Peach trees - when to spray and with what?

Two peach trees came with this house when we bought it in April 2006. They did not fruit that summer and showed no sign that they had bloomed in the spring. I watered them about once a month and drove fert stakes down around them. They blossomed last spring and we got peaches in late summer! Of course, since I believed they wouldn't blossom/fruit, I had not sprayed them and a lot of the peaches had some kind of insect problem. Worms? I don't know as I didn't see them, only the damage to the fruit. However, the ones we did get were delicious.

So, my question is what do I spray them with and when? I'll repeat the fert stakes and the watering as that seems to be why we had peaches at all. When should I put the fert stakes in the ground?

Karen

Hi, I am sure that one of the many DG experts will come to the rescue, but until then I will give you my two cents. I do believe that now is the time. I sprayed mine today. Last year I used all seasons Bonide. Today I used whatever dormant oil the local nursery had in stock, don't remember the brand though. It is time for pruning also. Make sure that you do not spray dormant oil if a fungicide has been recently used though. I think that if you spray dormant oil now, and prune now, that there is something that you are suppossed to spray (?before?) bud swell in the spring that you should be off to at least a good start. You might wait for an expert though as I have killed my share of fruit trees, mostly from over watering in my clay soil a couple of years ago. Hope this at least gives you hope that a answer will come. Take care, Mike

You need to spray dormant oil when the tree is totally dormant.

You spray fungicide when it starts to bud, before the flowers open. This is the most important time to spray against disease.

Never spray insecticide while the tree is flowering, but spray immediately after.

Where you live, the insects can have several complete generations, but the most important time to spray is early, to get the first generation.

Mike,

I haven't sprayed anything on the trees so far, and I seriously doubt the former owner did either. What is the dormant oil for? Pruning -- any clues here as to what I should be pruning off or not, as the case may be? I doubt that's ever been done either.

L Tilton,

Since these are my first fruit trees, I really haven't a clue what I'm doing. Do I need to spray all three things on the trees at the times suggested? Fungicide and insecticide, I understand, but are there particular ones I should be using?

Thanks,

Karen

The dormant oil is to kill scale insects that overwinter on the bark of the tree. Pruning should also be done while the tree is dormant. With a peach tree, you want to prune to what is called an open center - cut away the branches growing inward.

As to what you spray, this depends on so much - how organic you want to be, for one thing. There are companies that make a "fruit tree spray" containing both fungicide and insecticide, but I find they tend to be too strong and you end up spraying unneeded chemicals. You can burn the leaves of a peach tree with too strong an application, or by mixing fungicide with oil.

Neem oil is often sold as an all-purpose fruit tree spray. The container should have a schedule of when to use it.

My own experience is in a very different zone than yours, but here, the main problems are brown rot, which requires a fungicide, and the plum curculio, which requires control with an insecticide, right after blooming. Timing is important. Where you live, other pests like peach tree borers may be more of a problem.

If you spray while the flowers are open, this can harm the bees you need for pollination.

The best thing would be to contact your county extension agent for specific recommendations for your area.

http://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheets/hgic2209.htm
http://pubs.caes.uga.edu/caespubs/pubcd/C741-W.HTMl
http://www.ext.vt.edu/pubs/treefruit/422-020/422-020.html

If you can post a picture of your trees, maybe someone can tell you how much pruning needs to be done and maybe tell you three or four branches with good angles to be sure to keep. I lost all of my grapes to brown rot in 2007. I had it on a beautiful nectarine tree and sprayed heavily with a fungicide and totally killed the tree. Be sure to read the instructions as I think when spraying, too little is better than too much. Good luck with your trees,
Mike

FarmerDill,

Thanks for the links. Very informative. I could not find any pest/disease that sounded like what I had on my peaches. I did not have a camera then, so have no pics of them. But it seemed to me that they had been "bitten into" by something as there was a dried, clear, substance on the outside of the affected peaches, usually running down from a small brown area. Juice came out, maybe? Brown area was the critter's entrance into the peach? I don't know. I know I've seen this same thing on peaches in So. CA many years ago. Warm weather area problem?

excelrealty,

I tried to take photos this afternoon, but I waited too late and they didn't come out. I'll try again tomorrow and post so maybe you can give me some pruning ideas.


Karen

Oriental fruit moth is a major problem here; They cause the fruit to exude a gum/resin like substance, http://www.virginiafruit.ento.vt.edu/OFM.html. Wormy fruit is the Cuculio. http://www.virginiafruit.ento.vt.edu/PCPeach.html

FarmerDill,

Yep, gum/resin like substance -- that describes it better than I did. What should I spray for those guys?

Karen

The most effective available to home gardeners is home orchard spray sold at most garden centers. Fertilome seems to be the most popular brand here, but i have see Bonide around. I use a 14 day interval beginning with petal drop and continuing till they begin to ripen.

My neighbor has a couple of mature peach trees that had alot of fruit this previous summer, but were covered in some type of butterflies eating his peaches. Most of my trees should be mature enough to have a decent crop this year if I can remember to stay on top of spraying times, and not overkill. Not doing a garden this year so I can really concentrate on my fruit trees and other neglected summer time activities along with trying to starve those pesky ear-worms and spotted cucumber beatles. Maybe I will get lucky and happen to log onto DG and see farmerdill posting when he is starting his spray to spark my memory to ask when to start mine, probably at least a couple of weeks later than him.

Okay, I got some better pics of the peach trees. In order to get a decent closeup, I had to cut off the very ends of the branches but only about 4-6". Do these need pruning? If so, what should I cut off?

Here is the biggest one.

The big one is maybe 12-15' high. The little one is only about 6-7' high. I have no idea how old these are nor what cultivar they might be. Here's anothe question. We have two other trees that I've been told are flowering peaches -- that they don't have fruit. They both bloomed last spring, but did not have any fruit. How can I tell if they are indeed not supposed to fruit or if there is something else going on that there is no fruit?

Here is the second peach tree. These two definitely had fruit this summer.

Those trees are overgrown but not in need of drastic pruning. The main limbs are already growing with an open center. It's hard to tell from the photo, but the larger tree may have a weak secondary crotch - two branches growing up in a narrow V-shape. You should remove one of them, if so.

What you should do with both trees is prune away all the watersprouts - the branches growing straight up from another branch. There seem to be a lot on the smaller tree, several growing low on the right-hand limb. Prune away all the branches growing inward, toward the center of the tree. The center should remain open to let in air and light. Also remove branches that are growing into each other, crossing each other, getting in each other's way. Keep the branches with strong, open crotches, growing out from the main limbs.

This article http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/317/ has some good advice, although it shows how to prune a tree with a central leader, not an open center. In the case of fruit trees, pruning for optimal fruit production supersedes form.

LTilton,

What are the water sprouts? I did notice them but didn't know there was any significance to them growing straight up.

Thanks for the advice and help. I will copy it out for the future. We should have a nice warm day next week for getting this out of the way.

Farmerdill has ID'd my bug problem as an Oriental fruit moth. So, I'll take care of that after the trees bloom.

Karen

"Watersprouts" is just what they're called when they grow like that, upward. Dunno why. Get rid of the ones growing on your main trunks - one of them on the larger tree has several.

Pears are particularly prone to watersprouting.

When you prune, be sure to check for damaged branches and cut those out, as well.

LTilton,

Thank you so much for telling me that. I had no idea they weren't just "normal" branches. Yes, I knew they were there, just had no idea I should remove them. I'll do that as soon as the next warm dry day comes by, which will probably be next week. Today it was warm, but rained really hard nearly all day.

Karen

Thanks for the link L Tilton. I got some more pruning to do also. I know alot of what I need to prune, but I seem to be indecisive and reluctant to chop away something that ain't sick. I think that I read that you can prune up to 40% of an overgrown peach tree, but I still find it hard. I do take out the obvious ones though.

Time for fungicide?

Fungicide? I thought I only had to spray for those bug things -- I have to spray for something else, too?

Karen

Brown rot.

http://www.ext.vt.edu/pubs/plantdiseasefs/450-721/450-721.html

Thanks. I didn't have that last year. If I have it this year, I'll spray next year for it. Heck, these silly trees didn't even have any fruit year before last. I deep-watered them last spring and low and behold peaches last summer. Got to spray for those Oriental moths, though.

There are two other peach trees that the neighbor tells me are ornamental peach trees -- not supposed to have fruit, which they haven't so far. Know any way that I can tell for sure if he is right? I just can't imagine why anyone would plant fruitless fruit trees.

Karen

For an organic bent,
A good low copper fungicide is sold by Gardens Alive! called soap-shield. I am not sure if is allowed in certified organic fruit production, but it does work really well to stop brown rot in peaches and grapes. Curculio's here don't bother our peaches, probably because they only make a crop every 5 years. They nail our apples, cherries and plums, though the product Surround WP (used in organic production) has reduced their impact on apples (plums are too slick for the powder to make a film). Ohio Earth Food sells it for $35/ 25# bag, plus shipping.
Here in southern Indiana, any peach cultivar that ripens with Red Haven or before is free of Oriental Fruit Moth, as the pest hasn't mated here yet, and hence does not lay eggs. Of course, the sweeter peaches are the later peaches, so back to the having your cake and eating it too scenario (well, for organic growers, at least). It is harder to grow organic tree fruits here in the midwest, but peaches can definitely be done organically, as well as pears. Asian pears have the unique feature of flowering earlier than their Euro cousins, which does put them at risk for late frosts. But, it also puts them ahead of the curve for fireblight in our area. They do suffer, but only mildly. All my euro pears followed the Do-Do bird (except for Honeysweet, a seckel, which blooms with the Asians).

I was looking for posts dealing with brown rot and peaches and this seems like a promising thread. I have one peach tree that's doing very well - better than it ever has. It is a Champion White and is loaded with peaches, and only a few of them have any brown rot on them although there is a kind of wasp that is taking a few. A yellow Carolina Belle peach next to it has some nice fruit on the side nearest the white peach tree, but on the other side most of them are bad.

I am beginning to wonder whether the sprinkler that we use for the garden has anything to do with the presence or absence of rot, since the white peach doesn't get any of the moisture from it and the yellow gets some on the side where it has the rot. We were going to cut down a nectarine we have by the greenhouse because we've never gotten any fruit from it and I was thinking that it might be a vector for the fungus since it's always covered with it, but maybe we should give it one more year and try to rely on drip irrigation instead of a sprinkler that wets the leaves of the trees, too.

To complicate matters, we're trying to grow fruit organically, or as much as possible, but we did use a copper fungicide this year. Maybe just not enough. But I'm wondering whether anyone else thinks there might be a link between the brown rot and the oscillating sprinkler.

Leslie

It is possible, brown rot seems to be worse in wet years. Most fungi need water.

I would give about 90% odds that the sprinkler is the problem. I had much worse disease this spring due to the much greater amount of rain we got. Copper early in the season should give you control of brown rot, once you get rid of the sprinkler.

Scott

Is there a form of copper that works but is less toxic? Someone told me that the blue copper sulphate that they spray on grapes is organic, but I wonder.

Leslie

This message was edited Aug 5, 2008 6:46 PM

Finally determined that the "bug" on my peach trees was the plum curcullio bug. Sprayed for it and all was well. The peach tree that is the earlier one had a nice crop, which I picked about six weeks ago, and the other had a nice crop ripening. Then about two weeks ago we had really hard rain for two days. I went out the other day and all the peaches were brown and rotted. I assume this was from the excess moisture of the hard rains.

Will spraying next spring prevent the brown rotting that I got this year? Also, should I prune this tree to make the branches and foliage less dense and therefore maybe rain won't affect it like this?

Karen

A good fungicide should help. Brown rot can be difficult to control in a rainy season.

Thanks. I just couldn't believe that it happened so quickly. We have been getting much more rain this summer than the last two.

Karen

Send some this way, worst drought I have ever encountered.

LOL. The rain the last two summers was nearly non-existent, so anything is an improvement. Next year: soaker hoses!!

Karen