Apple trees and dormant oil spray

Discussion in 'Fruit and Nut Trees' started by Alison, Mar 18, 2004.

  1. Alison

    Alison Active Member

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    Location:
    Vancouver
    What is the defining moment that makes it too late to apply dormant oil spray to an apple tree? I live in East Vancouver.
     
  2. mr.shep

    mr.shep Well-Known Member 10 Years

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    Location:
    San Joaquin Valley, California
    Hi Alison:

    Sorry for the lateness of this response. For your
    area there may be spray restrictions that I do not
    know about that do not affect us as much here.

    To my knowledge the only real defining moment
    as to how late a dormant oil can be applied to most
    Fruit Trees is around 6-8 weeks before harvest. The
    main area of concern is not so much the dormant oil,
    it is what we mix in with the dormant oil which will
    then have some definite, defining relevance.

    As far as Apple trees, dormant oil can be used up to
    6-8 weeks before harvest but honestly there is no real
    need to use a dormant oil late in the growing season
    unless we want to mix in an insecticide, perhaps a
    specific growth regulator and even that late in the
    season I will not use an insecticide at all on our Apples.
    In all of my years of growing Apples, I've never once
    used a growth regulator spray for the fruit.

    Sound cultural practices and dormant oil sprays after
    leaf fall (if needed) and one perhaps two applications
    prior to the popcorn stage of bloom are usually good
    enough (for us) unless we want to use the dormant oil
    as a mixing and better covering agent than water with
    another spray such as a fungicide or an insecticide. In
    our growing operation we never use a dormant oil by
    itself. We always mix in our Copper or Calcium based
    fungicides with the dormant oil. The primary purpose
    of a dormant oil used as a dormant season standalone
    spray would be to cover overwintering aphid and select
    mite eggs to prevent them from hatching, and to cover
    over any residual remnants of scale insects.

    Jim
     

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