The application window for winter oil on pome fruit is rapidly closing but it’s where most seasonal pest management programs begin.
Cost of winter oil
Significant changes in the cost of winter oil are driven by many global constraints and costs such as shipping, exchange rates and lack of investment in distillation facilities.
However, the main driver is the availability of ‘process oils’ which may or may not have a relationship with the cost of fuel at the bowser.
At the risk of an oversimplification, if the demand for petrol, diesel and jet fuel goes down then there is less feedstock for use in ‘process oils’ which come out of the secondary distillation. This is where our agricultural oils originate.
Winter oil: cost effective pest management
Despite the vagaries of world oil prices the application of good quality winter oil is still an excellent cost effective management technique for some of the most important pests in the production of pome fruit.
VICOL Winter Oil is a paraffinic mineral oil product suitable for controlling a range of scale and mite pests on dormant stone and pome trees.
It is formulated locally under strict quality control by Australian owned manufacturer Vicchem with quality emulsifiers to ensure stability and crop safety when mixed with various water qualities and pesticides.
See this article in Tree Fruit August 2023
