How To Disinfect Gardening Tools

The best way to keep your garden clean and free from pathogens is by cleaning and disinfecting your gardening and horticultural tools. Gardening tools are used for cutting, digging, and removing weeds. Therefore, it is important to disinfect your gardening tools consistently. There are various methods and products available in the market to disinfect your tools. Let us quickly discuss about gardening tools.

Types Of Gardening Tools:

 There are two major types of gardening tools:

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  • Hand Tool
  • Power Tool

Hand Tools:

Hand tools have been used by the gardeners for a long time. Some of these tools are:

  • Hatchet
  • Sickle
  • Pitchfork
  • Spade
  • Shovel
  • Trowel
  • Fork

Power Tool:

One of the most popular power gardening tool is a lawnmower. However, gardeners use many other tools as well. Some of these are: 

  • Cultivators
  • String Trimmers
  • Irrigation Sprinklers
  • Hedge Trimmers
  • Lawn Sweepers
  • Leaf Blowers
  • Chainsaws
  • Mini Tractors

How To Disinfect Gardening Tools:

Disinfection of the gardening tools is one of the best ways to remove pathogens from them and also prevent pathogens spread. Cleaning and disinfecting are very important steps. Cleaning involves the removal of dirt and soil debris from pots and tools.

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The first step of cleaning involves removing dirt and solid debris from tools. This step is crucial as dirt can reduce the activity of disinfectants. You can use various disinfectants for this purpose. Some of these are:

  • Lysol
  • Ethanol
  • Pine Oil Products
  • Trisodium Phosphate
  • Chlorine Bleach
  • Industrial product

Lysol:

It is used as a household and industrial cleaning agent. The active ingredient of Lysol is benzalkonium chloride. The main advantage of this product is that it is easily available in the market. Therefore, you don’t need to struggle hard to find it.

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Moreover, this disinfectant is not much corrosive. However, it is usually expensive as compared to other disinfectants. 

Ethanol:

Ethanol is an organic compound. It is also called ethyl alcohol. It is commonly prepared from corn. It is used as a solvent, preservative, and disinfectant.

One of the advantages of ethanol is that you can use it to wipe your gardening tools and there is no need to rinse the product completely. It is very effective against pathogens.

It is easily available in stores but the disadvantage of this product is that it is highly inflammable. So read the label very carefully before using the product to avoid any harm or emergency.

Pine Oil Product:

Pine oil possesses disinfecting properties. It kills a variety of bacteria and viruses that cause illness. Pine oil products are not much corrosive as compared to other disinfectants. They are used by making a solution (three-part water and one-part pine oil). 

However, the disadvantage of this product is that it is not as effective as compared to other disinfecting products.

Trisodium Phosphate:

It is an inorganic and granular compound. The chemical formula of Trisodium Phosphate is Na3PO4. It is white and crystalline solid. It is used as a cleaning agent as well as a disinfectant. It is not much expensive. However, the disadvantage of this product is it is highly corrosive. It is used in solution form by mixing it with water and soaking the tools in solution for about 3 minutes.

As granules are very corrosive avoid direct contact with the skin during their use. It is commercially used for cleaning surfaces before painting. It is easily available in the market and in hardware shops.

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Chlorine Bleach:

Chlorine is a powerful oxidizer and bleaching agent. It is used for removing stains from clothes and the floor as well. It is used commercially and industrially to remove the color of fabric as well. It is also used as a disinfectant for tools of gardening and horticulture.

 It is very inexpensive and easily available in the market. The solution of chlorine bleach is used as a disinfectant for gardening and horticultural tools. Prepare a solution of chlorine bleach and soak the horticultural tools in it for about 30 minutes and then wash the tools with water.

Industrial Products:

There are different types of disinfectants available on market for the disinfection of gardening and horticultural tools. Several ammonium compounds are also used as disinfectants like q-salt is used to treat and control several fungal and viral pathogens.

Hydrogen dioxide is also available as a disinfecting product for greenhouse surfaces and for tools and types of equipment which is used for gardening and horticulture.

  • Any disease or infection can easily be spread from unhealthy to healthy plants because of dirty pots and tools. Therefore, it is important to keep them clean and disinfect them by using disinfectants available in the market.
  • Before storing any tools and containers, it is important to disinfect them. Therefore, prepare a solution of chlorine bleach and submerge your tools in it for at least 10 minutes. Pour the solution off and dry them with any soft cloth.

Conclusion

Disinfecting gardening tools is a crucial step because if you don’t focus on proper cleaning of pots and gardening tools, it may spread diseases. Therefore, the selection and proper use of disinfectants for the tools is very important and plays a vital role to keep your plants healthy and free from pathogens and plant diseases.

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  • Why should I need to clean my containers and gardening tools?
  • You should clean your gardening tools and containers because they can prevent the spread of disease or infection from unhealthy to healthy plants. Sometimes, tools look pretty clean but they contain pathogens. As pathogens are microscopic, therefore, it is important to clean and disinfect your tools and containers before using the

  • What is the best way to disinfect my gardening tools?
  • The best way to disinfect your gardening tools is to soak them in disinfecting chemicals for about 20 minutes. After soaking pour the chemicals off then dry your tools.

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