Unpopular opinion: pruning shears need a sharpening more often than you think

I killed half my rose bushes last year because I kept using dull shears... the cuts were ragged and the branches just rotted right at the cut point. My neighbor who runs a nursery told me after three seasons I should have been sharpening every couple weeks during peak growth. So I finally grabbed a diamond file from the hardware store last spring and started honing the edge every Sunday morning. Night and day difference. The cuts heal clean and the bushes are exploding with blooms this year. Has anyone else noticed a big change after they started sharpening more often?

2 comments

2 Comments

alicecooper1d ago

And they make way cleaner cuts which keeps plants from getting sick.

stone.simon1d ago

I'm not so sure it's that big of a deal honestly. I mean yeah a clean cut is better than a ragged one but I've hacked at stuff with dull pruners and the plant was fine. Plants are tougher than we give them credit for. Unless you're like really digging into a wound with a dirty saw I think most cuts heal up just fine on their own. Plus half the time my "clean" cut is already a mess from the branch being weird. Feels like one of those things that sounds important but in practice it barely matters.