Forget about books and just ask your questions here......that and do searches of the archives.

I have a couple of books which are pretty good but a lot of the advice, especially on pruning, is the direct opposite of the (better and more current) advice you'll get here. It really confused me at first until I realized that books are written with more of a commercial operation in mind while the advice you'll get here is geared to the backyard grower.

Bart

good point.

But i would like to have something handy just as a quick reference guide.

The spray thing is really foreign to me as well as all of the deceases.

I have about five general orchard books, none of which I would recommend. Several very specific books that I would highly recommend are The Grape Grower, The Apple Grower, and Uncommon Fruits For Every Garden. The Sunset Western Garden Book is a must have for those of us in the west, but is not specific to orchards. Some of those cheap books at the entrances of Lowes and Home Depots are as good as most of the more expensive books. The same vacuum existed for vegetable gardening until The Vegetable Gardener's Bible came along.

I second fruithacks comments. The standard mediocre book is Otto - better than nothing I guess. My favorite is "Growing Fruit", a British book with incomplete coverage (very little on sprays for example) but with lots of excellent advice nonetheless. Raintree used to sell it if you cannot locate a copy. The PSU Guide online is reasonable and has a $0 price advantage. There are also many other online resources which when you put it all together gives you a good picture. See here for a list of good links. I have read many of these web documents. The ones for commercial growers are also good reading.

Scott

As Scott says, there's tons of stuff on line -- the Penn State guide is good, as is the Cornell University guide. As you'd expect, they are oriented a little to their conditions. Both can be downloaded for free. But I must admit, I'm old fashioned and actually like to sit in a chair and read a book and not printed out pages or a computer screen.

I'm not sure if "Growing Fruit" can be bought on Amazon US, but it can be bought on Amazon UK (books from them ship over here very quickly). It is very good on different forms of growing fruit trees -- dwarfs, espaliers, etc. -- and planting and pruning. But not so useful on varieties, as it is aimed at the British grower. Its fertilizer recommendations will also be a bit hard to follow, since it recommends British brands. Still, a good book.

I have most of the books mentioned in earlier posts. Otto's book is I think quite good for a rank beginner, but it falls down on a number of issues -- precisely the ones the beginner is most mystified by, namely pruning and disease and pest control. The latter is a problem with a wide range of sources, and I think it is because they don't want to commit themselves to recommendations or instructions on the use of chemical pesticides, even if these are in fact appropriate and work well. So Otto will tell you about the standard disease and insect pests, but don't expect much enlightenment on how to deal with them.

Two other books I like a lot. First, Louis Glowinsky, The Complete Book of Fruit Growing in Australia. This covers an enormous range of fruit and is just enjoyable to read and is aimed at the backyard grower. A bit hard to get (my parents sent me a copy, but I think Amazon has it), and has some of the shortcomings of "Growing Fruit" mentioned, but is still an excellent book. Another good book, more oriented to the commercial grower, but with a chapter on home growing, and much more information than any other book I know of on rootstocks, varieties, disease and pest control etc. relevant to the North American grower is "Fruit and Nut Production" by Olcott-Reid and Reid. It is about $50 and well worth the price.