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

Ace, I have been relying on Surround early on, then spinosad, as well as oiling eggs along the way. I also have mating disruption placed in my orchard (which there is another thread going about right now) and I regularly prune the flagging tips to eliminate those future moths. I can't reliably say what is giving the most help because I am doing all of these things, but the population has been going down steadily for the last several years. I have my glue trap in a spot where there is usually the most damage and there is a lot of tip flagging, so there are plenty of moths about there. My codling moth trap does catch a lot, but not my OFM trap. The main thing I use the trap for is to time the generations, the first few generations are highly localized in time. When you see a few moths in the trap it means mating and egg-laying is happening and its time to hit the whole tree (especially tips) with oil in a few days to get any eggs. It takes 1-3 weeks for the eggs to hatch depending on how cold it is (1 week if really hot and 3 weeks if really cold). The spinosad needs to be out when they are hatching so that means a few weeks after the trapping is prime spinosad time. The first flagged tips is a good indicator for when to hit the spinosad, it means the leading edge of that generation has just hatched and you want to quickly spray before they have all burrowed into the tips out of reach. For the later generations they shift from a focus on tips to the fruits and the generations blur so the timing can't be done as well. Scott

I will post some photos later but this year I tried bagging, apples, grapes and chums with either ziplocks or organza bags to keep the birds/bugs away. Organza bags being the nylon mesh bags used for wedding gifts and the like. I bought mine from: http://www.yourorganzabag.com/organzabag.htm. I used Moss Green as they are not visible in the foliage. I used the 6x9 bags but are they are a bit short for long grapes. Perfect for plums and apples and small bunches of grapes. I trimmed off the top of the ziplock just to the zipper part. Then at each bottom corner I cut off a triangle of plastic to leave about a 3/4 - 1 inch hole for ventilation. After 4 months there is a big difference. The ziplocks act like little greenhouses. There is nearly always significant condensation inside. The bags have a tendency to collapse and even with the drain holes there can be 5-10ml of cumulative water condensation inside. Earwigs like to crawl up via the condensation holes and hang out. The Organza bags have no issues. The are well sealed, no bugs get inside and ventilation is perfect. For apples, there does not seem to be a big issue with the heat/humidity. They seem to be growing and coloring up roughly the same no matter which bag. For the plums and grapes there are a huge difference. Once starting to turn color there is skin breakdown and rot formation in the ziplocked grapes. Coluration of the grapes also seems to be better in with the Organza bags. My Organza bags cost about $0.22 each vs $0.04/ziplock. However after 3 months they still look pretty much like new and as I am harvesting grapes I keep the bags for re-use next year. Another positive is the Organza bags have no perperation time (ziplocks you need to trim 2 corners + the tag) and are super easy to install. The Organza bags have a drawstring, you just open the bag, pull the string then tie a bow over the branch. For me, for the look (my trees don't look like they are covered in plastic), the ease of installation and the ventilation I will be using Organza bags from now on. Not sure for apples if you would see a difference with airborn fungus and scab but they work great for all insect and bird related problems. I think they would work awesome for peaches as they breath very well but keep the bugs/birds out. Just my experience up here in zone 4.

I don't think the cooperative extension is necessarily going to be that helpful in providing info on lowest spray programs unless there's someone there with a special interest in fruit trees. I have a very good cooperative extension but they could never provide me with a helpful program although they are very good at ID'ing pests. Cornell doesn't do research on growing fruit in home orchards, where fruit doesn't have to be pristine and pest pressure tends to be less than in huge orchard monocultures. Both Cornell and Rutgers, the NJ source of extension info, provide unreliable info on fruit pest control for home growers. I can't speak for other states, but none of them has a mandate or enough funding to do research and distribute legitimate info for home growers beyond trying to stop them from poisoning themselves or the environment. They usually recommend pre-mix fruit sprays and often malathion with too large intervals between sprays. They tend to me unaware of newer, safer and more affective formulations such as Triazide and Rally. The best thing to do, IMO, is start with a 2 insecticide program if you are in about Z7 or colder and see what happens. Then you can find out what the sweet spot is and if trees are young, not risk much fruit in the process. Or better still, don't spray the first crop at all and identify pests as they appear, sacrificing a small amount of fruit for your education. That is, if you can't get info from a nearby grower who seems competent. If I lived near Scott, for instance, I would expect to have problems with Oriental fruit moth, which would greatly complicate a spray schedule beyond what I currently have to do. It's a pest that's becoming a greater liability in my area and may soon increase the number of necessary sprays here. I used to have a problem with OFM deforming nursery peach trees after my low spray was over (they attacked shoots but not fruits). For a while there was a company that sold a pheromone bait formula with a pyrethroid bait that is extremely affective for me. I still have some bait left but it's been taken off the market for some stupid reason.