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Fruit & Orchards

Lime Sulfur Respiration?

10 years ago

What kind of respirators are you using when mixing and applying lime sulfur? I just bought some and am paranoid from all the warnings and reports of suicide. The TC21C respirators that I see recommended by OSHA I are $800+

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Comments (11)

ericwi
10 years ago
Lime sulfur is also known as calcium pentasulfide. It is caustic, and will burn exposed skin. Eye protection is indicated. The solution is an insecticide and also a fungicide. The solution is also damaging to foliage. I have never used this on our blueberry shrubs. However, if I did, I would be spraying on a breezy day, and I would be staying upwind at all times.
steve_in_los_osos
10 years ago
First, don't spray on a breezy day.

The rest depends on how much you are spraying and how. You need to wear a long-sleeved shirt (something you don't care about if you are going to be spraying a lot) and pants, old shoes. Goggles would be a plus. Any ordinary respirator mask should be fine unless you find yourself engulfed in clouds of spray in the middle of a large tree. The key is to not spray willy-nilly in every direction. A sprayer with a somewhat coarse output would be better than a fine one. If your trees are not large and/or you have the patience, consider a manual hand sprayer (which is what I use). You have more control over it and can focus the smaller spray where you want it.

Don't panic. People have been using lime-sulfur for many, many years and--not that I'm suggesting it--with probably less protection than we now expect. Your eyes are the most important thing to protect, followed by your lungs. The rest you can wash off.

That said, I've used lime-sulfur for years on a small scale (always with a hand sprayer) and have never used any kind of mask. YMMV.
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Milehigh, I agree w/ Scott. One oil spray at delayed dormant would be the most you'd need and I would only spray it if you've observed something you need to treat. I typically don't see scale, any serious aphid attacks, pear psylla, or other small insects that need oil treatment. Sometimes I've used oil as a sticker for a dormant copper spray on peaches. I also use oil on pears before bud break to take care of pear blister mite, but other than that it's not needed here in the dormant season. I have sprayed it during the growing season to take care of some mites on apples, but that's not needed very often. We have plenty of insects here, just not that many that can be treated by oil. I'm not sure what you plan to treat w/ copper at petal fall. If it's for fireblight, copper is generally used before bloom. Copper is sometimes used on peaches (in small doses) to reduce bacterial spot, but you probably don't see much of that in CO. It sounds like the only problems you've observed are a little fireblight, and Codling moth, and possibly peach leaf curl. I'm not surprised. For codling moth, an insecticide early in the season and later in the season will take care of both generations. Since you've only experienced a little fireblight, I wouldn't do anything for it. I see a little fireblight in my pears all the time and never do anything about it. I've seen it kill a mature pear tree in the neighborhood and once it infected a Red Bartlett of mine so badly that I had to do some major pruning, but for me it's not been bad enough to justify any routine precautionary sprays. You're really in a climate that doesn't have many disease or insect pests because there is no humidity and not all that much rain. It's been many years since I've been to Denver, but I was near Colorado Springs a few years ago. The air was so dry it hurt my sinuses. It was miserable air to breathe. I suspect Denver is the same. I can see why your state voted for cannabis. I'd probably smoke it too if I had to breathe that dry air constantly. It's a beautiful state and some nice folks, but I was glad to get out of that air. Bad to breathe but good for insect and disease control. I'd count yourself lucky from an insect and disease stand point and just focus on keeping yourself warm this winter.
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Reilly, When I spray LS in January, it's followed by multiple rains. The LS residue stays on the canes into April. So I think your spraying was well timed. Some fields here have standing water, but some of the ponds that dried up didn't hold water and there was plenty of water to hold. At least the ground water has to have been helped by this deluge. Ann
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I should be clear. I don't think lime sulfur caused my asthma. But now that I have it, I'm supposed to wear a respirator to spray anything, regardless of the label. I haven't done a lot of spraying, and I surely won't be doing much more. A respirator is a pain, not to mention the reaction from the neighbors... Lime Sulfur is as dangerous as other materials with a DANGER label. Many of us, I include myself here, were under the impression that because it is considered "organic" it is benign. Far from it. Like most fungicides, the real danger is the concentrate and exposure when mixing. It has a real tendency to splatter. It always splatters when you've taken off your gloves and goggles to read the label and mix it. It also stains very badly - - don't get it on anything metal or on your garden lights or paths or walls or your house - - and it is absorbed through the lungs and skin. So you must wear protective equipment. This is not the stuff to be cavalier about. There's something to be said for spending a few bucks to buy a margin of safety. But then I also wear sunscreen... OTOH, it has some virtures. It does stick rather well. Notice also that it is labeled for scale and mites. So combined with oil you hit them with a double whammy. One last thing. I suspect, but don't know for sure, that it is hard to keep in suspension in the sprayer and that it sometimes burns the canes. That's a rough one here because of the possibility of sunburn and/or salt spray damage. Here is a link that might be useful: typical lime sulfur label
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I bought both 1 lb of lime and sulfur on ebay for $5 each plus shipping $5. It was excellent grade. Both were in very fine powder form. Mixing was very easy both dry and in boiling water. After 10 minutes it started smelling rotten egg. Since it was in the open yard I could hardly notice that. It did spray well in the beginning but at the end it started clogging. I must have sprayed a gallon of diluted stuff. I have around 30 fruit trees. Peaches, apples and pears require full cover of the plant with the spray. I also spray small blueberry bushes at the ground so that the rabbits don't bite the twigs because of the smell so also for other tree trunks. Last year I made the Bordeaux mixture which is much easier to make and gives very good results but for peaches I still had PLC hence the lime-sulfur spray this time.
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superpoutyduck
Original Author
10 years ago
Thanks for the input gang. It's for pear blister mites, none of the other dormant oils have been effective. I read Scott and some others say they had great success with Lime Sulfer. The trees are small (under 7 feet), and there are only about two dozen. I will get a normal particulate respirator and some good goggles, and make sure not to spray on a windy day. I will be using a hand pump sprayer.
sharppa
10 years ago
I just sprayed it on my Asian Pear for the first time also for pear blister mites. The tree is still mostly dormant. The stuff smells like rotten eggs and my clothes afterwards had a slight odor. I used a paint/pesticide respirator plus some goggles. I want to get some sort of full face shield soon to protect my whole face and hopefully prevent fogging in the goggles. I'm sure I got a bit of the spray on me but my skin has not melted off yet.

Weird crazy scary label on that stuff compared to others. "Fatal when absorbed through skin" is a new one for me.
jstubbs_gw
10 years ago
As a side note, this seems very difficult to locate as it doesn't seem to be manufactured anymore.
superpoutyduck
Original Author
10 years ago
Sharppa, glad to see I'm not the only one who got a little bug eyed by it!

Jstubbs, it is, just a bit harder to find since so many people kill themselves with it they tried to eliminate it.
jtburton
10 years ago
This was posted on the forum before and it is a good read on lime sulfur (or calcium polysulfide).

Here is a link that might be useful: EPA Review of Calcium Polysulfide (Lime Sulfur)
steve_in_los_osos
10 years ago
Just to point out that lime-sulfur is used as a veterinary "pet-dip" (yes, Fido and Fifi get bathed with the stuff) for some skin conditions, so keep things in perspective.

If you are having trouble finding it (I can't get it here in CA), try an on-line pet supply vendor. That's what I did.
superpoutyduck
Original Author
10 years ago
Steve, you can get it in CA. I live in CA and ordered it from groworganic.com which is also in CA.
steve_in_los_osos
10 years ago
The last time I checked their catalog they had some sort of restriction on it. I'm just a lowly home grower. I don't have any special permits. Guess I should look again!
steve_in_los_osos
10 years ago
The last time I checked their catalog they had some sort of restriction on it. I'm just a lowly home grower. I don't have any special permits. Guess I should look again!
....

Oh yeah....close reading shows its commercial orchards that need pesticide# and Nevada County (CA) residents that can't order it.

But 2.5 gallons.... I'd just never use it up fast enough to justify the cost. It doesn't keep very well. From the vet supply I can get a 16 oz bottle for much less. That lasts me two seasons.

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