Personally, I find this word incredibly hard to pronounce, but let’s work it out together.
What is Horticultural Oil?
– Horticultural oil is an oil that can be applied to plants to control insects, mites and diseases.
“How does it control them?”
- Hort oil, when applied to the plant surface, suffocates the insects
- It also
- Disrupts the metabolism of insect eggs and
- Disrupts the ability of some insects to feed (which makes them starve to death)
- This means that it is also preventing these insects from spreading more diseases from plant to plant
“How do I apply?”
- It is recommended to spray trees and bushes (especially hemlocks), early in the spring
- Make sure the weather is mild
- Do not apply it during warm, summer temperatures
- Do not apply on humid days
- May want to avoid windy days to control drifting
- Use a backpack sprayer and measure the product appropriately, follow the label!
- Avoid blue spruces – product will take away the color
- Have fun!
I added that last part to remind you to have fun and enjoy your gardening adventures. Nature is crazy cool, so absorb it and really become its friend. If you don’t want to be its friend, at least treat it kindly and take these tips and use them! I hope you learned a lot today and I hope you will learn a lot next week too.
(Get it? I’m hinting that you should definitely pop in next week to see what else there is to learn)
*wink*