North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Doreen Howard" <gardendiva@charter.net>]

Steven Sadler's explanation of how neem seed oil works is great.  He hit all the cogent points. 

 

I've used neem alone and with other products such as dormant and clove oils quite successfully for over a decade.  When I lived the hot, humid Houston area, neem is what saved my peach trees from the dreaded brown rot and other fungal diseases that run rampant there. 

 

I use neem and the hort. oils exclusively on my fruit trees, berries, grapes and roses here in the upper Midwest with great success.  I have a have a mini-orchard of dwarf trees (6 apples, 1 apricot, 2 Asian pears, 2 pear, Shipova, 1 cherry and a Saturn peach), and my trees do not have disease problems.  I start spraying with dormant oil mixed with neem and repeat two weeks later with clove oil and neem.  I spray with neem at pink bud stage and at petal fall.  Then it's every two weeks with neem until late August.  The regime works well. 

 

About neem's distinctive odor.  It can be off-putting.  When I lived in Texas, where crop dusters are regular sights, you could always tell which was an organic field due to the odor of neen in the air while the plane sprayed.  The Antique Rose Emporium in Brenham, TX uses neem exclusively to keep their growing fields and display gardens in pristine order. 

Doreen Howard

IL-WI Border, Zone 4b/5a