peach trees

[rockriver]

we have some peach trees. maintenance and care are on my list but not at the top yet.
==
several are pitiful looking... large sores/cancres (sp?)
2 look ok but fruit has been pitiful and full of bugs in the past...
till this year.
the fruit is small, but loaded. i picked about 10. not soft.
my bride put them in the sun and in a couple of days, they got "just right"
and wonderful to eat...
--
we didn't do anything.. we did get lots of rain this spring.
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ok, you peach (or other fruit) specialists..
what should we be doing...
1. to take care of the two good trees...
2 what about the smaller trees that are producing peaches but sores are nearly halfway through the trees?
cut them down and start over?
rr

[Matt In Oklahoma]

It's been a while since I had peach trees. They are sensitive and require more care than others. Bugs will ruin you, malathion is your friend on them. On the disease watch and make sure it doesn't spread but I wouldn't give up for a bit. Seems that cicadas left scaring sometimes dunno if that is an issue

[motesjm]

I've had great luck with peach trees. The biggest problem I've had is tree damage from over production. Gotta cull early and hard.

Bugs are a big issue too, and its not a one time spray it and forget it solution. You need multiple applications. As Matt mentioned, Malathyon is good. There are a few others that work too.

As far as the diseased tree, is it producing well now? How old? If its a mature tree and its not giving you lots of peaches it cut it down and replace it.

Are you fertilizing in the spring?

[rockriver]

mote, matt,
diseased tree -- yes productive... but not many peaches... i doubt any will make it to the table... i don't know how old. but probably 10 feet tall. hmm. they don't cost much... just to sit there.. i'll leave them for now...
whereas !! the main tree across the yard... is loaded... we didn't cull...
had peaches on the cereal this morning... small but great taste...
lesson 1... i should've culled... sorry for the dumb question... i assume i should have
gone and pulled off 1 out of 3 choosing the poorest looking?



reference fertilizing... we went around all fruit producing trees one time and threw out about 2 fistfulls of fertilizer one time.. about one small handful on each side of trees.
lesson 2... i'm guessing i should have done more and more often... any comments would be appreciated.

ref. bugs... we didn't spray.. bugs are in my apple tree... great producer but lots of bugs. for some reason the peaches on "main tree" only have a few spots?? good luck or blessing from Father? either way, it is encouraging to know that edible fruit is possible encouraging me to be a better caretaker.
lesson 4 get some bug spray and use it next year.

[MustangGal]

It's been a while since I had peach trees. They are sensitive and require more care than others. Bugs will ruin you, malathion is your friend on them. On the disease watch and make sure it doesn't spread but I wouldn't give up for a bit. Seems that cicadas left scaring sometimes dunno if that is an issue

Just a couple of days ago, I read an article that posited Malathion would be the nest pesticide to be taken off the market.

[Matt In Oklahoma]

Just a couple of days ago, I read an article that posited Malathion would be the nest pesticide to be taken off the market.

Its funny you brought that up because my work friend who farms just told me yesterday that they had already pulled it here. Any idea what the substitute is? He wasnt sure. Crazy stuff whats the reason?

[MustangGal]

The article I read didn't actually say. So, I'm not sure.

[Matt In Oklahoma]

Did a little research and it seems there is a push to ban it, as they have in the EU, because it is poisonous. It seems that it kills things and sometimes makes things, like people and dogs, sick when they are sprayed directly with it though it isn't supposed to be sprayed on those things. Who would thought a poison would kill and make things sick?
I'm about to lose it
anyway wasn't trying to hijack its good stuff to spray the vulnerable peach tree with to reduce damage

[motesjm]

Make sure you spray with dormant oil a couple times during the winter to kill borers - cheap stuff, natural, works. That might be where your trunk damage is coming from. Wait two weeks after each dormant oil spray and coat everything with a lime sulfur spray. This will get rid of any fungi that attach to the bark - cheap, natural, stinks to high heaven. Those two will probably solve most of the diseased tree problems in the future.

If you or your neighbors have bees be careful of the pesticide you use. If you use malathion or the equivalent make sure you spray in the evenings when the bees are back in the hive. Definitely not in the mornings.

The cull proportions are a judgement call. You look at a limb and the number of small peaches on it and make a decision on how many fruits that limb can support. This is a tree that I made a bad decision on:



And the results:



I should have taken off about 75% of those. That was a bumper year. This year I only had to take off about half. Try to make your cull early, so the tree doesnt waste resources growing peaches that it doesnt need to. You'll get bigger and better peaches and your tree will be healthier too.

[Dennis W]

We just started getting peaches. Last year we had a couple and this year we had/ have a few. Hopefully more next year. What type of furtilizer do you use, and how much?

[rockriver]

dennis,
you live south of us. i would have thought your peaches would be "ahead of ours." our last peach was taken off yesterday..
we apparently have 2 varieties.. 3 trees total.
both varieties produced at a high level..
the first, name unknown, produced a month ago... and the second waited 2 weeks and then had a good harvest.

i'm curious what brand you have. i'd like to plant a couple of your brand of trees.
that would stretch out our peach season an extra ?month?

rr

[MustangGal]

I have three different types of peaches. The first produced about a month ago, the next I picked last week, and I am still waiting for the final tree to ripen.

Since we were discussing malathion, I did see it on the self at our local WalMart.

[rockriver]

mustangal,
care to mention what varieties?

I did some checking..
I believe my first producer is a "desert gold."

after that tree's fruit ripened.
the other two trees came in. I believe they are "harvester"
having a third variety that would produce after harvester would be mighty beneficial.

[Dennis W]

The peach tree that is producing is a Florida Globe that was planted in Feb 2009. It only had a few peaches this year, and the last one is about ready.

[MustangGal]

Ranger, Red Haven (I think), and I'll have to try to find the other one.