BILOWZ ASSOCIATES INC. is an award winning landscape architectural design firm with a proven philosophy: "Creating Design with Harmony & Balance."
Our company blog, Annie's Gardening Corner, takes a sneak peek at how we balance our own love for everything green + a place to find inspiration, garden ideas and landscape design tips.

To browse our award winning landscape design portfolios, click on our company website at WWW.BILOWZASSOCIATES.COM

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Before Bud Breaks



























In this transitional season of spring, you must seize all opportunities when these rare and few moments are upon you. So don’t doddle with certain tasks in your garden. If you have fruit trees or ornamentals (from apricots to lilacs) this is the time to apply dormant oils (also known as horticultural oils). The tricky part is that applications must be done when temperatures stay above freezing for 24 hours and before bud break. With fruit trees, you must be vigilant. Look for the first signs of swelling buds as your indicator that it’s time to move. With ornamentals, it’s a bit more broad-brushed and flexible but you still must always apply with caution and the utmost attention to directions. The mantra with any product applied to your living plant materials is READ THE LABELS. Good quality horticultural oils can be used after bud break but check application rates carefully. You can cause leaf and tissue damage if applied incorrectly or at the wrong rates and times.

Why spray dormant oils? These oils are meant to control nasty insects that have overwintered and can cause damage to the plant’s overall health. Multiple applications of dormant oils are the most helpful. From the first sign of bud break until early leaf flush, spraying dormant oils stops insect eggs from hatching. It nips the insect cycle in the bud before these critters literally take out your buds. If done correctly, dormant oil application(s) drastically reduce the rate and frequency of insecticidal applications throughout the growing season.

So nip the nasty bugs in the bud before things start to sprout. It’s like breakfast in the morning. Start your plants off on the right foot. Rhoda Morgenstern gives us one reason why we should at least take good care of those fruit trees. "The first thing I remember liking that liked me back was food." Happy gardening! Annie

Image of an apricot bud from the internet

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1 comment:

Unknown said...

For anyone paying attention. There was a slight edit change to today's post. The word 'cease' was changed to 'seize'. Don't know what I was thinking!

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© 2009 Ann St. Jean-Bilowz/Bilowz Associates Inc. (including all photographs, unless otherwise noted in Annie's Gardening Corner are the property of Bilowz Associates Inc. and shall not be reproduced in any manner nor are they to be assigned to any third party without the expressed written permission and consent of Bilowz Associates Inc.)