So, a question I received this week was about dormant oil and why you would use it. The dormant oil of the past was applied in the fall on trees and shrubs to suffocate both hibernating insects and insect egg masses from trunks and limbs. Treating for insects in the late fall is a good way to get rid of the bad insects without affecting honeybee populations that should be snug in their hives this time of year, since honeybees don't hibernate on trees. But the old school dormant oil of the past has been replaced by newer products with more uses, those products being horticultural oil and neem oil sprays. 

Available in both concentrate and ready-to-use forms, today's horticultural oil sprays are more refined than the old dormant oil which was a thicker heavier oil, which is why it could only be used while the plants were dormant. The newer horticultural or neem oils can be used 12 months out of the year and can be used indoors for houseplants as well. So, if you are having problems with aphids that seem to have just come out of nowhere, you can use either of these sprays to treat them. For dormant applications this time of year on your outdoor plants, you should look for temperatures above 40 degrees and dry weather for roughly 48 hours to give the oils enough time to thoroughly dry on the trunk and limbs. Obviously, plants that are in sunnier areas will dry sooner than shaded ones. Once the oil has thoroughly dried it will last most of the winter and won't need to be reapplied. Both sprays work well for insect control, but neem oil also has the added benefit of fungal protection as well. Neem oil during the summer months is used for preventing many types of fungus and it will work to some extent to prevent fungus from overwintering on your plants as well as in leaves used for mulching and protecting your plants. So, if you have had any fungus problems during the growing season, use neem oil as your dormant oil source - you can prevent two problems at the same time. 

Even if you didn't have any fungus problems this summer, it is always a good idea to treat the areas around your plants as well as the plants themselves. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. If you have a gardening problem or question

that you need answering, send it in to the Democrat. They will make sure it gets to me and even though it may take a few weeks before I get to your question, I usually get answers in a timely fashion. Since the weather is cold outside, I have plenty of time on my hands inside to respond to a multitude of questions. It helps me out too, as I don't have to think so hard each week about what to write about. And chances are, I might have written a column answering your problem already, since I've been doing this now since 2013 and I have copies of just about all my past columns.