I replied to a question like this yesterday over in the Antique forum.

I have as many roses as you ... too many roses to even think about sterilizing my pruners between each cut. Normal procedure for me is to clean my pruners after I finish each plant. I use 91% isopropyl alcohol in one of those little pocket-sized spray bottles. The only exception to this is if it is a plant that I suspect may have been exposed to RRD, or one that I have removed RRD-type canes from in the past. For those plants, I clean my pruners after each and every cut.

91% alcohol is what's recommended by Virginia Tech for killing bacteria and viruses (like RRD).

I prune 100's of roses each year in my garden, public and private gardens. While I'm a stickler on disinfecting my shears, I use a Lysol disinfecting scrubbing wipe between rose beds. If one bush in a bed is infected with something, more than likely the surrounding bushes will be infected, also. If it's gall then I'll be changing out my gloves AND my pruning shears in addition to disinfecting the shears. Our region doesn't have RRD, blackspot or some of the other pests and diseases you read about on here so disinfecting between cuts or bushes is probably a waste of time and energy for me.

There is a lot of winter kill here. I prune until I get to clean pith then sterilize before my last cut. There is also less spreading of canker when I can work with dry rose bushes.

I have several pruners, all exactly alike. When I see there is a problem with a rose, I put the pruners in hydrogen peroxide for about 5 minutes after I use them, grab the next pair and keep pruning. Several times a week I spray with WD40 to keep them from rusting.

Hmm...I feel guilty. I hope I don't have cause to seriously regret my superficiality on this subject!

That brings me to another question; what about my leather gloves ?
I have never washed them. The thorns go right through my washable garden gloves. Sheesh, one thing leads to another. I should lysol my coat too.

I buy cheap pruners at the Dollar Tree and stock up on them in spring when they offer them. Because they're so cheap I don't mind sterilizing them in fire. I take a handful of them outdoors, do a little pruning, then bring them in and put the blades in the flame of my gas stove. Then cool them off in water. I prune one to three plants then sterilize. Sometimes I use some alcohol but read somewhere that it doesn't kill viruses. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. I had a case of RRD here quite a few years ago, and have had a handful of cases since. Not many! I live in town, not the country, for one thing. I'm about to spray dormant oil thinking that it might help keep mite populations down. I have read conflicting opinions about whether pruners can spread RRD. One researcher at a university thought it was possible. By the way, the cheap pruners from the Dollar Tree are sharp, have a good spring action and are lightweight. Now and then I'll get one that jams but overall I like them.

mudpie, Your question makes me smile. Yes, most bacteria that can spread thru pruning can also spread by touch. While out there pruning and sterilizing. I looked at my hands one day and thought this is crazy look at my gloves. I certainly don't have enough gloves to change between cuts. I used to try changing into a fresh pair for the final cut. But sooner or later I forget to change back before moving on. :-)

I, on the other hand, don't sterilize my pruners. But then we don't usually get diseases here. Although I do sterilize after I prune out canker. Then I use Lysol.

Carol

I thought about sterilizing pruners once in a while, I have a few of them, about 6-8 pruners but I have never done that. I am always in the hurry, try to get things done before dark (after work), don't have time to stop and go. I think this year I'd try use both hands, two pruners at once to speed up the deadheading process. :-) I think it's doable.

Ha!! Edward Scissor Hand!!!

about the comment on the leather gloves, I have my gauntlet gloves also that I don't wash as they will shrink, so I just soak a wet rag in the hydrogen peroxide, put the gloves on and wipe well, not soak. works for me so far.

When I first started out I did all this sterilizing and sealing the cuts etc. but I haven't done that for years. Now I just go for it. I haven't noticed any more or less disease in my roses. I rarely wear gloves but when I do they're my old, ratty, filthy, comfortable ones!

I have 2 pairs of HD leather garden gloves and 2 pairs of bee keeper's goat leather long sleeves gloves. I love the bee keeper's gloves in the summer months, they protect hands and arms from the thorns. :-)

Seil, Leather New (Farnam) can make old leather soft and new again. :-)

I've been doing a little reading about sterilizing pruners. Sounds like alcohol is pretty good after all but might not work on all viruses. If you get a lot of gunk on your pruners the alcohol might not get to any viruses within the gunk. I just err on the side of caution. The lightweight cheap pruners I use a lot are only good for pencil size canes and smaller. I have heavier duty ones for thick canes. I don't do everything recommended in my garden...just don't have time to seal every cut, rake up every leaf, etc. One thing about alcohol hand sanitizers..I keep a pump bottle in my car and use it after shopping. Haven't had a cold in two or three years.

That's a good idea about the hand sanitizers and not getting sick.

Carol

it was the main thing I went to the store to get and forgot the alcohol.

I couldn't stand to wait any longer, so the clippers got a stout swig of Listerine. Hope the roses liked it -unfortunately they had to settle for original instead of cool mint.

If you are interested in virus cleaning, you may find the article of interest:

http://virologyj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12985-014-0237-5

Chlorox bleach. Sounds good!!

Carol

I use Lysol wipes. I have even wiped a canker that has started on an upper portion of a cane. Either with a wipe or a little beach on a paper towel. Keeps it from spreading then I keep an eye on it. If it becomes active again, wipe with bleach. It usually dries the canker up.

Get outta town!!! I never thought of using bleach on a cankered cane. I've got to try that next time!!

Carol

Bleach is bad for your skin and clothes you're wearing.......many no no no......baby diaper wipes for pruners I say! Baby power! :-)

CAROL, I've done that with new plants that don't always arrival in tip top shape. Young bands especially can't afford too lose any cane. I do it on older plants as well. It doesn't always work. But if the cankered spot is smallish It well often dry up.

Patty, maybe I will try that on this band, just a little dab.

Really good tip, Patty. Jasminerose4u - let us know if it works!

carol

Will do :-)

well, I'm feeling better about my own happy-go-lucky attitude @ sterilizing pruners: Fact is, I always have so much to do, both on my garden project and elsewhere, that I find it hard to get the pruning done at all, and the sterilizing/sealing cuts just sends it over the top. Not to mention that I'm a distracted sort of person...

I DO seal off really major cuts,like ones I have to do with a saw. I started using wax, as I think Kim suggested.As for the disinfecting, well, bleach does rust the pruners. I was under the distinct impression that alcohol is not an adequate disinfectant. I don't think they have Lysol wipes here in Italy, but they DO have baby wipes,which, if they indeed do disinfect, would be a great alternative.It is very impractical for me to carry a jar of bleach or disinfectant around the garden; eventually I always seem to knock it over and spill it, etc.

I definitely want to try that bleach-on-a-"sick"-cane trick. In the past I've done some real damage on plants, by paranoically pruning out anything that I suspected might be "canker". Now that I have more experience, looking back, I think I may have done more harm than good. For example, in the photo posted by jasminerose, that plant only has the two canes, plus a stump. If one took out the cane with the dark spot on it, the plant would probably be severely weakened! and that darkish stuff may well not spread anywhere at all! So even if the bleach doesn't get rid of that spot, I think I'd probably leave the rose alone. Aside from that spot, the cane looks basically healthy, with nice fat bud eyes on it. With a little luck, it'll just start growing happily and then, once it's put on some real bulk, if that cane still bothered me, maybe THEN I'd cut it out.

Thank you, Bart. I agree. The "cane" on the right is really a short, insignificant twigy growth. Other than the dab of bleach on the spot, I'm leaving the band alone and hoping for a basal break this spring.

Jasmine, If the spot doesn't dry up dab it again the following day. I really truly have stopped active canker from spreading this way.

Bart the best Lysol wipes are also anti viral as well as a bactericide. They changed many diaper wipes over here taking the alcohol out.Without the alcohol they don't disinfect. Haven't checked in a while to see if you can the disinfecting wipes anymore.