It's Spring! Time to Oil Up

hi guys it's April and I'm out in my orchard right now and one of the first things that we do for pest management is to use oils and we'll talk a little bit about why in a minute but when I used to work for MSU Extension and I'm currently retired I used to ask people why they apply dormant oils because they would come in and discuss how to handle their orchards and they'd say oh I already put on my doormat oil and then I would ask him well why and they really didn't have any idea so I thought it was important that we make this video first of all let's talk about what oils are they're highly refined petroleum products usually paraffinic oils or they could be mineral oils and they're very low in sulfur and they can also be made from certain vegetables oils like cotton seeds for instance and they also contain surfactants or emulsifiers that allow them to be mixed with water and we classify them in different groups first of all we have the dormant oils then we have the superior oils then we have the summer oils now they're classified based on the viscosity or their thickness and how highly refined they are now a true dormant oil can only be applied before the buds break and a superior oil is more highly refined lower in sulfur content and that can be applied later in the growing season up to what we call paint tip on apples then we have the superior oils they're also called horticultural ultrafine or summer oils these oils are so highly refined that they can be applied during the growing season as long as it's not too hot and humid outside without causing any kind of damage to the plants now the purpose of using oils is to kill certain insects that overwinter on the plant such as San Jose scale or are certain spider mites like the red European mite now if you happen to have a problem with the - spotted light then it will not work to use an oil because they overwinter on the ground in leaf debris now if you don't know how to tell the difference one of the things you can do when you have mites on your tree is to shake some leaves on a white sheet of paper and then just rub your hand across it if it shows a little red smears and you know that's ready European Mike or if it doesn't and that's probably too spotted Mike if you have a microscope a dissecting scope you can look at them and they're ready european mites are red and the two spotted mites have two spots on it so it's fairly easy to identify them they have eight legs they are more closely related to spiders and they are insects and when numbers get large it can cause some problems on on your plants which we can talk about a little bit later now if you do not have any evidence of these problems then you can save some money and not treat what you should do is monitor and keep an eye open for evidence or signs of these insects and San Jose scale has some fairly significant damage when it gets on the fruit it causes some red spots on the fruit but you need a hand lens in order to see them on the trunk because they're extremely small and they look like little tiny volcanoes if you will so the next question you might have is how do these oils work well when you mix the oils with water and spray them on the tree it coats whatever overwintering stage that insect happens to be in like an egg or something else and they're not able to pick up oxygen and they simply smother or suffocate also the oils can penetrate into the cells through the cuticle layer and disrupt cell function and they can die that way also but in order for these oils to work proper timing and application is very important for instance the day temperatures should exceed at least 40 degrees and you don't expect freezing temperatures for at least two consecutive days otherwise you might end up having some damage on your plants in Michigan our window is usually about mid to late April for areas south your window will occur a little bit earlier now depending on where you are in the growth stage of the plant will determine what type of oil you can use the more you get into growth the more you have to use a very highly refined oil also another note that you need to remember that when you use an oil you should not use any fungicides for disease control that contain sulfur and if you do that the combination of the two will cause the formation of sulfuric acid and will cause some damage on your plants also it's a good idea to choose a day when it's not very windy I prefer to go out early in the morning or in the evening when the winds are at their lowest and it's important that you also select to date when you're not expecting rain because you don't want it washed off right away now it's also very important to get complete coverage this is where you soak the tree down and leave no part wet you want to get the upper parts of the branches lower parts of the branches the trunk every little crevice on the tree because if you miss just one overwintering female that can lead to hundreds of eggs and you will start to have more problems over time as they start to build up again now if you do miss them all is not lost the next time to treat them is when the crawler stages out and these are the little babies that have legs they find a place to settle down they insert a stylet into the trunk of the tree and suck the juices out of the and when the trees get large enough or I should say the populations get large enough then they can start having some effect on your your quality of your fruit and possibly the tree if it gets to be out of control if you're not sure when the crawlers are out you can check with your local University Extension educator to find out when is the best time to spray now there is some good news about these guys first of all when you use oils they're not likely to be able to develop any resistance to the material and the oils are also very low in toxicity to non-target organisms and those organisms might include things like beneficial insects birds that might be coming and going in your orchard and also pets and humans themselves but in terms of safety you always should read the label for instructions as to how to make your applications the rate that you should use and also any safety equipment that is necessary for you to use some of you might be wondering how much does it cost to apply an oil well you can get a gallon of that material for about twenty dollars I bought some just a couple of days ago and that's before taxes and you use only three ounces per gallon of water so one container can make close to 40 gallons and for most people with their home workers that's more than enough and it can be stored for quite some time it's not going to break down on you so it's a good buy now you may not completely eliminate the pests when you use oils but you can knock the numbers down to a point that they're so insignificant that you won't see any any extent of damage on your fruits and it's it's well worth it because it's it's the first insecticide that we put on during the season and it can cut down on some of the applications of other materials a little bit later and since it's rather benign compared to some of the other insecticides I was strongly recommended if you need it I'll see you in my next video I hope you enjoyed this video and subscribe if you like it have a nice day this is Gary Haile

Channel: Get Growing with Gary Heilig

Views: 52,370

Rating: 4.9351535 out of 5

Keywords: Gary Heilig, Gary L. Heilig, Michigan State University, home gardening, When to apply dormant oils, what are dormant oils, How to use dormant oils, Tips on how to use dormant oils on fruit trees, Dont apply dormant oils till you see this, fruit tree care, how to prevent scale problems on fruit trees, spraying fruit trees with dormant oils, when should dormant oils be applied, spring dormant oil sprays for fruit trees, fruit tree spraying for dormant trees, tips on oil sprays

Id: T6ztOfkqSR4

Length: 8min 22sec (502 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 19 2016