Jean: You have a bunch of cures in search of a disease. A better method is to try to identify what, if any, insects and diseases are troubling your trees and proceed from there. It is not too late by any means to apply dormant oil, lime/sulphur, or a combination of the two on your trees. I am in a warmer zone than you, and my trees are still in tight bud. Bonide combination fruit tree spray may be good enough for your tree during the growing season if you do not have severe insect pressures. But if you have an infestation of the tough plum curculio or codling moth, you may have to look for something more targeted at those pests. Combination sprays often contain Sevin, Malathion, and a fungicide, but are weak in all these components. You might also consider bagging your apples in ziplock sandwich bags if you want to reduce spray requirements. You are lumping fungicides/insecticides and fertilizers/soil amendments into the same lump, when they are really quite separate issues. You won't do any harm to fruit trees with kelp or bone meal, but these things are expensive, and your fruit trees may not need it. Osmocote is a dynamite fertilizer for indoor and container plants, but so expensive I would never use it in-ground. My fruit trees receive no targeted fertilizer at all, other than the coverage of 12-12-12 that happens to fall around them as I fertilize the lawn. I keep the area around my trees mulched with stable manure that breaks down and gradually feeds the trees. Fruit tree spikes are a jolt of nitrogen that I definately would not use around fruit trees, since excessive nitrogen often leads to exuberant leafy growth at the expense of fruit formation. If your apple trees are a couple years old or so, now would be a good time to begin selecting and spreading your scaffold branches. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

I manage lots of trees in estates where manicured turf meets the trunks of trees and I have no real control of chemical regimen involved with the golf-green perfect turf. If properly applied weed and feed damaged trees, I wonder how golf courses would ever have any. I am no advocate for these kinds of dicot free turf management systems, but on the bright side, all those chemicals free the lawn of stink and tarnished plant bug nurturing broad-leaf weeds. TPB jumps from the weeds to the trees every time you mow. Intense turf management also controls grubs which should reduce Japanese beetle problems as well. I'd still keep those people off my property and lawn. Also, establishing trees should definitely have a mulched grass free ring around the trunk for rapid growth.

Ace: Look's like you've got me here. The first FAQ indeed mentions control of the June beetle. This is one of those rare cases where product claims have actually understated their real ability to control pests. Oddly, the last FAQ on the list seems to directly contradict the first. This is the first time I have seen a claim that milky spore controls anything other than Japanese beetles. But the news may be better than that, based on experience here in the past growing season after application of milky spore (as I recall) in late June, 2006. The only previous milky spore application I made was around 1979, and the effect indeed lasted nearly 20 years, although it seemed to weaken in the last few years of that period, and I did have infestations of other types of beetles, as well as some increase in JB's. It turns out that the brown beetles I have always called June bugs are really one or another type of Chafer Beetle, which comes in the Masked Chafer, Rose Chafer, European Chafer varieties, and several other related species. The true June Beetle looks more like a Japanese Beetle on steroids, larger and flatter than the JB, but with a similar iridescent green color of the head and wings. This beetle has never been present in serious numbers here, but the Chafers have often defoliated particulars targets of their choice, especially plum trees and sweet cherries, and done quite a bit of damage to other fruit trees and garden crops too. Chafers feed mostly at night, and their season is usually shorter than the JB, but they are no more welcome. This past season, I not only saw no Japanese beetles, but almost no Chafers either, leading me to wonder if the milky spore had some effect on their larvae too. One swallow does not make a spring, and one season is not really a scientific test, but it is extremely unusual for me to go through a summer season with almost no beetles of any kind. One other thing I noticed in the FAQ's is some confirmation of my belief that the JB does not fly far before beginning to feed, and that the effects of the milky spore will continue to enlarge in area so long as there are larvae to infect. This is consistent with my experience, since I have no JB's, but properties only a few hundred feet away still do. It certainly seems worthwhile to put this milky spore down, although I would go with the pure culture that comes in a can, not the bagged stuff for spreader application which has a very low component of active spore. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Thanks for the information. I will let the neighbor know that it contains arsenic. You are right: that is a word people will pay attention to. As for our exposure to heavy metals, I am a vegetarian and don't eat meat at all and the kids and dh only eat meat when we are out and about. We try to eat low on the food chain..blah blah blah :) I used to eat fish when I was in college though. They sent me copies of the labels, so I wonder if it is an alternate spelling that the manufacturer uses. It looks like that last ingredient is the one with arsenic. Here is info from the manufacturers website: Active Ingredient Dimethylamine salt of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.56% Dimethylamine salt of (+)-(R)-2-(2-methyl-4-chlorophenoxy) propionic acid . . . 8.17% Dimethylamine salt of dicamba: 3,6-dichloro-o-anisic acid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2.77% Thanks again for following up on this with me. The funny thing is I wasn't aware that they put these on the neighbor's lawn and I have no idea how much it any made it into my lawn. I complained about the granular substance which was probably fertilizer that they didn't send me information on.