I have a bottle of Neem oil concentrate I have to use soon before it got too old, and I don’t have dormant oil. Can I spray Neem oil instead, will it be the same effect? If yes, what do I add to it - liquid soap or sticker, or both? And can I mix Neem oil (or dormant oil) with cooper?
Neem oil is a surfactant. Adding copper is a good idea.
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Surfactant means it could be used as dormant oil spray?
No. It is what you call a sticker. 
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Now I am confused) So it doesn’t have dormant oil properties and I need real dormant oil, and Neem can only be used as Surfactant in copper mix? Let’s talk simple) I have Neem Oil, Liquid Cop, Sticker. Do I need to buy Dormant Oil? And if I mix oil and copper, do I still need a sticker?
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In my opinion, no.
Not if the copper is Liqui-Cop and the oil is Neem Oil.
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thanks!
Last year I mixed neem oil and Bonide copper then added water to make half a gallon mix for my dormant spray. It became one big mess. Copper turned into chunks and clogged my sprayer. Had to spend about an hour cleaning the sprayer with soap and hot water to get rid of the copper pieces.
I think you have to be careful about the order in which you mix them. Maybe copper and water first and then add neem oil? I don’t know… I didn’t try it that way.
Just wanted to give you a warning
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Liqui-Cop is copper ammonium, soluble in both water and oil.
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Dormant oil is nothing special, you can make your own by mixing canola oil, some soap (or baking soda) and water. Cornell University’s recipe is 2 tablespoons of canola oil and 1 tablespoon of baking soda mixed with a gallon of water. You can replace canola oil by neem oil (or some other types of oil for that matter), it will be very similar just a bit more expensive.
I have a jug of neem oil that I’ve been using for three years. It doesn’t seem to go bad, it tends to solidify when temperatures drop, then I just use warm water to help it dissolve.
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I read somewhere that only fresh neem oil does the job as neem oil, otherwise it become just oil. Not sure how true it is.
I mostly use neem oil against aphids and didn’t observe any loss of effectiveness.
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Susu,
Actually, your experience is not uncommon.
Here is the correct order of mixing from Uni. of IL. You probably wouldn’t use things like defoaming or anti-drift agents, so you can ignore those. My guess is your Bonide would be compatible with your neem (as long as it’s not 100% neem oil) if you mixed them in the right order with your carrier (i.e. water).
Sometimes it can be helpful to mix a small “test dose” of the intended tank mix in a jar first to make sure all the ingredients are compatible, but you’ve probably already learned that. 
“Some pesticide labels do not provide adequate
mixing order directions. The usual method for tank
mixing is as follows. First, fill the tank one-quarter to
one-half full with the carrier and begin agitation. If
you need to add a compatibility, buffering, or
defoaming agent, these products should be added
before the other products. If you are using a drift
control additive, always consult the label; some are
added very early, while some are added nearly last.
Next, slowly add and thoroughly mix the pesticide
products, one at a time, beginning with those hardest
to mix (such as suspension-forming formulations).
Generally, wettable powder (WP) and dry flowable
or water-dispersible granule (DF, WDG) products
should be added first, followed by flowable (F, FL)
and microencapsulated (ME) products. Add
emulsifiable concentrates (EC) next, followed by any
solution (S) or soluble powder (SP) products. Any
crop oils and/or surfactants should be added last. Dry
formulations should be preslurried (mixed with a
little water) before adding them to the spray tank; this
is also a good idea (even with ECs) if you are using
liquid fertilizer as the carrier. Finally, continue
adding your carrier to the desired level.”
Galinas,
A surfactant is just a conjugated (i.e. made up) word condensed from the words, “surface acting agent”. A surface acting agent (surfactant) reduces the surface tension of the water, so that it spreads over the foliage much more uniformly (what we might call a “spreader”). It’s also considered an emulsifier. Water tends to bead up because of the surface tension. Many times this is not helpful when trying to apply pesticides because the spray solution will bead up and/or run off the foliage causing uneven coverage and wasted pesticide.
Adding a surfactant reduces the surface tension so that the water doesn’t bead up, but instead covers the foliage uniformly. Practically speaking, many surfactants used by pesticide applicators, also contain a “sticker”. A sticker reduces the “wash off” of the pesticide from rain.
One can purchase just a surfactant (no sticker included). These are generally cheaper and sold in 2.5 gal. jugs or larger (used mainly with herbicides for covering larger acreages). But, most smaller packaged surfactants also contain the sticker.
100% cold pressed neem oil would not be a surfactant because it requires an emulsifier. Neem oil is basically vegetable oil, and we know from our kitchen what happens when we try to mix vegetable oil with water. 
The good news is, most neem oil formulations are not 100% neem oil, but contain an emulsifier (i.e. surfactant) to enable them to “mix” with water.
If you want to go a little deeper in the terminology, here is a link. It also contains an interesting story of how someone destroyed their pansies in their greenhouse.
http://extension.uga.edu/publications/detail.html?number=B1319
Lastly, make sure you read the label on your neem. It should tell you what target pests it’s labeled for, and when to treat. You’ve probably already read the label, but I just wanted to mention it, so we didn’t overlook the obvious.
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Thank a lot!!! My neem is actually 100 cold pressed, after reading some article I found that this is what is most efficient to use. So I guess I need to add the sticker to the mixture? Or may be soap, as directed on the neem bottle ?
Yes I did learn that the hard way 
Thanks for the info. This is helpful. My first spray for next season crop is coming up.
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Yes. I would add the soap as directed on the bottle. Also make sure you are using it at the labeled rate. I doubt neem would be very phytotoxic to dormant trees, but it could be at an above label rate.
Btw, I wouldn’t add a sticker if I were to use neem. Generally oils sort of act like a sticker and help prevent wash off. They are not technically classified as stickers, but they sort of work that way.
I also have Neem oil, that is of unknown purity, but let’s say it’s 100%. It is not made for gardening or any specific purpose, since it has 1,001 uses, as they say. I’m thinking that I can use soap to emulsify it and it probably won’t need any additional surfactant, spreader, or sticker but careful observation should reveal if it does.
Edit: Right in the middle of writing this comment I ventured out on the interwebs to search ‘neem oil for the orchard’ and found some interesting stuff, including this article by none other than Michael Phillips:
https://www.groworganicapples.com/organic-orcharding-articles/neem-oil.php
(Warmed up it gets clear and ‘more liquid’ again.)
My half liter of pure stuff cost about $17. I am going to look further into this matter. With Michael’s formula this liter (with 1Tbsp soap) would make about 26 gallons of spray.
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Make sure to add enough soap and agitate and check carefully that its all in solution before trying to spray. I once used a different brand of soap which was weaker and made a complete mess of my sprayer.
I don’t think neem goes badly so fast but there is no hard data I have seen so if you are a cautious type you may want to fridge it or not buy too much. Me, I’m not so cautious and have a gallon sitting out in my garage now…
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I sprayed my trees 2 days ago with neem, liquid cop, soap and sticker. Did everything by instructions, agitated oil in a little of water and soap well, the oil kind of dissolved making milky appearance. Added water and liquid cop diluted in water. Mixed. All looked fine. Sprayer was working just fine but when it was just about 2 inches of solution left it stopped spraying. I was done anyway, so I decided just to clean the tank. It was a thick oily liquid on the bottom. Now I worry that I mostly sprayed water instead of oil…
Did you keep shaking the sprayer as you spray? I do that. But I can see how people with large sprayers can’t do that.
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