Marknmt, As one whose sprayed quite a bit of picloram (Tordon) I agree it is quite powerful. I've sprayed it on the bark of thorny locust and killed whole trees. I know its been in the press in America and the UK lately, but in spite of all the press, I think the risks of picloram tainted manure are a bit trumped up. I've been in agriculture all my life in one way or another. For a few years I owned a hay crew (square bales). In this area, people rarely apply fertilizer to hay ground, even less, pesticides. There simply isn't enough margin in hay ground to justify the expense. Even if they did apply a carry over product like picloram (and around here it would be very rare) the carry over and diluted effect probably wouldn't harm the trees. In spite of what the literature says, it only lasts a year (I've seen broad leaf crops germinate a year after it was applied). The same applies to tainted grass clippings. I've heard people warn against chemically laced clippings. However, I have a sign in front of my house requesting clippings, leaves, and chipped wood. For years I've put grass clippings around my garden crops, including tomatoes. I've never noticed anything but excessive vigor from this type of mulch. I'm confident these clippings are from lawns loaded with herbicide residues because so many lawns around here picture perfect. I think the reason they are innocuous to my tomatoes is that most of these herbicides bind to the soil and are rendered ineffective by the time they reach the roots. Mark, I hope I haven't come on too strong here, but my experience simply doesn't mesh with the admonitions. I understand others may have different experiences. Ryan, You bring up some good points. I've also read not to fertilize newly planted trees. However, nurseries and commercial orchards frequently fertigate (even the first year) to get a jump on growth. I think this could be especially relevant to your situation where the soil seems to be poor. In terms of specific Miracle Grow recommendations, I can't give you any. Only that your soil seems to be lacking something, so as an immediate measure, I would add a complete fertilizer (NPK plus trace minerals). Admittedly this is a shotgun approach, but without a soil test, I know of no other way. There is a lady from TN on the Nafex fruit group who complains about how poor her soil is. Maybe her experience has unjustifiably biased me, but I can't help thinking of her experience when I see your pics. But in all candidness, I'm only throwing educated guesses at your problem, as anyone on this list can do. It's a bit early for any serious pest control. Your extension is doing you a disservice to recommend Malathion for any serious pest control. You'll find some university extensions are well tuned to the needs of fruit trees. Others are merely a chapter ahead of you in the most basic cultural fruit practices. It's possible your peach tree could fruit next year. In that case, I would post more specific pest control questions this fall, or winter. Regarding the manure. I would just call around to local stables. There is one about 2 miles from me. They have more manure than they can get rid of and stack it in piles. Although I've not used their manure (because my mulch sign works so well for me) I have used other stable manure. I've also used loads of composted dead pigs. The only problem I've observed is that if the stable waste is extremely hot, it produces a lot of vegetative growth at the expense of fruit.

Hi Andy_Levine- Good to hear back from you. As many people here know, I'm on a bit of a crusade these days to steer people away from the Bonide Fruit Tree Spray. When I first started coming to this forum, people told me to stay away from it, but I didnÂt understand why, nor what the alternatives were. 1.) The part that IÂm most mad about is that they say it works on CAR, when its active ingredients are ineffective on CAR. I know people who sprayed this stuff 15 times in a season attempting to fight CAR when thereÂs no way it ever could. Many a people have lost a lot of time, money, and tree due to this blatant mislabeling IMHO. 2.) Because itÂs a combination spray, itÂs having you spray other chemicals that you donÂt need. ItÂs much better and more effective to target your individual pests and diseases. 3.) The ingredients that it does have are not present in sufficient quantities to be effective anyway. (This from other experts, like Don, here on this forum) The only thing I wonder if itÂs effective (for me anyway) on is for that time when the apples first start to form, until they are bagged. It may be protecting me at that time, but even with that, the jury is still out and itÂs debatable. (IÂve just purchased some Permethrin to take over that role) My advice to you would be to throw that crap away. Then, pay close attention to your trees. And, when you see something that you donÂt like, and donÂt understand, do some research, and come to this forum and ask questions. Many people here are happy to help. Yeah, itÂs funny how early the sprays happen. You look at the tree during bloom time and it looks so beautiful and peaceful. ItÂs hard to believe that this is the time when some of the serious diseases are just starting to get going. By the time we actually see the damaged caused by the diseases, itÂs usually too late to do anything about it. ItÂs actually nice that it works out this way it means that if youÂre willing to bag your apples, youÂre not doing any sprays when there are actually apples on the tree. That makes me feel safer about the spraying. Good luck, -Glenn

We had a tree situation here. We had a very large, old Pin Oak in the back corner of our lot. That is, until hurricane Isabell hit. We woke up in the morning to see the Pin Oak was now stretched diagonally along our fence line with the majority of the tree in the back fence neighbor's yard. It had been uprooted during the night and we never heard it fall. We were fortunate in that the tree had fallen diagonally instead of any other direction. Had it fallen straight back, would have wiped out the house behind ours, slightly to the right, would have damaged the house next to the back fence neighbor. Straight back would have damaged the back side of our house and to the left our other neighbor's house. Checked with the county and our insurance company and both said all we had to worry about was the part that was on our property. This came under "The Act Of God" clause. The tree was healthy but due to the extremely high water table, roots were very shallow. The neighbor did try to have us remove the larger portion from their yard, but the insurance company told them so sorry, not their (us) problem. Shortly thereafter that neighbor sold the house and the new owner wanted to know what we were going to do about that tree. He was sure we were responsible for having it removed and wouldn't take our word that we had all ready been through this with the previous owner. It occurred to me later, why didn't he make the removal of the tree part of the condition of the sale?

I use Myclo with Captan a lot as is the Cornell rec to delay resistance issues with Myclo and because Cap spreads to new growth during light rain. 3 sprays of myclo will absolutely control CAR in my experience at scores of sites with hundreds of varieties over the last 20 years. Often I have relied entirely on myclo for scab and CAR control. Many sites I only use a petal fall and first cover fungicide spray and have never seen bad CAR damage on fruit- at most a few specks on foliage that is harmless. But, of course, timing is everything and I can only speak for conditions in the 2 states (NY and CT) and 2-3 zones where I've managed orchards. I also have a more powerful sprayer than most home growers so it's easy for me to get good coverage. Here's my sched, if you are interested. REPRINT PERMISSION FROM ALAN HAIGH REQUIRED ________________________________________ Low Spray Schedule for Home Orchards in the Northeast Here's my spray schedule for the scores of orchards I manage around SE NY adapted for home owners managing a few fruit trees. It has functioned well for me for over 2 decades, although J. Beetles and brown rot of stone fruit increases the number of sprays and necessary pesticides some years some sites. Stink bugs are also an increasing problem requiring more subsequent sprays when they appear. Time of spray is based on apple bloom as that is the predominant fruit here but I generally get away with spraying all trees at the time I spray apples. Please note that pesticide labels must be read before their use and my recommendations do not override the rules on the label. The label is the law. This document only communicates what has worked for me and your results may vary depending on local pest pressure, which may require a different spray schedule. Spray needs to be applied thoroughly throughout the trees and with a back pack or any human powered sprayer this is more easily accomplished in the morning before breezes usually pick up. Dormant oil (this is optional if there were no mites or scale issues the previous season, which is usually the case in home orchards). Do oil spray from when emerging green shoots are 1/2" to just before the flower clusters begin to show a lot of pink. Mix Immunox (myclobutinol) at highest legal rate (listed on label for controlling scab and cedar apple rust on apple trees) with 1 to 2% oil( 1 to 2 quarts per 25 gallons of water). If it's closer to pink use 1%. Never spray oil on open or almost open flowers. Don't spray again until petal fall when petals have mostly gone from latest flowering varieties and bees have lost interest. Then spray Triazide (Spectracide Once and Done) + Immunox mixed together at highest legal rates. Repeat once in 10 to 14 days. Where I manage orchards, the space between earliest flowering Japanese plums and latest flowering apples is only 2 weeks or so which usually allows me to wait until the latest flowering trees are ready to begin spraying anything. Plum curculio seems to time its appearance conveniently to the rhythm of the last flowering apple varieties. This may not be true where you are. If plums or peaches need oil they may need application before apples. I’ve only had mites on European plums here and never need oil for other stone fruit. All this is based on plum curculio being your primary insect problem which is the case most areas east of the Mis. River. These sprays will also absolutely control scab, CAR and Mildew as well as most of the crop fatal insects. Apple fly maggot is an exception as it tends to emerge a couple of weeks after last spray looses effectiveness, but I haven't had much of a problem with this pest in the orchards I manage. This pest can be controlled with a lot of fake apples smeared with tangle trap. If you don't want to use synthetic chemicals try 4 applications of Surround about a week apart starting at petal fall. You may need to start on earlier flowering varieties as soon as they drop petals because Surround is a repellent and can’t kill eggs after they’ve been inserted into the fruit. When temperatures permit it is good to mix horticultural oil with 2 or those applications as Surround makes a nice home for mites and scale. Stone fruit may require the addition of an application or 2 of Indar (Monterey Fungus Fighter is closest available chemical for home growers) starting 4 weeks before first peaches ripen. Apricots must be sprayed sooner if they are scab susceptible with same compound. On some sites that single spray will also prevent serious rot on later ripening varieties on seasons not particularly wet. If it is wet spray the later varieties again two weeks later. Because I manage so many orchards so far apart I have to resort to a spray schedule that is based on expectations rather than actual monitoring. You may be able to reduce insecticide sprays with monitoring but PC can enter an orchard overnight and if your insecticide lacks kick-back (as is the case with Triazide), do a lot of damage in a couple of days. Other problems may occur later in the season and you will in time learn to monitor and react to the pitfalls. Good luck, Alan Haigh- The Home Orchard and Nursery Co.