You know -- the idea is to KILL something.

Out here in CA, we could use Neem Oil at a dormant-spray concentration -- that only carries a CAUTION label.
But whether it would be effective for your conditions, I do not know.

Jeri

What are you spraying for? Very targeted, more safe, often expensive fungicides do exist, and they are far more benign than lime sulfur. Go to a specialty site used by exhibitors, like Rosemania, and get an education.

If it's still cool, horticultural oil can go a long way with pests. I am no fan of insecticides, both because I want no personal exposure to organophosphates and I don't want to target carnivorous insect that will help me out controlling the herbivorous bugs eating my roses. I know lime sulfur is recommended generally as a pesticide, and I think it does have some effect. But I think you can get a lot of the benefits by using just horticultural oil without the lime sulfur.

Here is a link that might be useful: Danger, warning, caution

Thanks, berndoodle, for the advice. My roses are already leafing out, so a dormant spray is out for this year. I know there will have to be some degree of toxicity in a product to be effective---I'm just looking to use the ones that are the least harmful to me, my pets, and my planet.

Lime sulfur might be acutely toxic to some organisms, but it consists of and degrades into mere calcium and sulfur; chances are good to very good that many of the chemically complex products that might seem safer on the surface could have farther-reaching and longer-lasting effects in the environment - so compare them carefully! Personally, I'm scared to death of most fungicides, but I'd happily use the lime sulfur, being careful not to breathe it or get it on my skin. Oh, and don't spray it on bees or other beneficials. :)

And it's toxic to aquatic organisms. I'm in frog habitat - the place is teeming with them, so I won't use it. Actually, I haven't found a super-effective fungicide that don't harm aquatic organisms.

It depends what you're trying to kill. I have only ever used lime sulfur as a dormant spray. It is a fungicide, not an insecticide. Actually I would not use one of the all-purpose insecticide-fungicide combination. They are pretty nasty stuff in my opinion. Even the smell of them makes me feel ill.

Sulfur is very good specifically for rust, and has some effect on powdery mildew and blackspot. I don't think it has much if any effect on anthracnose. So if it is rust you are trying to combat, sulfur is probably the best organic treatment. If it is powdery mildew, you could consider Cornell formula which is based on baking soda. If you have blackspot or anthracnose you might want to consider one of the milder copper soap fungicides. They have less copper than the standard copper fungicides, and so are less toxic.

Plain sulfur is supposed to be quite a bit less toxic than lime sulfur, by the way. I used to use lime sulfur as a second dormant spray but stopped a couple of years ago, and now would use only the plain sulfur if I want sulfur. It is available under the brand name 'Safer'.

What pests/disease are you trying to prevent?

Spraying anything for JBs or chafers won't do a thing right now.

I use Bayer fungicide for bs, but haven't seen rust here yet. Powdery mildew is negligible.

You don't have thrips, do you?

Just curious, from one Mainer to another.

Veilchen---I had major problems with black spot last year and hoped that lime sulfur would control it early on. However, the warnings on the label really scared me since I have pets, frogs, birds, and grandchildren :) Haven't seen thrips, although I have been plagued with Japanese beetles for the past 5 or 6 years. I have almost all once-bloomers. Last year I was lucky--the bloom season was pretty well over before the beetles arrived.