I can sympathize with your heavy pest pressure. I guess I would expect as much from GA. Same story here. Still, since GA known for growing beautiful peaches, I'd say your success isn't far out of reach. Most commercial spray guides recommend an average spray interval of 10 days to two weeks. Practically speaking, rain wash off forces me to spray about once a week during the wet part of the season. Still, I wouldn't automatically assume you have to spray weekly. One problem you're going to face is that with such a heavy spray schedule, it will be difficult using the few homeowner products available to stay within the guidelines of the labels. In other words, labels generally limit the amount of applications per season. Spraying even every ten days will take you over the limit. Let me try to give you some practical recommendations. Fungicides: Captan-A lot of folks on this list don't speak very highly of it, but I've had good luck with it. It has multi-site activity, low risk for disease resistance, and it doesn't wash off that easily (I can still see the film after a light rain) I really wonder if it doesn't get a bad rap because folks mix it in water that is too alkaline. The universities warn repeatedly that it is very subject to rapid breakdown in alkaline water. I buffer my water with a little citric acid before using it. Citric acid is available in grocery stores, or in larger quantities on-line. Captan is available in all kinds of homeowner formulations, and depending on the label is listed for most fruit crops. I think the label on my formulation allows up to 9 applications per season on peaches. Montery Fungi Fighter- This is a powerful fungicide for BR. Although I don't use this homeowner formulation, I use the commercial equivalent, Bumper, aka Tilt, aka Orbit. The commercial product is only labeled for about 4 applications per season for brown rot (two very early applications for blossom blight and two late applications for BR on the fruit). Immunox- This has the same mode of action as Montery Fungi fighter, but can be used on apples. I don't think fungi fighter can be used on pomes. Chlorothalinil- Available in many homeowner formulations. It is primarily used for leaf curl, but is also labeled for BR in blossoms. It can be used up to shuck split. There are warnings that it can be phytotoxic to foliage, but I haven't seen it, except on tomatoes. Still, make sure you use the lower rate on the label. Copper- Since you already have it, I won't say much about it other than Kocide 3000 is a new formulation that is less phytotoxic than other formulations. It's available on the internet. Insecticides: There are less choices here, but here are a few. All are lethal to bees. Triazicide Once and Done- This is a homeowner formulation of a powerful commercial product called Proaxis. It will probably be the mainstay of your summer spray program. I think it allows up to 9 applications per season. It can be used on both stone and pome fruits. However, if used extensively on pome fruits, it may cause a mite outbreak. A little summer oil mixed in may suppress mites. Fortunately, peaches aren't as susceptible to mites. Sevin (Carbaryl)-Widely available in garden stores. I use a little bit of it. It's not that great for moths, but it's one of the most effective products available for Japanese beetles. It's also somewhat effective against plum curculio. It's residues only effective about a week on the tree. Oil- You already know about. Most oils can be used in the summer at a lower rate to control mites and other small crawlers. That's about it for effective homeowner pesticides. Unfortunately, the insecticides probably won't get you through the season. Here is one commercial alternative. Imidan-I don't use it myself but several folks on this forum recommend and use it. It's a commercial product available on Ebay. It has some issues you should know about should you decide to use it. The link below covers a long discussion about it. Imidan, like Captan, is very subject to breakdown (hydrolysis) in alkaline water. Imidan can be sprayed up to about 4 times per season for peach. Many more for apple. Make sure you read the labels before you purchase your products. Labels can generally be found by Googling. Lastly, I can't imagine what would be attacking the swollen buds of your trees. I've heard of winter moths in the east attacking trees in the winter. Maybe that's what it is. Generally the earliest you have to start spraying insecticides (other than oil) is sometime after petal fall for curculio. Here is a link that might be useful: Discussion of Imidan

For most of zone 7 the growing season ends around the 1st of november to the 15 of november. Good thing about living along the coast is frost comes pretty late in the fall because the sea temperatures are still fairly warm from the summer The northeast and mid atlantic should watch out on friday morning though, because many areas will be getting a hard frost, that includes NYC, philly, and maybe DC, (as well as all the coastal areas which are the few areas that havent gotten a frost yeton the eastern seabord). Also those spike plants are very close relatives to ti plants. Spike plants are also known as Cabbage trees and can grow really large (and look quite tropical too). They are cold tolerant to 10F making them zone 8 plants, but Ive seen a some survive zone 7 winters in pots. I saw someone near me planted them in the ground and they survived three winters with no protection at all and were in very exposed areas. They got to be almost 4 feet tall, and if they were protected that one cold night, they would probably still be alive today. Good luck.

Watching the weather and happy to see improvement and read some reports of garden survival! I have been thinking of building simple shelters for my potted driveway plants. I know someone who lives in the ever changeable climate of North TX who constructed collapsible frames from PVC. I think he built flat panels and then drilled holes for wire "hinges" of sorts so he could unfold them and lock them open with tree tie supports, the kind with open loops for sliding the ends through and locking with a twist. (Sorry about vocabulary loss. I know those ties have a name.) Then, like John, he drapes and ties old textiles over the frames. Every time we get a weird cold spell, I swear I'm going to make a set of "freezer frames". Carol

I just use Glyphosate bc it's what I have left around here from my farming days. A pint bottle will last a homeowner for years if all you use it for is killing unwanted trees like European buckthorn. Ask me how I know. ;-) If the tree is larger than a few inches in diameter, a chain saw will make short work of the trunk. Then a shovel and an axe can be used to dig around the stump and chop through the laterals and tap root, if any. It's a job but then you don't have an unwanted stump to deal with. A really big stump will need to be ground out with a machine. I don't know if a Callery pear will sprout shoots from the left over laterals or not.