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Horticultural Oil Sprays - Homemade or Store Bought

6 years ago

Here in central North Carolina, I am spraying my apple trees at this time of year. I have not sprayed my roses in past winters and plan to do this task this year. I was looking at some homemade horticultural oil recipes [winter/summer] presently and have used them in past years. Do you have a horticultural oil spray recipe you have mixed up for your roses/fruit trees?

Expanding on Cori Ann's thread here:

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/4386061/first-time-spraying-horticultural-oils-help-me-out?n=40

Patty

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Comments (2)

Cori Ann - H0uzz violated my privacy
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
Hi Patty! There’s lots of experts who will weigh in here, but I just wanted to say that it may be a good idea, especially your first time, to stay away from homemade and go towards light, pre-formulated horticultural oil. I would also dilute it to half the strength (of the recommendations in the directions) so you can see how your roses react. The last thing you want to do is damage your roses by adding too much of one ingredient in a homemade mixture. The preformulated oils have impurities and compounds removed. Impurities and compounds like sulfur or nitrogen with the oil can cause plant damage. This is a good link from the Colorado Ext garden service: http://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/insects/insect-control-horticultural-oils-5-569/

I would go with something simple at first. A simple type of horticultural oil with no extra additions, and very dilute, so you can see what happens with just that.

Also, just a note, my Teas and China’s didn’t seem to like it. I may need to be better about keeping the oil away from them this year.
patty57 thanked Cori Ann - H0uzz violated my privacy
nikthegreek
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
You can't make a light evaporating parafin based oil that will not hurt your plants when not dormant in your home unless you have a mini oil refinery in your basement. For cold climate winters on dormant decidous plants lots of things can be used; I would use limesulphur.
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Hi Jane, Oh yes, what a mess it was! Oh no, not to worry, don't feel bad Jane. It's really my own fault. Even if I didn't get a response on this forum yet, I'm sure I would have used the first recipe anyway. From what you said, I used a ton more veggie oil than I should have and should have known better then to use soooo much. I used 1 cup in a spay bottle, mixed with 2 c of water, some dish soap and I threw in a decent gulp of rubbing alcohol, then shook it up real good. The bottle had to be constantly shaken while spraying because the oil kept separating. It was a very DUMB move on my part! I then hung the plants down in the basement (no carpet) so they had a place to drip and they did, just s little. Anyway, everything is all better know, plants are washed down, and the sprayer, well, that took a little more cleaning but, it's clean. I don't think anything on the plants survived all that oil. It was like the gulf oil spill and the valdez all over again in my sink! lol. First oil mix attemp... Live and learn! Billy Rae
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kquat, Horticultural oil is the broad term to include oils that are sprayed on plants and trees no matter what time of year it's used. There is a difference in the sprays that are used after the bud begins to emerge in the spring and the oil sprays that are used when a tree goes dormant. The insect has to be covered with the oil to do any good, and the oil does not remain on the tree as a protectant. I believe that a label would precaution using an oil on a tree if freezing temperatures are a possibilty. You know not to spray oil on your trees if the temperatures will get to 80 degrees F. I mixed canola oil with water and soap on some trees (including citrus)and even though it was in the cool of the morning, the temperatures went up and one of my citrus ended up loosing all its leaves. I only sprayed the one that had Cottony Cushion scale on it. The leaves grew back and the tree was prettier than ever. Maybe I should do that to all my trees -- think? At least the Leafminers would take off. Neem oil is not the same at all. Brass
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Well, I coundn't find anything on the net about using horticultural oil to deter thrips. There's a web site I didn't check though, Sacramento Rose ? something. I can't remember exactly what it was but it seems to me like they had a lot of stuff about diseases and pests on roses. I used it several years ago to identify some problems I was having with my roses when I was first starting out. And like almost everything else you need to find out about these days, the answer is somewhere on the web. But on the off chance that you don't find anything about using oil for thrips, maybe you could test it out on your roses and then let us all know how successful you were. As organic cures go, I know this group is usually gng ho for anything that's quick, easy, and organic. Cheryl
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I'd always reach for the dedicated horticultural item. Manufacturers of household items routinely switch formulations depending on what supply is cheaper. Horticultural applications will be the same from one jug to the next and from one year to the next-unless specifically spelled out. Just a s Dawn for Dishes might work just as well as the actual insecticidal soap, it might not and could cause phytotoxicity-damage to the very plant(s) you're trying to protect. I'd strongly urge you to only use actual horticultural products. +om
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