Hazard's stuff

Wisteria plant causes brown stains to appear on clothes after washing

— Posted by hazard @ 2007-09-12 15:42
Last few washes we had faced a really weird problem: some clothes would come up with dark-brown permanent stains after treatment in a washing machine. At the same time, majority of other clothes would not have any stains. We were thinking of how this could happen, checked the washing machine, the washing powder, all to no avail. We made test runs with pieces of clothes, but they were always coming up clean.

I turned to Internet. Imagine my surprise when I discovered the following post on the Royal Horticultural Society's forum: "Wisteria Growers Beware. The sap stains your clothes. The stains are invisible until after washing". Aaargh!! This is the vine that we are growing on the entrance!! Turns out that the sap which leaks out while pruning makes a chemical reaction together with the washing powder in hot water. My mother does most of the pruning and her clothes were indeed the most damaged ones.

Hail the Internet - it has saved us a washing machine which we started thinking to replace.