Dormant oil

[Charles Clear]

What does everyone use for dormant oil? I saw an article with a couple homemade recipes. Think its worth trying??

http://homeguides.sfgate.com/can-make-horticulture-oil-spray-apple-trees-92837.html

 

[chickenlittle]

I just bought a quart of what they had at garden center.

 

[Northbound]

How important is dormant oil? I've never used it. Just sprays during summer

 

[buckvelvet]

I use the Bonide version sold at our local TSC>

 

[Bowsnbucks]

I've read on-line directions and they say to wet ALL surfaces on the tree. How far does a quart of concentrate go ?? We've got 65 newer trees at camp - trying to estimate how much dormant oil concentrate to get.

 

[chickenlittle]

For the Charles original question, dormant oil is primarily used to smother insect eggs. It is a way to get your trees off to a good start and rid yourself of some of last year's residual pest loading. Depending on the formulation, there might be some benefit to various diseases. Neem oil kills the insect eggs and is a fungicide too.

Biggest thing is look at the labels and follow the label. It tells you what it can be sprayed for and when and what no to do. You should not spray the dormant oil when it is below 40F or going to drop below 40F that night. The All Seasons oil tells you not to spray on something that has been sprayed with sulfur.

Bonide's labels
All Seasons -http://www.bonide.com/assets/Products/Labels/l210.pdf
Neem oil - http://www.bonide.com/assets/Products/Labels/l024.pdf

Bonide All Seasons Horticultural and Dormant Oil is mixed at 2.5 to 5 tablespoons/gal water. So a quart would mix into 12.8 to 25.6 gallons of water. Hard to say how many trees that is. You can also buy gallon size from keystone pest solutions - $25/gal or $14/quart

Lots of good information out there from ag extensions, bonide, and others to look through. Look for integrated pest management to learn about pests, diseases, sprays, and other ways to keep your fruit trees happy and healthy. I don't want to spray too much but it is still good information to learn about what could be going wrong with your trees.

 

[Charles Clear]

Awesome, thank you for the info!

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Thanks, Chickenlittle !! We've never used dormant oil, but it looks like a good thing to head off some problems.

 

[Jhoss]

Some say it is the most important spraying you can do. Not sure as when I have gotten lazy and sprayed only dormant oil the pest damage (curculio et. al) was considerable! Last year, I sprayed 3 times dormant oil in the dormant season plus then later Captan and Imidan. The old axiom "no spray, no apples" is as true as where this saying came from. (Bob Marley's, No woman, No cry).

 

[chickenlittle]

You have to look at how snd where pests overwinter. Dormant oil won't affect plum curculio because they don't overwinter on the tree. It is good for scales, mites, aphids.

 

[Appleman]

I guess it varies from region to region. Quite frankly I avoid using dormant oils for a number of reasons. For example ERM (mites) are biologically controlled by the presents of the predatious mite T-Pyra which keeps ERM populations under control. Scale and aphid populations have not exceeded control thresholds where dormant oils are needed. Dormant applications are a challenge and attention must be givin to freezing temperatures and time interval when the start of using captan. I found small plantings do not require using dormant oils and is more common were the use of more aggressive pesticides kill off beneficials that provide natural control. I operate a small commercial orchard using no dorment oil without any problems.

 

[chickenlittle]

Appleman, wouldn't the beneficial T-Pyra be wiped out when you start spraying imidan? Or do you only spray fungicide?

 

[Jhoss]

You have to look at how snd where pests overwinter. Dormant oil won't affect plum curculio because they don't overwinter on the tree. It is good for scales, mites, aphids.

Thats what I was trying to say.