backyardking

Pests and diseases are very local, so if possible, talk to someone in your area or see if your state university extension has a spray schedule recommendation. For example, I'm trying to use the UVa schedule (link below), which recommends Captan for cherries all season and apples only after petal fall, with Immunox earlier in the season -- but their schedule may be overkill for you in WI.

For pears, fungicide options are slim -- copper, sulfur, or lime sulfur. WVU has an organic pear orchard (but no apples or other fruit as far as I know), so pears really are easier.

Do you know if your cherries are sour (pie) cherries or sweet cherries? Many people here say they sour cherries don't require much spraying.

I'm new to fruit trees also, and I envy you starting out with productive trees! Good luck!

Pears can be easy or they can be very difficult to protect. Once you start battling psyla, fabracea, and scab they are much more work than apples, and I didn't mention fireblight.

I would never use Captan as your friend suggests. Better to buy some Immunox and spray every couple of weeks during danger. I get by here in southeastern NY with as few as 2 sprays, one at petal fall and one 10-14 days later. If I apply a delayed dormant spray (from the first sign of green till buds just start to show color) I'll throw some fungicide in the mix- not Captan as it is not compatible with oil. I'm talking here about protecting apples.

I use the Captan to delay resistance to the Immunox and mix it in the petal fall and following spray along with my insecticide (Imidan). It also spreads in light rain
helping to protect growing shoots. Immunox stays where it is.

There are several good pear fungicides, including Mancozeb and Flint.

Your apples could have CAR damage. If so, Captan is ineffective against it.

Your friends spraying program on his pears is completely idiotic, and I mean that in a very caring way :-) Seriously, commercial formulations of Captan used to be labeled for pears, and last I heard, there were some homeowner formulations still labeled for pears, but twice a week is wholly unnecessary.

Re: Using pesticides on both apples and pears. Most pesticides that are labeled for apples, are also labeled for pears. Captan is an exception.

University extensions are run through the state land grant Ag universities. You can Google them for your state. Call one of the offices, and they should be able to put you in contact with one in your area. Some University Extensions can be pretty good, others can be pretty poor.

You're right being concerned about pests. We are getting ready to get in the season, where they'll be all kinds of people complaining on this forum they lost their crops from various pests, as if something strange were happening to them. In many locales, it's precisely what one should expect without any measures of crop protection. However, in WI you may only need a few targeted sprays to get near perfect fruit. From others experiences, WI doesn't seem to have a lot of pest pressures.