My Desert Delight nectarine is in its second year of fruiting. Each year it has fruited very heavily and I thinned it to about 3-4 inches between fruit. I lost the whole crop last year because the fruit rotted from the bottom up. I noted: thrip damage at the base of fruit, and earwig feeding at the base of the fruit. The fruit was also undersized (2-2.5"). This year I sprayed spinosad after bloom, when fruit was tiny (about 1/4"), but it didn’t stop the thrips (too late?) At what stage should I spray to stop thrips on a nectarine?
I used tanglefoot to keep the earwigs out, and that seems to have worked. The base rot last year was probably caused by the earwigs eating away the skin at the base of the fruit. Why did they attach the fruit there? It’s a harder place to get to then the stem end. Did the thrip damage, which is only at the base, make that end a more attractive target, or do earwigs prefer the base for some other reason?
I expect a good harvest, but the fruit is undersized, in the 2" to 2.5" range. Are early nectarines like Desert Delight normally small, or am I doing something wrong? Does thrip damage stunt fruit, or just scar it? I didn’t thin until the fruit was about an inch in diameter, and I needed to remove about 75% of the fruit just to get 3-4" spacing between what was left. Would thinning more, or earlier make a significant difference?
The tree leafed out nicely, and gets full sun. My soil is a little alkaline. The area around the tree is mulched and I don’t fertilize at all.
Thanks for any advice you can give to help me beat the thrips, understand the earwigs, and increase fruit size.
Three to four inch thinning is not enough. Try to complete the thinning before the fruitlets are larger than a shelled almond nut. Completely remove them from the ends of branches and all branches thinner than a wooden pencil.
The earwigs are thriving in your mulch. If you don’t want to use pesticide then try adding granulated sulfur to the surface of the mulch. This will also help your alkalinity. Follow the dosage directions on the bag.
I agree with Richard you didn’t thin enough. Try 8+ inches next yr. And every branch can’t have peaches even that close. I’d bet on mine if the total branch length were measured it would be more like 18-24 inches.
It’s more like make sure no two nectarines/peaches are closer than 8 inches and none on that twiggy wood.
The earlier you do the fruit thinning, the more it helps the remaining fruit to size up. When fruits are about 1" in diameter, it’s too late; next year you might want to start thinning when fruits are smaller than 1/2".
The thrip damage happens in the flower, so spraying after bloom is too late.
Thank you for the responses.
The Tangle foot has worked 100% to stop the earwig damage to my nectarines.
To stop thrips, should I spray (spinosad) before the bloom? I hesitate to spray spinosad before the bloom for fear of killing bees, but maybe it’s okay if I spray at dusk, so that by morning the Spinosad has dried.
I know I should thin earlier, but it’s time consuming, and with young kids, a full time job, a 90 minute round trip commute, and thirty stone fruit trees, it’s hard to be on call when a tree decides it’s time to be thinned. Maybe next year I can get my kids to help!