Neem oil for apricot trees is a great pesticide and insecticide if you know how to and when to use it. Apricot trees may be prone to many different insects, and fungal and algal diseases that may interfere with the natural growth of the tree and also its health.
In this article, we will take you through all the important things that you need to know about the use of neem oil for apricot trees.
Contents
What Is the Best Way to Use Neem Oil for Apricot Trees?
The best way to use neem for apricot trees is by first arranging the neem oil, inspecting the apricot plant, spraying the plant, and finally applying aftercare and precautionary measures. This will help in keeping your plants infection and infestation-free.
Neem oil is a natural oil with the power of a pesticide and insecticide, all packed into one powerful oil and extracted from the neem seeds and tree. The natural antimicrobial chemical compound found in neem oil is called azadirachtin and is very potent against very wide and diverse varieties of insects and bugs that may harm your plants or pets.
1. Pick the Right Oil
The first step in the process is making the neem oil spray that will be sprayed on the plants to remove the insects and their infection or used as a preventative measure where needed. The neem oil has a slippery nature and insecticidal properties which is why when it is sprayed on the insects they lose their grip on the plant and fall away and secondly, are affected by the insecticidal properties of the neem oil.
This is the reason why it is of utmost importance that you keep a keen and close eye on the apricot tree and take the important precautionary measures that will help you keep the tree happy and well. In case, you want to spray the neem oil plants with edible fruits or vegetables on them, it is best to use the neem oil that has the least amount of chemicals and preservatives in it.
The apricots or the Prunus armeniaca belong to the rose family and are harvested mostly in the middle of the summer. The apricot trees require good and direct sunlight, well-drained soil, and a place away from the direct wind like the apple trees. Many fungal, algal, and bacterial diseases and parasites European brown rot, powdery mildew, and aphids attack the apricot tree because they are very vibrant and fragrant.
2. Prepare the Mixture
This will ensure that your plants are not getting sprayed on by any chemicals that prove to be toxic later on. If you are using such a spray, make sure to wash your sprayed-on fruits or vegetables very nicely before consuming them.
You can also choose to make your own neem oil spray at home. You can do this by getting a gallon of water with two to three tablespoons of neem oil and a kitchen-safe dishwashing liquid in a container. This is a great choice to opt for because it will help in properly diluting the oil and the water together.
The next step in the process is to spray the plant with the solution of neem oil, either homemade or store-bought. The first thing that you will need to remember here is that protective gear is of utmost importance. It will save you from getting any bugs or insects on your clothes and later on to your skin.
Mix all of these ingredients together until a solution is formed. You can use this homemade solution like you would use the store-bought one but this solution might not have a long shelf-life as the other one because it is devoid of any and all preservatives.
You can use raw neem oil spray on your apricot tree as it is a pure form of neem oil and is safe to use. Only make sure that you have purchased it from a good source and that it is in fact neen oil and not a higher oil with fake chemicals.
Raw neem oil is used to make the commercially present neem oil spray. This spray has some additional properties and chemicals that make it last long on the shelf and work against infections on the plants. So for your plants and trees, use any sort of neem oil in the right and recommended way, and you will see good and healthy results from the start.
3. Inspect the Apricot Trees
The second step in the process is to inspect the apricot trees to recover what needs to be done. If there is any sort of infection or do you just need the oil to work as a preventative measure against the foreseeable insects or bugs, then you must make sure that you mark the place that they have infested the most so that you would tackle them right away.
You will get to know about these things when you analyze the health of the plant and its surrounding. Some bugs and insects only attack at a certain time of the year so if your plant is prone to such insects, make sure you enforce a preventative measure in the garden.
For instance, if it has been infested with aphids, you must know that this can cause the tree to have a stunted growth, unless you tackle them with this oil.
Before going into a much deeper cleanse of the insect, if the invasion is small or has just started, you might want to hose the insects with plain water a medium pressure. The water will remove the insects, and you can manually remove them from around your plants.
Keep in mind that this will only work when the insects are very small in number. In the case that the number of insects is much larger, you should take the right measures to get rid of them, for keeping your plants healthy and thriving. In short, neem oil is the organic oil that you need to free your plant from these bugs and keep them happy.
4. Spray the Neem Oil
Wear eye goggles, gardening gloves, overalls, a face mask if sprays are involved, and gardening boots if you plan on going inside the garden with taller plants. For spraying, the container should have a nozzle with adjustable hole sizes because this will make the spraying much easier and non-tiring.
You will also be able to use the spray more widely and with consistency throughout the plant. Make sure to spray the neem oil all around the tree so that no spots are left untouched. If the tree is taller than your reach, use a ladder to reach the top of the tree.
When you have your spray ready, what you can do is spray on a single leaf of the tree as a testing sample. After this, you should wait for a full day, and see if the mixture needs more water in the dilution process or not, because this way, you will take a cautious step so that you won’t burn the leaves and harm the whole tree at once.
Choose a dry and sunny day for spraying the plants, as this will help the neem oil work better. Start by spraying the plants from the top, then make your way down to the roots of the plant. After carefully and generously spraying the plants with neem oil, leave the plants be for some time.
Excessive use of neem oil spray on the apricots can make them taste and smell like butter because the neem oil is itself very bitter in taste and smell. This is because the skin of the neem oil is not very tough and can be penetrated by the oil.
In such conditions, the neem oil may seep into the apricots and alter their taste and smell. Once this is done, you cannot change the smell and taste of the apricots back to normal so make sure you pay good attention to it.
One way to prevent this is to use the recommended amount of neem oil spray on the apricots, and secondly, you can use a damp cloth to wipe away the excess of the oil from the apricots to retain its natural taste and smell.
5. Apply Aftercare
The last step in the process is to apply the aftercare which will include making a schedule of reapplication of neem oil and also fixing protective and preventative guards that will help in safeguarding the plants from future invasions and infestations. Make sure that after use, you store the neem oil in a cool and dry place so it does not go bad.
Make a spray schedule for spraying the tree with the neem oil spray every few days. This will help in keeping the insects and infestations away from the tree. Also make sure that when the insects are dead, you remove them from the plant so they do not start rotting in the place. Their smell can bring in more bugs and insects.
You can wipe down the apricot tree after spraying neem oil if you have sprayed more than the required oil but leave it on if it is the appropriate amount. The neem oil needs some time to work its magic on the apricot tree.
The antimicrobial properties of the neem oil work best if the sun is out and the spray is equally spread all around the apricot tree. The best time to wipe down the plant is before spraying any chemicals or oil so the dust does not stop the product from reaching the actual surface of the plant or the tree.
Other than that, leave the spray on and let it work out against the infectious bugs and insects in its own time. You and your plants will benefit greatly from the coat of neem oil.
Conclusion
In this article, we talked about the simplest way of using neem oil for apricot trees but in case you missed anything, here is a short conclusion of the important points in the article:
- The best way to use neem for apricot trees is by first arranging the neem oil, inspecting the apricot plant, spraying the plant, and finally applying aftercare and preventive measures.
- The apricot trees require good and direct sunlight, well-drained soil, and a place away from the direct wind like the apple trees.
- Many diseases and parasites European brown rot and aphids attack the apricot tree because they are very vibrant and fragrant.
- The natural antimicrobial chemical compound found in neem oil is called azadirachtin and is very potent against very wide and diverse varieties of insects and bugs.
- Make sure that you store the neem oil intelligently after using it.
Here we come to the end of the article: how to use neem oil on apricot trees. This oil is thus a very effective and easily available remedy and the best thing about it is that it is non-toxic to humans which makes it safe to use.
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