Decontaminating Tools of Japanese Knotweed

I've been doing some work in a garden, clearing it of saplings, weeds and rubbish, plus piles of Japweed stems from years before and burning it where it grows as it's just bare soil (they had been burning it on a slabbed patio next to the house (are they insane!). I even found some a sizeable chunk of it's distinctive root on there but it had perished.

My question is, although I did not dig up any knotweed as this would be futile, my spades, forks, shovel etc feel somewhat contaminated. I sprayed them with a VERY strong solution of Domestos and gave them a good soaking and brushing, I'm still worried that almost microscopic traces could still be on them, if they came into any contact with the rhizomes.

What else would you recommend doing to clean them.... maybe spray them with neat Clinic Ace? I can afford to bin them and buy a whole new set. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Its a plant, it cant grow from single cells unless in a laboratory.

 

I've heard that almost microscopic traces of root (at least not visible to the naked eye) can be transferred to other areas, such as on peoples' boots etc.

Maybe I'm being paranoid but I'm just concerned about it appearing in clients' gardens and getting the blame for it.

 

I think you've done all that's necessary Mowerman. I'm sure there will be no re-growth. If it makes you feel better though you could spray them with Round-Up, leave them for a couple of days and then give them a good wash to remove the Round-Up.

 

Or put them in a fire for a few mins to burn off all traces of infection.

 

I thought that Wee Tam but then thought it may damage the covering on handles etc. There's no point in only 'firing' the parts that are used.

 

This is not possible, Fallopia japonica is not a virus or bacteria it's a plant... what you've said sounds like something a salesman would say to scare you into using their expensive professional service.

Yes technically in a laboratory setting you could use tissue culture to grow the plant from small amounts of meristem but even then they don't use single cells as it would not be a very good success rate even with ideal conditions.

Simply cleaning your tools with a brush and soapy water to clean them is more than enough you only need to remove visible detritus which might be hiding small pieces of root, using stronger chemicals is unnecessary and over time will ruin your tools.

Just stick to spraying the plant with weed killer and continually removing new growth

 

Thanks for your advice guys. I'll use some strong weedkiller and leave for a few days and wash it off.

I did the fire trick on the last visit but only the metal parts otherwise the handles would've got burnt and with all the crap I handled in that garden, they're as likely to have small fragments on as the metal parts. I've binned the boots as they were knackered anyway but gave them the same treatment as the tools before leaving.

Just have to scrub my vehicle out now. Thank God I don't have to go back to that place again. Japweed, horsetails and a solitary plant I suspect is Giant hogweed has started to grow. Last years 12ft dried up stem was cut down and burned on the last visit and this plant ticks all the boxes for what I think it could be, now that new leaves have appeared. They only need Ground Elder and Creeping Cinquefoil to have a garden planted by the Devil himself.

 

Last years giant hog weed plant would have shed thousands of seed before you burnt the part that was dead anyway.

 

Well none of them seem to have broken through the surrounding dormant couch grass that's all keeled over but time will tell. I hope for their sake it isn't what it looks like.