easier...or more accurate! I
tried it with actively growing bulbs ( they never completely stop
growing here ) and I found leaves, which I first thought had survived,
gradually yellowed off and died. The roots looked as if they had fared
better, but a number of months after the treatment, I unpotted the bulbs
to check, and found nearly all roots had collapsed into mush ( there
were a few varieties that did a little better and had reduced, but
healthy roots- but only a very few ). If I was to do this again, I would
remove leaves and clean back the roots prior to treatment. I re-potted
after a day or two of drying, and kept bulbs in a warm-ish sheltered spot.
Nothing much happened for quite awhile, but eventually bulbs started
shedding their outer scales and lovely healthy green bulbs emerged. I
was primarily
treating for bulb mite, but a number of bulbs had red blotch present as well,
and treatment has cleared this up beautifully. This treatment does set
bulbs back quite a lot, but the results I am now seeing makes me glad I went ahead
the treatment.

I hate the thought of those dastardly mites munching away inside my bulbs...and possibly spreading from plant to plant!!!!!

The thought of all those mites cooked, and my bulbs left in peace to grow and bloom in health pleases me greatly!

Thanks for the great idea.

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Comments (6)

pterodroma
8 years ago
That's a pretty ingenious way for home hobbyists to easily disinfect bulbs. I wonder if aquarium heaters could also reach that temperature.
berkeleysgr8 thanked pterodroma
everado
8 years ago
Please let us know how this works out. I tried doing it on red blotch infected bulbs last fall (there is an old thread on it). I just used my sink, hot water from the tap, and a laser thermometer to monitor it. I don’t think that was well controlled enough though, because over the long term about half of the bulbs got reinfected. Since you are doing a proper treatment I think you will have more success. Eventually I’d like to do some experiments on those $5 holiday bulbs to see if mosaic virus can be cured this way, and if you have good results it may be worth investing in one of these to do it ;) I’m sure I could get a used one somewhere at a discount.

Also, take a look at how the roots do after the treatment if you can. I have a suspicion that they entirely die after doing this. They will grow back from the basal plate eventually, but it is a huge setback.
berkeleysgr8 thanked everado
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berkeleysgr8
Original Author
8 years ago
So far, the heat treated bulbs are slow to put out new growth. All of the leaves died. Though the roots looked good when I repotted them, I'm guessing most, if not all, of the roots died. I'm starting to get a hint of regrowth and I'm about a month out from the treatment. No signs of the fuzzies that mealy bugs create... so, that's good!
bragu_DSM 5
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
ptero

most aquarium heaters cannot provide the precise temperature control that SV can for a prolonged period. I have experimented with hosta and nematodes with some, not 100 percent, success. you put the plant in the bag and SV the plant. kills them thar nematode thingies ... and helps with red blotch too. make sure the basal plate survives. I slice n dice and hope for babies ...
berkeleysgr8 thanked bragu_DSM 5
berkeleysgr8
Original Author
8 years ago
I'm glad this worked so beautifully for you. The bulbs that I did the sous vide hot water treatment on lost their original roots and leaves, but recovered with new roots and new leaves. The plants appear far healthier than before the hot water treatment.

I wish hot water treatment could kill the virus in bulbs. Late this summer I've discovered three bulbs that appear to be affected by mosiac virus: Yellow garden (a klister), Lemon Lime, and Chico (for some reason, I though Chico was resistant, but I have one pot with streaked leaves). At least with Chico, I have several more bulbs!