Maybe gardeners aren’t busy in Minnesota or Iowa during the winter, but for gardeners living in the Mojave Desert, it is probably our busiest time of year. I’m asked about spraying dormant oils on ...

The chill in the air reminds gardeners that it’s time to start winter chores. Spraying of dormant oils on deciduous fruit and nut trees, roses and other ornamentals can diminish the incidence of ...

Question: What is dormant spray? I was told to use it on my fruit trees, but I don’t know what it is. Thanks. Answer: Dormant sprays are sprays used on fruit trees during the winter, the dormant ...

You should have applied the most important insect spray of the year — dormant oil sprays — during the winter. Why then? Because that’s when insects susceptible to these sprays are most vulnerable. Why ...

Life cycles of some pests are complex, with multiple steps between egg and adult or spore and fruiting body and perhaps periods of dormancy. The damage pests do to our gardens is usually associated ...

Q: You seem to be a “fan” of recommending spraying dormant oil as a pesticide. Is this product good to spray on most trees and shrubs that typically grow around here? — M.C., Albuquerque A: I don’t ...

You know that commercial where people are grilling at a neighborhood party? They are all in shorts and T-shirts. Then a neighbor shows up wearing a heavy winter coat, fleece hat with the earflaps down ...

If you have a fruit tree, you know that gardeners are not the only ones who enjoy the bounty of the harvest. There are many pests — such as scales, aphids and mites — that feast on the tender plant ...

Q: When should I be dormant spraying my fruit trees? Earlier this year I asked about peach leaf curl on my peach tree and was told that prevention in the form of at least two dormant sprays was the ...

[Celebrating seasonal holidays usually pulls us away from routine garden maintenance, often happily so, but as it happens winter holidays happen to coincide with a spray schedule for dormant fruit and ...