Neem oil in place of horticultural oil?

General Fruit Growing
#1

Does anyone have any thoughts on using neem oil in place of horticultural oil in the spring?

1 Like
#2

I have never heard of anyone doing that but my guess is it should work about as well. It is more expensive though. I personally use a heavy oil like soybean oil in the spring, the heavier the better.

Oh here is another thread here with the same question:

2 Likes
#3

I use extra virgin olive oil because it was free. It work great.

1 Like
#4

Hi!

Why would you do that? Cold-pressed neem oil is quite expensive and other products supposedly containing neem oil won’t be as effective. I use first quality neem oil on foliage in time of temporary heavy insect proliferation of with Michael Phillips’s recipe.

Marc

1 Like
#5

Thanks everyone. I was asking because I just bought Michael Phillip’s book, The Holistic Orchard, and he recommends using Neem oil instead of horticultural oil. I looked into buying everything that he recommends, but the cost seems too much, and the whole premise has not convinced me. I have been getting very nice fruit without doing all of that spraying. But my biggest problem is coddling moth, so I am wondering if Neem oil may be more helpful than Horticultural oil. Maybe I will just try it and see. I will let you know if it seems to help. Thanks Peggy

#6

I’m not sure what Michael Phillip’s principle is for using neem oil as as a dormant spray, but the problem with using it to control codling moth is that codling moth don’t lay eggs on the bare wood. They hibernate in the crevices of thick bark, but unless your apple trees are pretty old, they aren’t going be hibernating on the smooth bark. They will find other cracks and crevices to hide in (like underneath house siding, or any junk laying around).

So, unfortunately, spraying the dormant wood with neem (or dormant oil) really isn’t going to do much for codling moth. Dormant oil type sprays really target those pests which overwinter on the trees.

Major pests like CM, OFM, PC have life cycles, which for the most part, don’t involve any life stage overwintering on the trees.

2 Likes