I would suggest that you ask in fruit and orchards forum; I am not sure if there truly are any tree fruits that can be grown without spraying, though low spray is possible or mostly organic sprays like Kaolin (clay) spray which disguises the fruit from insects. To my knowledge, in this area the lowest difficulty fruit around here is blueberries, not any of the tree fruits. You may need to do something to discourage the birds from eating the blueberries, such as netting or mylar balloons or plastic snakes and owls, but in general they don't seem to need spraying.

I agree - a friend was really excited when he bought a house with an orchard a few years back, until he realized what was required if he wanted any fruit. The possible exception is pear trees; we had an old one that we never sprayed, and there was usually some fruit that was good to eat. While you're waiting to purchase and plant, get a copy of The $64 Tomato: (How
One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an
Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden) - the author is William Alexander. Well worth a read, if you like memoirs and gardening.

I grew up with a yard full of apple and pear trees. My parents never sprayed them.You couldn't, those were 20'+ trees.

To some extent, it's a matter of what you're willing to tolerate as far as the fruit appearance. I have two Granny Smith and two Fuji apple trees and I don't usually spray them but the fruit can have some imperfections if I don't. I sometimes get sooty blotch if I don't spray. It's not harmful and doesn't affect the taste but it doesn't look very appetizing. I use those apples for cooking because the sooty blotch is only on the peel. Once the apple is peeled for cooking, it looks just like any other apple.

I also have a sour cherry tree that gets fungal infections during cold, wet springs that will lose it's leaves during the summer from these infections if I don't spray. Having said that, the tree is several years old now and quite large and seems to stand up to these infections better now. I haven't sprayed it in several years. It produces more cherries than we can eat which is good because the birds come in for their share.

So if you want perfect, store-looking fruit then you're going to have to spray in all likelihood. If you can accept a reduced crop or some less than perfect-looking fruit then you probably won't have to spray. Keep in mind that it takes a few years for the trees to start producing a lot of fruit. Once they do though it will probably be more than you can eat.

BTW, I don't have a lot of problems with insects/worms/etc so pesticides are something I rarely have to use on my fruit trees. I don't spray those at all during bloom time so that I don't injure the pollenating insects (and bees especially).

If you live in Southeast MA like me, you must be familiar with the winter moth caterpillars that defoliate most of the trees in the spring when the larva hatch. The moment bud break happens, the town swarms with dangly caterpillars that get in your hair, car, plants, LITERALLY EVERYWHERE. We've had to take down three elm trees since purchasing the property because 1. the winter moth caterpillars defoliate the entire tree and 2. the trees are overexerting themselves to regrow an entire canopy of leaves in the heat of june and july. The elms have become sickly because of these pests. Two years ago the caterpillars really started in on my fruiting trees and the stress is already obvious.

The winter moth caterpillars are not picky, either. They especially love the elms (which are sadly WAY too tall to be sprayed and are as good as lunch) and the cherry trees. The problem is so bad in my town (Seekonk) that we were selected as a testing site for parasitic wasp release, hoping that they'll curb the moth population. Like treeoracle, I have no issue with "unappetizing" looking apples, or less-than-store-bought perfection from my produce. I just want my trees to be alive long enough that I can even taste the fruit.

I'll be spraying my cherry, apple, and blueberry trees with either Dipel or Spinosad this year (I'm leaning towards Dipel but if it's unavailable I'll choose Spinosad), but only because the defoliation is killing the trees. Dipel is a formulation of BTK bacteria that specifically feeds on caterpillars. It may harm the butterfly population as well as the winter moths caterpillars population, but it is supposedly safe around the organic garden, humans, bees, other animals... Spinosad is not as friendly as Dipel because it targets a wider range of insects. I want to avoid Spinosad so I don't harm any bee populations around my yard.

Edit: I was in contact with the uMass extension last season and they recommended Dipel as the spray to use against winter moth caterpillars. They strongly advised not using other products which may harm larger numbers of species.

Very interesting. I have neighbors with beehives. There is no way I would want the karma of causing population collapse in their hives.

I live in plymouth, Ma zone 6. I have a liberty and freedom apple tree that do very well. I use organic soap sprays for bugs and that is all and they have done well