The prolonged autumn and mild winters favour the overwintering and proliferation of pests. This is the time to prepare for pests and ensure a healthy crop next year.

Airborne fungi, bacteria and pathogens increase in number as temperatures drop this time of year and can invade deciduous plants through tiny scars caused by leaf fall. Pathogens can also enter through pruning cuts, so an autumn foliar spray is highly recommended when 50-80% of the plants have lost their foliage, and certainly before frosts set in.

The preparation of the spray depends on the purpose of the spray and the plant species to be sprayed. For larger gardens, chemical spraying may be the most effective, but here too you can use home spraying techniques alongside conventional spraying to ensure effectiveness.

Spraying with orange oil and paraffin oil will penetrate deep into the smallest cracks in the bark of the tree. The oils suffocate and dry out hiding insects and fungi, ultimately killing them.

Not only in the kitchen, but also for your garden plants, baking soda can be used in a 2% solution to repel mildew.

Vinegar can also be used as a wash spray by adding 0.5 to 1 litre of 20% vinegar to about 20 litres of water. It is highly effective against insect pests.

However, there are serious fungal pests such as monilia, peach leaf curl, scab, for which there is no other solution than conventional copper preparations.

Some plants may be susceptible, so it is always worth a trial spray.

Spraying will only be effective if perfect coverage is achieved and the whole tree is treated. In fact, complete coverage means spraying in a soaking, wash-down manner. In addition to wash-down spraying in autumn, the collection and destruction of fruit mummies and leaves, the removal of diseased parts of the plant and the treatment of wounds also contribute to preventing the appearance of pests.