Merit 75 WP, which is the same active ingredient, imadicloprid, is approved for use on "Pome Fruits" per the label. I don't personally see why it would be any less safe on a peach than on an apple when sprayed at the same concentration. It also might not be a question of safety, but one of efficacy. Perhaps stone fruits don't absorb the A.I. as well, so it's not effective on them (although I find this hard to believe with this particular compound, since it's pretty universally effective on most any plant). Sometimes, only certain crops are listed on a label because: 1) the safety testing required by the government pre-approval and release is very expensive to conduct 2) the company hoping to release the chemical targets the crops and markets it feels will give it the best return on its investment in terms of the widest use. Just because a certain plant or class of plants isn't listed on the label doesn't necessarily mean that the product won't be safe and effective when used on those crops. It may just mean the company didn't feel like it would be worth the investment to test the chemical on these crops. Also, the tests may be ongoing with results pending, and the company decided to release and later add to the list of approved crops on the label. The thing that I keep thinking about pesticides is how concerned people seem to be about spraying anything on their trees. Yet, the vast majority of people eat fruit imported from all over the world, places like Chile, Honduras, Mexico, etc., where environmental laws, food safety laws, and pesticide laws are much more lax than ours. God only knows what's been used on imported fruit in your average grocery store? Probably stuff that was banned in the U.S. in the 1960's. DDT, for one, is still a widely used chemical around the world, mostly in third world countries with lax laws, because it's cheap and effective at killing bugs, despite all of the colateral damage it does to the ecosystem. The USDA is supossed to test fruit imported from other countries, but the vast majority, more than 98%, slips through untested. Sorry, I spray my plants with insecticides and fungicides. I get fruit, without bugs in it. I eat it. There are plenty of ways to die of cancer -- cell phones, contaminated drinking water from industrial pollution, nitrates and nitrites in hot dogs, radon in the basement, secondhand smoke. And yes, I eat fruit from the grocery store as well in the off season. It doesn't bother me all that much. I take my life in my hands every time I get in the car and drive on the freeway with all of the crazies on the road. I figure a little pesticide residue is the least of my worries.

I've always felt that I needed the good mechanical pull that a budding rubber provides, and to keep it from drying out I think it needs to be sealed with parafilm or wax. Parafilm is my first choice because it breathes a little. But it's not enough by itself to make me feel secure! I used the Ace rubber tape this year on clefts and felt like it worked really well. Rubber tape or bands or rubbers all seem good to me. I think that if you use the wide budding rubbers or tape and overlap thoroughly then the parafilm/wax precaution is probably redundant, but it's cheap redundancy and I do it. I use wide and long rubbers also because it's easier to wrap them off- you have so much to work with, and they're cheap enough that you can afford to cut off excess. Like MiHiGirl I'm in the Rockies, but not at a mile high! We're at 3200 ft, give or take a couple of feet. But it's definitely an arid environment: we get about 12-13 inches total precip per year.

@ Davissue: That's exactly what my DH is worried about. :) The mess. And I say, like GardenGuru asked... I'm gonna eat it first!!!! Or turn it into preserves of some sort. Or juice. Or pick it and give it away. @ GardenGuru: Yes!!! I'm going to pick it and eat it :) I love fruit, and I love picking fruit, and I love making things out of fruit, and I love giving it away too :) Thank you for the suggestions. I was raised in the tropics so much of the fruits people would consider "exotic" are pretty common for me. The Cauplin cherry looks interesting but 30' tall is really much too large for that area I think. I love Lychee but they can't tolerate frost and they get too big. We already have a mulberry. @ Hoovb: Good suggestion. I know it sounds unimaginative to want to plant such "common" fruits as plums, etc. but to me they were always picked early and shipped long distances so to eat a fresh stone fruit is my idea of heaven! I buy a lot of bananas but they die back with frost here and I could never grow enough to feed my habit. Plus they're cheap :) I love cherries and blueberries and all berries. I need to have a berry section but don't know where to do it. Our Asian pear has put little fruits the past two years but I've taken them off in order to encourage the tree to put its energy into growth. @ Socalgal: Thank you. I guess talking to the nursery is a good plan for the espalier. What kind of trellis do you have? I am considering running a trellis/fence on the inside of our white fence and training them on that. Or, just getting dwarfs and letting them bush out. Here's a picture of the driveway. The house in the picture is my neighbors. My driveway is the long one on the left and my house is in the back. The fruit trees will go along the white fence. On the street side where there is no fence we are planning to put some clumping bamboo (for privacy) for the first 10' or so, then something small and hedge-ish for the last 10' for visibility issues. The length in front of the fence is approx. 40' long x 4' wide. And there is another 30+' past where the fence ends.

As for the fig do a lot of research to separate the gems from the dogs. black berries are self reproducing. Plant them in a row and they will produce the second year and thinning the excessive runners can be done with a weed whacker. Kumquats have a sweet skin and the Meiwa variety has sweet flesh when ripe. Pop the whole thing in your mouth. Sweet lemons and limes are acid-less varieties of the sour fruit. They have low sugar so they taste mildly sweet. I eat them like oranges out of hand am very new at citrus growing but have over 2 decades with apple, peaches, pears, cherries, and plums. It is very important that you time the fruiting of each of your particular trees with the quality and quantity of available sunlight for the area it is planted. Trees that may not get enough sunlight from above will need to get sunlight from east and west and will need more space between them. I have only picked and eaten one citrus fruit (Cuban Shaddock) that I picked to soon. My trees are small and I have only eaten store bought citrus. I have however picked between 300-400 figs and they are much easier to grow, variety Hardy Chicago.