Welcome! I’ll encourage you to go read old posts by searching some of your questions. I have learned piles and piles from the many answers people have written for the forum- it is definitely worth it to read through old posts for the voluminous expertise in them.
I’m pretty new to this as well, so take what I say with a grain of salt but here’s my thoughts on some of this:
I would agree to this with a caveat - In my fav peach pruning videos: Mike Parker - NC State Pruning Young Peach Tree. He suggests letting some vertical upgrights grow in the center for the first 2 years, above your scaffolds, then taking them out.
It has made sense for me to do that because otherwise I would spend all my time trying to cut off vertical growth and tying down branches to get them to spread.
I have pruned whenever I have time. Rain, shine, hot, cold, … However, because of a recommendation from @Olpea I have stuck to pruning peaches/nectarines in summer.
Also, I have issues with fireblight on pears and so those I am cautious about. They are a bit of a no-win situation. You don’t want to encourage vigorous growth, you want to cut out cankers, you don’t want the tree to not grow…
A bit more on pruning:
This discussion and the video were really helpful for me to learn how to care for my peach trees - Mature peach tree pruning it has lots more advice than just how to prune a mature peach tree.
Yes. It probably would have been better to plant them in spring but planting now will give them enough time before winter. The biggest problem with planting now is keeping them from drying out in the summer heat before they can establish roots. Also, make sure to protect them from deer and racoons - when I’ve planted little plants, I’ve had curious racoons dig them up and deer munch them in a single bite.
You should use this time to really monitor and figure out what sorts of pests and problems you might have in your area. Then you can tailor any all-around or pre-set program to fit your needs.
I found spraying the most overwhelming part of this whole thing but the stuff that helped the most was:
- The spray guides in the guides section. Lots of good stuff there.
- Paying attention to problems with my plants and other people’s in my area
- Reading the local ag guides and websites
I don’t spray non-producing trees very much. I also spray different things for different issues.
Pretty much everything gets dormant oil spray and copper or sulfur or both (not together). I’ve never actually found lime-sulfur, so I’ve just used sulfur powder, which has been effective.
For peaches that aren’t producing: in dormant times they get copper for leaf curl. They also get dormant oil because some got some weird mite like things.
Some of my pears had bad pear leaf blister mite so all pears get oil+sulfur at bud swell. All the apples and pears also get fireblight sprays (dormant copper, then streptomycin) because that’s an issue in my area. For fireblight and for cedar apple rust (CAR), the local ag school puts out spray notifications which I follow as best I can - sometimes I can’t spray because of my real job.
Producing pears get one fungicide spray (the apples get more) because of scab but it’s not a huge problem for me.
For peaches/cherries/apples that are producing: I use a modified version of @alan’s spray guide: Spray Schedule- Synthetic Materials. I have to spray peaches and apples a bit more than he does. I also use slightly different sprays based on what is less expensive and available to me.
I haven’t sprayed raspberries in the past, but I’m going to have to start based on this year - or maybe this year was strange since we’ve had endless rain and humidity.
I don’t have plums (I should get a plum tree!) but if I did have one, I’d probably follow the same schedule as above.
For pawpaw and hardy kiwi I don’t spray at all.
Serviceberry is awful in my area. They get CAR and they aren’t worth it. If I kept them I’d spray so they weren’t hosting CAR but I don’t like them enough so I removed the trees.
Things I don’t have and don’t know what to spray for them: blueberry, gooseberry, currant, goji berry, josta berry, elderberry, and che.
This year, spotted lanternfly has also moved to my area - my understanding is spraying them is ineffective and I’ve seen some ideas for traps which I may try next year. I believe for some other pests, traps and mating interruption are the preferred methods but I haven’t had to deal with them yet (knock on wood).
Hope some of this helps!