I have a bucket of diluted bleach that I dip my shears, etc in.

Generally you should put them over an open flame until they are red hot, then cool with alcohol wipes. I think you can get alcohol burners from science supply places for pretty cheap.

I love my plants and don't want to spread disease but there's no way on God's green earth that I'm going to flame my shears between each cut! lol I've been using the bleach solution for over 20 years and have never had a problem.

If you don't have any virused plants in your collection then I wouldn't think you would even need to sterilize.

I do have virused plants. So, I do sterilize between the virused plants and the virus-free ones.

That makes sense but from your post you made it sound like you should flame the shears between all cuts. I know you have a number of plants and I was thinking that it must take you a very long time. lol

Each time you heat them to red hot and then cool quickly with alcohol wipes you are changing the temper of the metal. Bleaching is fine and much easier and doesn't hurt the metal.

roflmao Karyn. I had this picture pop in my mind with you having a flamethrower container somehow strapped on your back and then you just give the flame thrower a quick push each time you work on a new plant while walking through your GH and Garden lol

I am watching to many movies rofl

On a serious note I can not even do that bleach thing because I am not willing to stick my fingers in bleach each time I go to the next plant while walking through the yard and checking on the plants. Still using my nails to clip...of course just the leaves. The nails are strong but not THAT strong and sharp to do a cutting roflmao

Lucy

Karyn,

I understand. I was just saying that flaming and wiping with alcohol is general procedure in the lab for sterilizing. I figure this is a good way for Brugs too.

Of course I forgot that you guys and girls keep 10's or even 100's of Brugs. It works for me because I don't even keep 15.

I am sure your bleach method works well. How long do you soak the pruners for in between plants? I thought I heard somewhere it takes about 7 minutes for bleach to kill stuff. I am too lazy to look it up, LOL.

Thanks.

I was under the impression that you kept a large number of plants. I had the same visual as Lucy. lol In order to properly disinfect items they probably should be left in a bleach solution for several minutes, at least, but I never do. I just dip for a few seconds and wipe. So far so good and any plants (not just brugs) that look questionable usually go in a trash bag anyway. Labs, especially microbiology labs, usually use an autoclave for sterilization nowadays. It's easier, safer and more effective, though it is more time consuming.

The friction from wiping is aiding the bleach in cleaning. I clean mine with wipes that have alcohol and chlorhexidene on them. That is what the hospital uses now for injection sites instead of plain alcohol. I always forget to empty my pockets when I leave work so I usually have some around.

Mary