I have grown peaches, totally without any type of insect control or fertilization, and not had too many problems. We had two peach trees, dwarf Fingerlakes and dwarf Reliance amongst our small (14 trees) home orchard and they were the least trouble and most reliable.

My biggest problem with the peach trees was to remove about 2/3 of the peaches, while they were still small, so that the tree branches wouldn't break! Pruning was fairly easy because the trees were so small.

Cherries I never had any luck with (Stella), plums produced once in 17 years, and apples always got attacked by bugs and diseases. The peaches just kept doing their thing - producing enough for us, our neighbor's kids, and a friend who would make several pies each year (and don't forget the deer and chipmunks too).

I have a Reliance going into its 4th year and we haven't had any insect problems with it at all. Much less troublesome than any apple tree we've grown. Last year we had a bumper crop of peaches. Most delicious peaches I've ever had.

Whew. When I got no responses for several days, I started thinking I was looney to even consider such a thing! Delighted to hear that pests aren't problematic for peaches in 4 and 5B. I'll call the Extension service for zone 6 info. Do you prune religiously?
Still hoping someone will chime in about cherries.
Thanks for the optimistic peach info.

OK, I will throw in my $0.02.

Yes, get the peach trees. Buy a dwarf so you can reach around the tree more easily. A full sized tree will be bigger than you want to deal with. What the others have said about removing fruit is a very real issue with a peach. If you don't do that you get TONS of too small fruit. Thin the fruits and you get much better results.

One warning. If you don't pick the peaches, but let them fall off the tree and rot, you'll have more yellow jackets under that tree than you ever knew existed. Growing up outside of Philadelphia the next door neighbors had two full sized peach trees in their front yard which they never thinned and rarely picked. In August it was unsafe to walk in their front yard because of all the yellow jackets feasting upon the rotting fruit under those trees.

Peaches and cherries are both in the genus "Prunus". The plants in that genus are subject to lots of pests (The plants don't devote many resources to protecting themselves. Instead they devote lots of resources to making fruit, so this is just the way things are and you have to reconcile yourself to this if you want to grow your own.)

Sweet cherries and sour ("pie") cherries are two different species of "Prunus". Sweet cherries (mostly, with a couple of exceptions) require two different varieties near each other in order to make fruit because they (mostly) won't self-pollinate. None of that is true of sour cherries. One sour cherry tree standing by itself will make fruit. By & large sweet cherries are big trees. If you don't by a grafted, dwarf sweet cherry you'll someday have a tree that will be 20'-30' tall if it's happy. That's not so true of pie cherries, which are often naturally small trees (Of course, you may find that even one sour cherry produces more fruit than you want to deal with. That will depend upon your interest in cooking. Cherries are only ripe for a very short season, so you have to make sure you have time to do something with the cherries when the tree is ripe. Otherwise you've missed the point for a whole year.

Both species of cherries also have a lot of pests, although probably not quite as many as peaches have.

Oh! One final thought regarding cherries. THE BIRDS ARE FIENDS FOR CHERRIES! They usually eat the fruit while it's ripening, but before it's fully ripe, so you have to contend with the birds, too. Not all birds of course, but the fruit eating ones, eg., robins, starlings, mockingbirds, and catbirds. Don't buy those owl decoys. Waste of money. You'll probably soon decide that the only real way to keep some of the cherries for yourself is to cover the tree with netting just before the cherries start getting color. This is yet another BIG reason for making sure you buy a dwarf cherry!

(As I said, the most commonly available pie cherries are naturally small, but if you want sweet cherries you will have to buy a dwarfed tree. You may only be able to find "semi-dwarf" sweet cherries. Even so, they will be smaller trees than the full sized ones will be. I've also read before that for sweet cherries, the birds are less interested in the "yellow" varities (like Rainier) than they are in the red ones. I have no personal experience with that.)

The biggest state for pie cherries is Michigan, so I doubt very much that your climate will be inhospitable for pie cherries. My impression is that they grow best in climates with moderately cold (zone 5 or 6) winters and coolish summers.

Thank you very much, york rose. One last question: "Backyard Orchardist" suggests prepping soil a year in advance by planting summer, fall and winter cover crops. I am tempted to till grass, add lots of compost and plant this season.... Should I take the long route instead?
Thx,
ML

It never hurts to do lots of "soil feeding" in advance and organic matter improves a soil like nobody's business! Having said that, how crucial it is that you do lots of advance work will depend to a large degree upon your soil and upon your patience.