Girl, be careful with overhead spraying of fruit trees. My Dad, who had probably 12 of them, sprayed them for the 12 years they lived in Texarkana before retiring to Air Force Village in San Antonio. He started having heart racing, excruciating headaches, blood pressure shot up, siezures in the middle of the night (never happened in the daytime!), leg jerking and Mom had to ruch him to the hospital at Carswell AFB in Shreveport, the nearest military hospital to his home.
By the time he'd get there 1½ hours away, all symptoms would have subsided or gone away! So they'd run a couple tests and send him home. It got to where it was happening about every 2 weeeks! Well, one time it happened when I was visiting and it was so scary to me, Georgia, (Dad VERY seldom got sick) I suggested we drive all the way to San Antonio to the big Military Medical Center at Lackland AFB for a second opinion. They's already gone to Carswell 2-3 times with it to no avail. So on the way down to S.A. I got to thinking about the fact that it just HAD to be something he was doing or exposed to in the daytime that would hit him in the middle of the night ONLY. I said to Mom "I remember Daddy spraying the fruit trees this afternoon. Do you think the sprays could be fallling back down on him and he's breathing too much in?
I had JUST, a month earlier watched a TV program on a Houston channel about rural pesticide poisoning (Dad's symptoms WERE indeed similar to the many stories they told) As we anticipated, S.A. ran a couple more tests and some unusual substances were detected in the blood tests that concerned the doctor. At that juncture, I asked the doctor if using common garden sprays could cause these symptoms. Dad had a 2 acre garden and a dozen fruit trees. BINGO! He said it might just be the culprit! Asked me to get the specific names & ingredients for ALL of them Dad used via email when we got back home. Carefully typed them out and emailed him back when I got home. He confirmed in his reply "acute pesticide poisoning". No treatment is available for it other than pain relief for the headaches and anti siezure meds for that. Told Dad you just have to 'ride it out' while it leaves your systsem. It will slowly leave. It took about 3 months for it to finally stopped and then he wasn't bothered with it again.
To this day, I rarely use garden sprays and will NEVER use them overhead at our BOL. It was sifting back on his skin and face as he looked up into the trees and of course, one would breathe it in if it was thick enough in ithe air underneath the trees. And Daddy was always a very thorough sprayer, so he may have OVER used the products unknowingly.
For my BOL trees, I'll protect with bird netting, and with sheets for the occasional freeze warnings, but if my trees get worms or disease, I guess I just won't get much fruit those years, because I don't ever to go through what he went through.
On the fertilizer front, we will have access to chicken poo eventually, when we put a few hens in the coop that's on the place already. My husband is warming up to the idea now because he loves eggs and for bartering. Have all the cow manure I need since we lease pasture to a farmer with 12 cows. Save it down by the barn, aging as I type. Our lease fellow just butchered his very first cow for his own consumption and gave us a few packages of meat yesterday to try while we were there. I've had grass-fed beef many a time, but a local source would be so nice when SHTF. Going to try to strike up that deal next time our paths cross down there. Said he was planning to do one cow a year for him and his son. A coincidence, he processed with a small nearby butcher in Westphalia who is the brother of our best man! Small world! All goodness ahead, in moer ways than one for us.
