North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Don Yellman <dyellman@earthlink.net>]

1.  There is another source for neem oil, and I have used it to obtain a
gallon of pure, cold-pressed oil.  Go to http://neemon.com and you will
find their website.  The production facility for this outfit is called
the Anahola Farm Project, located on the island of Kauai, Hawaii.  When
I bought my gallon back in April of this year, cost was $55 postpaid,
and it arrived via the U.S. Postal Service, not UPS.  I noticed that the
postage on the box was just under $15, so the currently listed price of
$39.95 plus shipping would come out about the same.  It may seem
incredible that they would send a gallon of oil all that way via the
USPS, but they did.  Packaging is a large plastic bottle with the cap
screwed on really tight, then taped with plastic tape.  If that cap ever
came loose, the postman would have neem oil all over his truck.
2.  There is no doubt about the purity of this oil.  I am not sure that
cold-pressed oil is superior for agricultural purposes than solvent
extracted, but they seem to think it is.  Cold-pressed is certainly
better for olive and other edible oils, but these are for salads.  I am
also unsure how the AFP oil would compare to Green Light or other
available brands, since I don't know the purity of the Green Light
stuff.  There is also neem oil available from a site in India called
"Plasma Power", but shipping costs run about four times the value of the
oil, making it impractical.  So while I am not really recommending the
AFP product, I mention it as an alternative if you want to try a smaller
supplier.  They do deliver as promised, and, in fact, they tried to send
me an extra gallon when they lost my check behind the desk, then found
it later.  I had to tell them that they had already shipped me the oil.
You can ask them questions by e-mail at <afp@aloha.net>.
3.  I started applying this stuff in May, just at petal fall, in
combination with Imidan, using about 5 oz oil in my 4 gallon backpack
sprayer, for a concentration of just about 1%.  I used warm water, and
premixed the oil with about 2 oz. of Murphy's Oil Soap.  Don't know if
anyone else has done this, but I wanted to ensure that the oil
emulsified completely, and didn't want the foam from dishwashing soap.
It did in fact emulsify surprisingly well for a pure oil.  I made about
4 applications on all the trees,  pome and stone, but haven't sprayed
since about mid-June.  It's a little hard to say what it has done for
the peaches, since we had a late freeze and I lost most of them before
shuck-split, but the apples look good this year.  Almost no sign of the
CAR that severely affected several trees last year, although I also cut
down a large Eastern Red Cedar in the neighbor's yard, so I'm not really
sure how I stopped the CAR.  I have had some fireblight on several
trees, notably an E. Spitzenberg and both of the Braeburns, but none on
the rest of my 35 or so apple varieties.
4.  There is no doubt that the neem oil goes on well, and stays on the
trees.  Neem oil has a strong, but not unpleasant, characteristic smell,
and I could walk under the trees 3-4 days after spraying and still smell
it.  There is not much insect damage on the apples this year, but I
can't say whether that is the neem or the Imidan.
5.   I also hung  a bug zapper in the orchard this year, about 30 feet
behind the house, and it is zapping moths by the hundreds every night.
I thought it might be effective against codling moth, but the zapper has
had the unexpected bonus result of eliminating almost all small insects
from the house and greenhouse.  My wife is very pleased, as the bugs no
longer fall in her coffee when she sits in the kitchen.  In fact, it's
kind of hard to believe how this simple $39.95 bug zapper has affected
the night insect situation around the house.  I like the satisfying
frying noise it makes when a big moth flies in.  The zapper never
sleeps.

Rgds, Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA


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