Huge rookie mistake, don't do this!

Can’t believe I was so lucky to not have ruined 4 gallons of cider must. When calculating the amount of malic acid to add to my 4.1 PH juice, I forgot to include the decimal point and added 277 grams instead of 27.7. Yikes! The PH went from 4.1 all the way down to 2.1. :cry: :sob: Thankfully, I had 8 more gallons to mix with, and when all was finished I ended up with 4 gallons at 3.4 PH, and 8 gallons at 3.2 PH, pretty much what I was after in the first place. What luck, and what a dumb mistake that COULD have spelled disaster.

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If you want good cider must correct calculations is a Must.

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Another family member drained some gasoline from a defunct piece of equipment into an empty milk jug and used it in a trimmer. When I was cleaning up my honeyberry bed for the winter, I found the jug under a bush and thought it was just discolored water, so poured it on a waist-high Boreal Beauty bush, after which the smell alerted me it was gasoline! Now I am waiting to see if it does the bush in. Never put gasoline in anything but a red container or clearly label it!

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Wow that would be a shock!!

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i always do a sniff test if im not sure what it is. bad part is it wont only kill the bush but renders that soil ungrowable for a long time.

The miscalculation isn’t a rookies-only mistake (NASA once lost a Mars mission to mixing up metric and imperial units). Not double-checking would have been! You were smart enough to catch it.

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Johnny, I don’t know if you saw this thread, but if you check it you’ll see that you have some serious competition when it comes to rookie mistakes!

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Dilution is the solution to pollution. If you have soil that will drain well enough, and you didn’t add TOO much gas to your poor bush, you might want to try watering it excessively for a few days and see what happens. It will probably be very sad but might be able to make it. At least gasoline tends to evaporate quickly, right?

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It was about a quart of gasoline and mostly on one half of the bush. I am hoping at least one side of the bush survives. I guess time will tell.

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A few years ago I was spraying the fence line around my orchard area. Don’t remember what with, 2,4-d or glyphosate or something. It’s a constant battle with the weeds around here… Anyway, just as the sprayer wand went across a plant thoroughly drenching it, I realized it was Ginseng (good sized 4-prong, never knew it was there). I quickly ran back to the house, filled a gallon jug with water, returned and doused and wiped off the leaves. It lived and was basically none the worse for wear. So yeah, good one @disc4tw, dilution is the solution…

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Well, it now appears the Boreal Beauty honeyberry bush is now a Boreal Ugly. The gasoline did it in, although the thistle growing in it was still alive at my last visit at my orchard. :frowning:

its late in the season. wait till next spring. it might pop back to life.

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It probably will do fine.

I have about 40 honeyberry bushes. The others still have greenish leaves, but the one with the gasoline is dry and brown. Not holding my breath on it. A sad sight.

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