Neem oil on avocado trees is good for keeping the insects and bugs away from the tree which will help in strengthening the growth and making the avocados disease free. Neem oil spray can be made at home and is much cleaner than the one found in stores.
In this article, we will talk about how you can use neem oil on avocado trees as a preventative oil or as a remedy against disease-causing insects and bugs so let us get started.
Contents
What Is the Best Way to Use Neem Oil for Avocado Trees?
The best way to use neem for avocado trees is by first picking the right oil you want, and arranging the neem oil. Then, you should inspect the avocado plant, spray the plant, and finally apply aftercare and ensure that you take precautionary measures.
1. Pick the Neem
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.
Wheen you are deciding whethere you should pick the oil that is pure or pre-diluted, go with the pure one because it is a natural oil that has 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.
So whatever neem oil solution you arrange, make sure that it has that slippery nature and also a bitter smell that is the evidence of the presence of neem oil. Which is why as you are looking forward to being mixing your own spray with the neem oil plants, you can do so even 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.
This will ensure that your plants are not getting sprayed on by any chemicals that prove to be toxic later on, so you should make sure that you are using the pure one and diluting it well. If you are using such a spray, make sure to wash your sprayed-on fruits or vegetables very nicely before consuming them.
2. Mix the Solution
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. Neem 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.
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.
Raw neem oil can be used on avocado plants as it is the pure form of neem oil and is unprocessed. You should, however, be careful where you are getting the neem oil and if the source is trustworthy for you so that you have the pure one.
The other common type of neem oil is the one that comes in the form of a spray and has a few chemicals added to it to make it last longer on the shelf. You can make your neem oil spray using raw neem oil which will be cheaper and without a lot of chemicals.
At the end of the day, neem oil works very well against a lot of insects and bugs so make sure you use it well. It is also naturally a pesticide and an insecticide so not much can go wrong in its use.
3. Inspect the Plant
The second step in the process is to inspect the avocado trees to access 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, and you must inspect it thoroughly.
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.
The avocado tree is an evergreen plant that has risen to fame all around the world in the last decade and the main reason behind its fame is that it can be used in a multitude of ways in cooking and its texture is very subtle and to the liking of most people. Since then, its cultivation has almost tripled and with it, a lot of beneficial insects and different pests and diseases of the avocado tree, but pests like aphids can ruin the strength of the tree.
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. If the number of insects is much larger, follow the further steps to get rid of them, keeping your plants healthy and thriving.
4. Start Spraying
The third 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, so that you won’t cause any allergies to your skin.
It will save you from getting any bugs or insects on your clothes and later on to your skin. 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, hence you can switch the front tip of the spray because remember that you should be spraying the oil and not dipping it.
Make sure you completely cover the tree with the neem oil and do not leave any leaves unturned because a single insect left behind can also reproduce and cause problems soon. Use a ladder to get to the top of the avocado trees and spray the neem oil.
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, and this way, you can also inspect if there are any infestations taking place and targeting that space.
It is totally fine if the neem oil spray goes here and there because it is safe for almost all plants except for the ones with wispy leaves like oregano, basil, and thyme. After carefully and generously spraying the plants with neem oil, leave the plants be for some time.
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 fixing protective and preventative guards that will help safeguard 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 wrong.
You do not need to wipe down the neem oil after spraying it on avocado plants because then it will stop working. The neem oil spray needs some time to work its magic against the insects so leave it on and it will go away.
The avocados have thick skin, so neem oil will not penetrate them and make them taste weird like it does for some soft-skinned fruits. You can, however choose to wipe the plants before spraying neem oil onto them to make sure that the dust does not stop the oil from getting on the surface. After spraying the oil, keep it on for some time and not wipe it off for maximum results.
Neem oil might not make your avocados bitter and the reason behind this is that the coating of the avocados is quite thick and will not let the neem oil spray seep into it easily. This is why the neem oil if sprayed on the avocados is fine.
However, you must be mindful that it has a very strong and bitter taste and smell but this is exactly what works well against the bugs and the insects that are trying to infect your plants. If the neem oil is kept on the plants for a longer time, it can seep into the fruits and change their taste. In these conditions, the fruits may become different in taste and can then be not good enough for eating or selling.
In the case of avocados, because of their thick shell, the neem oil cannot seep inside but may do so if there are any cuts on the skin so make sure that the avocados are whole and do not have any cuts on them.
Conclusion
In this article, we talked about the simplest way of using neem oil for avocado 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 avocado trees is by first arranging the neem oil, inspecting the avocado plant, spraying the plant, and finally applying aftercare and preventive measures.
- The cultivation of avocado trees has nearly tripled in the last ten years because of the increased demand.
- Make sure to cover the avocado tree wholly and for doing so, a ladder will come in very handy.
- 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 avocado trees. Avocado trees can be prone to bugs, insects, and fungal diseases which is why a pesticide or an insecticide should be used, and there isn’t an insecticide better than a natural one like neem oil.
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