You hit the main ones already.
I would add that Bt has been very useful for us, but timing and targeting are critical.
I also suspect that Bt is going to be increasing less useful soon with the widespread use of Bt modified crops creating resistance, but time will tell.

After 5 years of searching here is what i've come to for "organic" sprays:

Surround WP- (its work...sort of)
Pyrethrins- (Pyganic) ...$$$...not sure how effective it is on some insects...need to reapply frequently because it breaks down quickly
Neem??? (Azadirachtin)- (how effective? may or may not work!)

Last spring I said screw it and bought a bottle of Triazicide and had good results (with PC)... I just sprayed on calm evenings as the sun was setting.

I have just started my orchard so I will not speak at all to fruit trees. However my wife has been trying to have a nice rose garden for several years. It would start well and the aphids or mites or whatever would completly ruin it by mid-summer.
We used Neem every one to two weeks last year and she had the nicest rose garden ever.

Spinosad is a biological insecticide which I guess is considered organic. I use on my plants with good success on Thrips, Aphids, Ants etc..... Its suppost to not harm the beneficials either as long as it has time to dry before they show up. I usually spray late in the evenings to avoid bees coming in contact with it. Once it dries there is no harm to the bees and ladybugs.

The ones that work well have already been named: Surround, sulphur, lime/sulphur, copper, Bt, spinosad, oil (I like Saf-T-Side in particular since it smothers better). Well there is also agrimycin for fireblight if you get desperate. Serenade is another low-power spray like neem, but I would say it works somewhat better and I use it regularly; neem I don't use often. There is codling moth granulosis (Cyd-X brand etc) which also works well; its similar to spinosad. Helpful sprays such as compost tea, sugar sprays, seaweed, fish oil, etc also are very good aids to keeping diseases from ever arising. Composting the soil around the trees well is also very helpful.

BTW I agree about the religious organic growers, they are living in a fantasy world and they annoy the heck out of me. What particularly annoys me is people from climates where organic growing is easy that get on their high horses and preach to all of us in bug- and disease-ridden climates how we are apostates or idiots or both for not getting these miracle organics to work. I visited an organic vineyard in California once and I asked what they sprayed. The reply was one oil spray a year .. thats it! Talk about an easy climate.

Scott

I used the surround coated footies on my apricots, peaches, and plum last year and it worked well although I was a bit late and lost a decent amount of fruit before I installed the footies.

What about pheromone interrupters? Aren't they an organic pest control measure with pretty hard evidence of usefulness? I've never used them, and I don't really even know any details... I know they're used with apples... Is it for codling moths?

The pheromone lures work very well, after three years of mating disruption I have just about eliminated my codling/OFM problems. I use both OFM lures and CM lures. They are not a spray so I did not mention them above. The problem is they are hard to source, they are directed at commercial growers and the distribution is on a territory system.

Scott

Scott,
I am pretty sure you have outlined your use and experience with the OFM pheromone on a small site before. Any chance you remember the thread/link?
They are becoming an increasing problem for me the last few years. No fruit damage yet, but lots of twig, and we just added lots of stone fruit.

I use Pyrethrins, lime sulfur, cooper, spinosad, oil, ocassionally neem also ( not sure neem works that well but need to use the bottle)

Rob, I think the thread you had in mind is the one below.

Its funny that I started my gloating below with "I hope I don't jinx this", and about a month after I posted the note the deer decided to move in to my orchard and make my life hell.

Scott

Here is a link that might be useful: past thread on mating disruption

Thanks. I later thought of sulfur and pyrethrin and nicotine and had forgotten about Bt and streptomycin (even though I use the last). Also, Bti for mosquitoes in my water chestnut tub and a few other places of standing water.

Many of the other materials mentioned I am not familiar with and need to look into.

I truly would like to use less toxic (nontarget) or more degradable sprays as I am starting to grow selections that will need some spraying (bunch grapes, apples, some susceptible mayhaws, plus a few problems on certain pears). Finding assessments of worth by the clear-eyed critical grower and not by the faith-healer convert (or salesman) was the problem. People on this board are more rigorous in their assessments, which is what is needed. I am astounded at the credulousness of many others elsewhere.

Scott, what quantity have you had to buy for pheromones and where from? I would think they may get too old sitting around for years.

Gemplers sells OFM (Trece Grapholita molesta) and CM (Scentry Cydia pomonella) lures/traps in small quantities.

Also NoMate spiral mating disruptors but these come in quantity $100-200 per bag.

Any other places you all like to buy other sprays from?

All Seasons's Hort Oil is apparently considered organic, and it does a number on whitefly and scale. When using the hose attatchment it got rid of them in one treatment (with monthly followups just to be sure).

midlin, the pheromones last many years in the freezer, five years at least. I use the nomate spirals for CM and am about through one bag after four years. Great Lakes IPM is where I got them from. The OFM lures are harder to find, Great Lakes used to sell a brand and I have a whole bunch in my freezer but I don't know of a good source now since they no longer sell that brand and they can't sell Isomate to me since I am not in their territory. Most of the places selling lures have distribution restrictions and you may need to go through your local ag chemical supply distributor to get them, Helena Chemical or whatever it is in your area. Peaceful Valley is another place selling mating disruption; they and Gemplers both have tight state restrictions so they probably won't be able to ship to you.

Scott

Does anyone have experience with Neem? I'd like to use it for spider mites but am concerned about the safety of the fruit and leaves and myself. The MSDS or whatever I read made it sound pretty dangerous for the applicator. Any truth to that?

fruit-

I have Neem in my toothpaste. I've read in medical journal that it has anti-cancer properties.

My experience with neem has been it did not kill any of the pests I sprayed it on, but I have only used it 4-5 times. Overall I am skeptical of many of the claims of neem oil spray for fruit trees, and the scientific literature supports this: neem has been shown to produce mildly positive benefits but no studies show any more than that. The one thing that it may be useful for is if sprayed often enough the positive benefits to tree health and negative impact to bugs and diseases could potentially add up to something worth doing; I have been meaning to try a more regular spray program some year. The fact that the stuff stinks up my orchard and is a pain to mix up always ends up curtailing my enthusiasm for a bigger experiment with it.

There are many different product formulations from different parts of the neem tree; I don't think the stuff in the toothpaste is the same as the spray oil for trees. I also don't know much about the other purported benefits of neem for brushing teeth and other bodily health. The tree spray is a mild poison. I don't think there is any health concern, the active compounds are gone in a few days, the amount of residue on fruits is super small, and it is far less toxic than other insecticides.

Scott

Thanks Scott, that helps a lot. With Neem I'd have to spray probably 12-20 times a year. With my current spray it's once and done if I do a good job on coverage. I'd rather be organic but those are compelling numbers.

It does stink. I sprayed it in the past on trees. Only thing I noticed was that it made the leaves look REALLY shiny. I think the pests i'm dealing with need more then Neem to keep them away.

Google ATTRA for their fruit documents. They have some of the best spraying info I have seen on the internet.

Greene, the ATTRA pubs have not been updated for ten years last I looked and they are also not free anymore. Given all that has changed in the last ten years in terms of state of the art I don't think they are worth the $$. Michael Philllips' Holistic Orchard book is probably the best overall organic fruit guide these days. It doesn't give a good spray guide but it does cover all the bases of the different options.

Scott

I gotta laugh at the first post. I have no desire to pollute myself or the environment. I will however respect the opinions of the scientists that recommend acceptable levels of chemicals to insure good fruit production.

I was concerned about the effects of carbaryl on fruit set and came across this post.

I think that you should put some bird feeders and such around your trees and hope for the best.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bird baths

I use compost tea and it works really well. It took me awhile to get the fungal to work, because I was filtering it too much with socks. Bacterial worked right away. I also use surround footies and ziploc bags. I think a lot of organic people like myself use a variety of strategies and work with all the principles of nature instead of one spray.
I probably live in a climate that Scott would consider easier for fruit than the South, although it's not as easy as California or the intermountain West. I am not telling anyone else how they should garden.
John S
PDX OR