Hi Axel, You mention a few things that I'd like to respond to. I'm really not sure why I'm responding because these topics are like religion or politics. Nobody's mind is changed. But just a few observations: "many synthetic chemicals have been shown to cause cancer" For my part this may be true of some pesticides, but it means very little. Gasoline is listed as a carcinogen. That doesn't cause most people to stop pumping gas. I don't even see them wearing gloves. Or any protection to keep them from breathing the fumes. The real issue is what dosage does it take to cause cancer. With pesticides the residue, even on commercial fruit is measured at ppm (well below the carcinogenic threshold. Just because something is labeled a pesticide doesn't mean it's highly toxic to humans. Hair spray is toxic to insects, yet we spray pounds on our hair (hopefully not that much daily.) My point is pesticides are designed to be toxic to the pest, yet as safe as possible for the consumer. "they are bad for the environment because they degrade very slowly." This is both true and false. Some things like DDT stay around for a long long time, others have a very short half-life. The same is true for organics. Some are very persistent, others not. "Also, they accumulate in the body." I disagree with this statement. Most synthetics are rapidly excreted out of the body. "But organic techniques have come a long way" I agree and hope progress continues in this area. However, it is also true continued progress has been made in synthetics. Newer ones are safer and in some cases more pest specific. I use a product called Intrepid. It is highly specific, lethal to just moths, and very effective. This is an advantage of synthetics, that man can engineer them to fight specific pests. "Many people don't realize that there are a large plethora of organic pesticides that are equally as effective. While they too are toxic they degrade so quickly that by the time the fruit is ripe, the pesticides are long gone." Many people don't realize how much spraying it takes to grow fruit organically southeast of Miss. Read the latest article in Fruit Grower News (I think available on-line.) There is a piece about the only existing commercial grower in the southeast. Even though he uses all the modern organic tools, he admits to spraying three times the amount of chems. as a conventional grower. My thought when I read it was, what is he doing to his land? I can't imagine what the sulfur, copper, and aluminum (Surround)buildup is doing to his soil. If our country took that approach, I'd hate to think what we would do to our rivers and watersheds.

I'm going to assume that since you gave absolutely no information that you're not "organic" but rather "neglectful". Organic is a tough row to hoe, especially since you've already let the diseases and insects get a foothold. You should consider minimal spray IPM with chemical sprays and barriers with bagging or Surround. But if you really want organic. Clean up all fallen leaves and fruit in the fall ship them out or burn them. Start your dormant sprays sometime in February and March with dormant oil and sulfur or copper. Of course this requires a time machine since you have to wait about 2 weeks between those sprays and without knowing your zone, in 2 weeks disease and/or insects may be starting to come alive and organic is all about prevention not putting a bandaid on a gaping wound. Then bag the fruit when it sets and hope the bugs that have already found you don't find you. Set out some traps to monitor the bugs and set out even more traps to reduce their populations because there really is no effective organic spray for many of the insects that go after fruit when they are going after the fruit. BT may be effective on some when they are in the larve stage and on the ground. In short you're too late for organic. Spray chemical fungicide and insecticide now. Continue spraying the insecticide until the fruit is big enough to bag or set out traps and only spray when the bugs show up in the traps. Bag the fruit and spray fungicide as needed for prevention during disease weather or as a cure if disease hits.

There is mounting scientific evidence that the use of compost tea can help suppress some diseases and insects that affect plants. When looking for real evidence on compost tea, or any other product that you have heard about don't forget that Google has a feature under the more button at the top called scholar. If you use this feature you can filter out the sales pitches and read the science. Here is an overview of what I know and have learned about compost tea. Compost tea is not a miracle cure for all diseases or pests. Evidence does show that it can suppress certain diseases, insects, even root nematodes and possibly within an acceptable level in some cases. Most fungi infect plants when the leaves are very young and vulnerable so applying compost tea, or for that mater any chemical control, after the symptoms are seen is usually not going to give you any control. Even if compost tea does not give you the desired control, it can do no harm and will supply your plants with nutrients. Compost tea seems to work better the fresher it is. There is still a great deal of research to be done on compost tea to determine how it works, on what, timing of application, production methods, how to keep it from loosing its potency over time, and a lot more. By all means add compost tea to your arsenal of things you use to protect your plants under an integrated pest management approach, but don't expect it to cure all that ails. Remember that healthy plants can grow and produce fruit with a variety of diseases and insects, depending on the pest and the level of infestation. There are also new organic fungicides such as Actinovate that use beneficial bacteria to control fungi that are showing promise, but the jury is still out on how good they are. Again do your Google scholar research on these. Also Oil(Neem or Horticultural), Soap, Bt, and Spinosad, for insect control are all accepted as organic.

The Neem oil products, Insecticidal Soaps, Sulfur dusts, and most of the plant based insecticides (pyrethrin, rotenone, etc.) are broad spectrum poisons that can, when used improperly, cause as much or more harm as the synthetic pesticides. If the soil your plants are growing in is a good healthy soil so the plants grow up strong and healthy they will be less attractive to the insect pests reducing your need to spray poisons around. If in addition you create an insectuary, a garden with a wide variety of flowering plants, that is attractive to the predators they will be there to help you maintain control of the pests. Growing organically is much more involved then simply using certain "fertilizers" and insect sprays (still poisons) and not using "chemicals" (synthetic materials) because most of the organic materials people do use are chemicals.