"I just didn't know who to ask for realistic information and not just rumor." Rachel, This is an understandable dilemma. There are lots of people out there that will give you all kinds of wacky advice. It can be difficult for someone new to fruit growing to sift through it all. This forum can be an excellent resource for you. You still have to sift through advice, but with a little effort you can do it successfully. Pay particular attention to some of the seasoned fruit growers like Scott Smith, Harvestman, Fruitnut and others. People like that may not be from your area, but because of experience and reading, have a good intuitive sense of growing fruit. You won't hear nonsense from them. Advice from Extension personnel and Master Gardeners can be very dicey. Patty has had good experiences with both, but many Extension and MG personell don't know what their talking about when it comes to serious home fruit plantings. They are simply giving you secondhand information they read from a book and have no idea what are the real challenges for home fruit growers. Regarding your question about the Bonide Citrus and Nut fruit spray. A quick search reveals that it's nothing special. The active ingredients are sulfur and pyrethrin. Sulfur is an organically listed fungicide that has been used for centuries. It has some insecticidal properties for minor insects like mites. It is less effective than synthetic fungicides, so must be applied more often. Pyrethrin is a naturally occurring insecticide derived and concentrated from chrysanthemums. It has also been around for years and is also less effective than synthetic counterparts and therefore must be applied more often for control. It should be noted that because these substances are natural, doesn't necessarily mean they are safer for applicators. There are synthetic fungicides and insecticides that are safer than both sulfur and pyrethrin. Because your Citrus and Nut spray has an insecticide, you would never want to spray this product at bloom because it would kill pollinating bees. You don't say whether you have sweet cherries or tart cherries. Tart cherries will generally bloom and fruit just fine without worries to blossoms. Sweet cherries are more susceptible to what's called blossom blast. Blossom blast is caused by bacteria working in conjunction with frost. Basically certain bacteria make blossoms more susceptible to frost damage. There are some products available to reduce this damage with variable results, but Citrus and Nut spray will do nothing to prevent blossom blast. Generally speaking, it doesn't make sense for home growers to spray anything at bloom. I would ignore advice to spray your cherry blooms.

Gloria: not to be a bummer but, your best defense going organic with CAR will be planting resistant trees from my experience. From what I've read, the sulfurs won't work very well against CAR, in addition they shouldn't be sprayed when the temps. get above 85-90F (I think) or they will burn the foliage. They can be washed off easily leading to freqent sprays which is O.K. if you have the time and the weather cooperates during the infection periods (wet weather). Between resistant trees and very diligent organic methods you might do fine, I don't know, but I heartily applaud your effort. Keep us informed. You will learn what does and doesn't work for you which is what it is all about. Oh yes, I have benefitted enormously from having a digital camera with macro capabilities. The plant pathology lab @ K-state accepts images for diagnostic purposes. Olpea: have you seen the link below? Probably applies better to your local than mine in the NC part of the state. It is for commercial growers but highly educational if one can comprehend it. I had to print the beast out and poured over it for hours referencing other materials in the process. Here is a link that might be useful: 2009 Midwest Tree Fruit and Spray Guide

I actually make my living managing home and estate orchards so maybe my opinion will carry some weight here. No, I don't completely agree with your approach. Using herbicides to speed establishment and increase productivity is acceptable to me, although it is not something I do in managing home and estate orchards as a general rule. Mulching accomplishes the same thing and more- although the extra work is a negative from an efficiency stand point. Your expressed reason of eliminating pests by eliminating all other plants in the vicinity of your trees is what I disagree with, because all major pests will have no trouble finding your trees from longer distances. I don't understand the fall application of herbicide- I should think mid-summer would be the time to end such applications or maybe late summer for latest ripening fruit. Mid winter oil would be a waste of time for me as the only reason I have to apply it is to help control mites, scale and pear psyla and they are much more vulnerable when trees first start growing in early spring. Immunox is only useful in spring. It is not affective for summer fungus on apples or brown rot on stone fruit- use Monterey Fungus Fighter for brown rot and maybe Captan for fly speck and sooty blotch if those are your summer apple fungus pests. I don't know what the Bayer product is but I'd stick with Triazide if I was you. Your program seems arbitrary and not based on a complete understanding of the pests you are trying to control or the efficacy of the material you are using to control them. You need to monitor your pests and figure out what they are specific to your site. Perhaps you can get some help from your cooperative extension or a nearby experienced grower on this. I can't speak for your pests and I know you need much later insect control where you are than where I am in southeastern NY, but I doubt you need to spray until a couple of weeks before harvest. I usually don't need any insect control during summer as worst pests have finished their cycle by then.

Check out Edible Landscaping in Afton VA. He has plenty of low spray fruiting plants and many types of figs available. If your yard is small I would say you'd want to have different cultivars of everything you plant so that you can stretch the harvest season. I grow the bush cherries. In full sun they eventually taste like pie cherries, in part sun they taste more like wild plums. I'm in zone 7b (Raleigh NC) and all of mine catch some sort of disease every year that disfigures the leaves a bit and sometimes the fruit also. I grow them mainly for the blooms in the spring. A very ornamental bush. I have raspberries and blackberries that only need to be pruned - I never spray them. There are cultivars of apples and pears that require very little spraying (if any) but they are often not the tastiest or best looking. You just have to try things in your yard and be prepared to rip something out and try another variety until you find something that works for you.