Sterilizing saws

[Al Smith]

It had to be close to 20 years ago after two very wet years we had an outbreak of a spruce canker .Following the advice of the Ohio dept.of forestry I used bleach and water .Most of what I pruned lived but some were too far gone .Spruce is not native to this area and a local golf course lost over 200 trees .Spruce is a mountain tree not really suitable to the rich organtic soils of NW Ohio which is flat land and doesn't drain very well

 

[davidwyby]

What do the professionals say?

I can understand the reasoning behind it. Better to play it safe, I suppose.

I don’t know of any. I mean…there are lots of guys doing it for a profession, but I know of none educated…hence the customer complaints. We have a kind of yard tree tree locally called Indian laurel, kind of ficus maybe, they get some kind of canker or rot and half the tree dies. Something killed almost all the Aleppo/Monterey pines and it was blamed on pruning tools. I removed some myself and don’t notice a lot of bug holes but wasn’t looking. Sometimes it is blamed for eucalyptus problems too - but that could also be excessive pruning at the wrong time. Tree work around here would curl most of you pros hair. I just like to remove them when they have to be removed….love trees otherwise, maybe someday I’ll get into tree health.

 

[Bermy]

I sterilize tools when pruning fruit and cypress hedges. 10% bleach in a spray bottle.

 

[Mellow]

We have a few regular clients who insist on it for their palms. I use isopropyl alcohol.