I tried the Erath product awhile back and thought it was pretty good for garden applications. I doubt if I used a rate higher than 2 oz/gal and probably used it even weaker. Of course, the product formulations can change from batch to batch, so you'll have to see what you think with the current product. I don't think the viscosity tells much, as TKO seems to me to be similar to water. I remember wondering if the Erath product contained the broader spectrum of orange extract compounds, rather than only emulsified d-limonene. I guess it seemed to me to be a bit more oily and to smell more like orange than straight d-limonene. It could have been the emulsifiers and my olfactory imagination, but if it is more of a raw orange extract, it might be a little oily to use for some types of cleaning. It can be more expensive to refine the d-limonene from the rind extract, so it's conceivable that a garden product could contain the other components. (D-limonene has a citrus aroma, but the linalool and other volatiles round out the full orange aroma.) For the garden, I thought the Erath was fine, as was the Gardenville product. Maybe others can chime in with their experiences with it/them. If you also get the GreenSense d-limonene product, you probably can blend some into the Erath to exploit its emulsifiers. It is hard to gauge the d-limonene content in products, especially commercial cleaning products, but I'm fairly confident that the GreenSense Citrus Oil product is strictly industrial grade d-limonene. It probably contains several % of extract residues/artifacts, but it is as concentrated a d-limonene product as one is likely to find in the ordinary retail channel. For purity and value, I don't think the average garden user can do better than to buy the GreenSense product and to add coconut oil, either the GreenSense product or probably any commercially available coconut oil, as the emulsifier.
GuitarGerber wrote:
Thanks Enzym11 for the detailed answer. But, I now have another question! I found a local distributer of Erath Earth's Orange oil. It appears to me to be a pretty watery product, and I'm wondering if you know anything about it. I am going to test it's solubility when I get home. What worries me is that none of these companies give you any information as to the the concentration of d-limonene. The directions on the bottle of Erath's say to mix 6-8 oz. for a soil drench per gallon. That seems really high to me, and the woman at the nursery said she recommends just 2 oz. What are your thoughts? Thanks again for your reply!
Smiles,
Eric