recently saw a video on spraying fruit trees, with ‘horticultural’ oil, monthly in the dormant season - assume late fall and winter when the temp is above 40F. We’re in growing zone 7. Is this beneficial? Thank you.
What fruit trees are you growing?
Monthly seems like overkill.
I spray my pears right when the leaves are starting to fall (to deal with pear leaf blister mite).
I spray all the trees right at or before bud swell with oil again. I do oil+copper or oil+ sulfur. It’s been dependent on what I have on hand. On peaches I’m spraying for leaf curl + for some insects. On pears and apples spraying for mites, scale, and fireblight.
I don’t spray oil at all. It’s useful only for certain things- mainly mites. People spray Daconil for peach leaf curl and copper for fireblight in the dormant season. But for most people these are secondary problems. They don’t control insects or fungus that attack the fruit which is usually your main threats.
I would think about what the main threats you need to counter in Tennessee are and how to protect you trees from them.
For example I would expect your local threats to be these
Peaches- brown rot and plum curculio
Cherries- brown rot and plum curculio and maybe cherry fly
Apples- scab, fireblight, CAR, and plum curculio (this looks worse than it is as apples may be resistance to these diseases depending on what variety you have)
Take a look at the forum spray schedules-- they will help you decide what to spray.
And ask questions- people are pretty helpful on the forum…they helped me a lot
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