India is blessed with diverse agroclimatic conditions and has the potential to produce almost all kinds of fruits. Apples are grown along the foot hills of Himalaya, ranging from Shillong obtained with (Assam) to Darjeeling (Bengal), in Kumaon Hills of Uttar Pradesh, hills of Punjab, Kullu Valley and Simla in Himachal Pradesh and whole of Jammu and Kashmir. Jammu and Kashmir is the largest producer of apple, with a production of 1882774 mt (Directorate of Horticulture Kashmir, 2018). Many insect pests cause significant economic damage on apple. These pests cause losses both directly and indirectly. Among all these pests, San Jose scale and European red mite are the serious pests of apple trees in Jammu and Kashmir (Anonumous, 2014; Bhalla and Gupta, 1993: Mahendiran and Ganie, 2018). The San Jose scale Quadraspidiotus perniciosus (Comstock) nymphs and female adults suck the sap from branches, twigs and fruits, weakens the plant and leaves, render the fruit unacceptable and unmarketable. European red mite, Panonychus ulmi (Koch) is another serious pest feeding on foliage. Keeping in view the severity of these an experiment was undertaken to evaluate horticulture mineral oil i.e. Rilso 999 along with standard check -MAK against European red mite and San Jose scale in the apple ecosystem of Kashmir Valley.

Rilso999 was evaluated during 2017 and 2018 under field conditions. The experiments were laid at two locations i.e. Lar (District Ganderbal) and Hajin (District Bandipora). There were five treatments-Rilso999@ 5.0, 7.5 and 10.0 ml/ l of water, compared with MAK (standard check) @ 7.5 ml/ l of water, with only water spray as control. Spraying was done by high volume sprayer @ 15 l/ tree. 12 branches/ tree were randomly selected for counting Q. perniciosus/ cm² area and for P. ulmi counting was from randomly selected 12 leaves/ tree. Coccinellids were counted from 4 branches/ tree and Amblyseius sp., was from 20 leaves/ tree. Pretreatment observations were recorded before spray and post treatment ones after 0, 1, 3, 5, 7, 14 and 21 days after spray; similarly it was followed for the coccinellids and Amblyseius spp. Phytotoxicity on leaf injury on tips/ surface, yellowing, wilting, necrosis, hyponasty and epinasty were observed with Rilso999@ 15ml/ l of water after 1, 3, 5, 7 and 15 days after spray. Yield was computed as kg/tree at the time of harvest and compared.

The results revealed that maximum mortality of Q. perniciosus (68.08%) was observed with the MAK (standard check) @ 7.5 ml/ l of water, followed by Rilso999 @ 10 and 7.5 ml/ l (64.66 and 62.20%, respectively. Maximum (58.69%) mortality of P.ulmi was observed again with MAK (standard check) followed by Rilso999@ 10 Ml/ l (Table 1). Mir et al. (2015); Sherwani et al. (2017; 2018) and Bano et al. (2021) also observed that horticulture mineral oil (HMO) causes considerable reduction of both the pests. Maximum (27.14 and 19.63%) cumulative mortality of Amblyseius spp. and coccinellids were observed with Rilso999@ 10 ml/ l water, respectively; this was followed by Rilso999 and MAK @ 7.5 ml/ l of water. No phytotoxic symptoms were observed and maximum yield (246.16 kg/ tree) being obtained with MAK (standard check) followed by Rilso999.

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