| I take more of a pragmatic approach to the need to sterilize tools. If you have just a few run of the mill hybrid plants and have no intention of obtaining a large collection the need to sterilize is probably not that important (some on this forum would disagree with even this statement). You go to separate your first orchid of a small collection and your pruning tool has never seen an orchid before it is probably not going to be an issue. I have found that many pruning and separating processes of orchids don't require any pruning/cutting at all, but can be simply pulled apart and/or "snap" apart by bending fresh crisp tissue. On the other hand, the more orchids you obtain and the more you will want to be careful. People with thousands and tens of thousands of dollars and years of their lives invested in plants certainly will tend to be significantly more diligent in being careful - keeping all tools clean and sterile between plant activity. |