We grow awesome peaches organically and only spray twice a year. We use lime sulfur in late dormant for brown rot and PLC, and then a biological product called Zen-o-Spore (changing name to Botry-Stop) at about 20% bloom for brown rot. The label for the Zen-o-spore says to spray twice, at 20% bloom and at 70%, but we have 12 varieties that are all over the map in bloom date so we just spray once when we can have maximum impact on all the trees.
We do have a little leaf curl on a few varieties this year, but so far not too bad. One key to keeping it in balance is to make sure you have plenty of potassium in relation to your nitrogen. We try to put kelp in with our sprays for its K content and use fertilizer with a decent amount of K.
I just finished thinning the peaches today. I can’t figure out how to upload a photo from my iPad, but will try to do so from my computer tomorrow.
It does no good to rant except for the responses it motivates that contain recommendations. Sounds like your program for PLC was not the right approach- I use copper as was suggested already- a single app when leaves are off trees MAY be enough.
A lot of aggravation is resolved when you learn the tricks of the trade, but obviously some fruit is just harder than others- but you won’t get much sympathy from me. I was raised in S. CA where unsprayed fruit was abundant, now I must work for it in the northeast. Over time I’ve learned how to reduce the number of sprays to a fraction of what commercial growers around here use, but it is a learning process that requires seeking information and experimentation.
I spray nothing on apricots. The key for avoiding canker and Eutypa dieback is no pruning during the wet season (if you must, disinfect the area and cover the cut with parafilm). This year, I have a great fruit set on Tilton, good set on Tomcot and Nicole, decent set on Harcot and Afghanistan (both second year grafts). Moorpark did set less than last year, quite below average, but this spring was very rainy.
During previous couple of years, I didn’t have much PLC on peach trees due to relatively dry weather, so I got lazy and didn’t spray with copper even once. This year, PLC was more of a problem but I just manually removed affected leaves, it was not too bad. I do spray a couple of times during the season with BT against shoot borers (mostly on peaches, maybe once on plums), but this is completely organic. Did have to spray neem oil once on one plum tree to control aphids; most of the time all aphids are on my roses and this is where I hit them with neem oil. Couple of applications is sufficient if you catch them early enough, and neem is also completely organic.
Last year, I had a ground squirrel infestation, they decimated my peach harvest in mid-April, but I killed all of them in traps. No tree squirrels in my area. I do have a lot of birds, all kinds and in large numbers. I have to net all my fruit trees (except feijoas) against them. I have a large mulberry tree (too large to net), it sets thousands of berries, and birds eat all of them, strip them clean before they ripen. Another problem I have is leaf-footed bugs. They mostly attack pomegranate fruit but I did see them on figs and plums as well. I fight them but it’s difficult since they have to be killed manually one by one, and also most neighbors don’t harvest their pomegranates, and the bugs multiply in decaying fruit. Earwigs are abundant and they attack fruit (especially peaches) but fortunately they can be controlled with vegetable oil traps.
Cherries in my yard seem to do fine without sprays. Im in ND where its relatively dry and windy most of the time. Biggest problem I have is bird-thievery…
It’s very simple. I use small flat containers (I mostly reuse small containers from Costco bought foods like hummus, guacamole, etc.). Just fill the container with cheap vegetable oil and put it under the plant. Earwigs are attracted to the oil and drown in it. After the container is filled with dead earwigs, empty it into garbage or compost and refill with fresh oil. I try to put the container so its edge touches the trunk to make it easier for earwigs to get in. Most containers I use are plastic, so I try to put them in shade, otherwise they will be baked by the summer sun.
Yeah. I unknowingly planted my nectaplum in powdery mildew ground zero (with a healthy dose of PLC added) and I’m going to have to cut it down next year, the fruit is just sick with it, even after I sprayed it with copper. It hit so early, but that’s the rain we’ve had. The leaf curl has been pretty bad with some of the new plums I planted and it’s on my peach and nectarine, too (but not too bad). It seems like the curl on my plums and pluots is straightening out now that it’s not raining anymore, though. And I had a cherry I just planted die on me. I JUST planted it 2 months ago.
The 2 plums next to the nectaplum (Padre and Howard’s Miracle) that I planted this year are doing just fine. No problems at all.
I’ve been moving more toward plums since, as you said, they’re mostly trouble free. Oakland has a long history of apricots, so I’m hoping my neighbor’s totally neglected, but still fruiting, apricot is a good sign I can grow them.
But if you’re anywhere near the bay or the coast, it seems like peaches, nectarines, and cherries are going to be pretty rough. I’d hate to have to rip out any of my trees, and I’m going to graft over some other trees with the nectaplum, but man, this is frustrating. It just seems that anything peach/nectarine based attracts the problems, while most plum-based things are just fine.
My friends lived in Berkeley for years and they had a cherry tree in their backyard and it was just great, every year. In Berkeley. Seriously, what the hell?
So don’t give up all hope. I’ve been looking for different varieties of plums I can plant. If I can get some plums to placate my nectarine lust…well, that’s something.
For all my griping, I do acknowledge I may have just chosen the wrong varieties. I am probably going to rip out a number of my trees and plant different ones next year.
A number of people have suggested to me that my problems can be traced to Dave Wilson’s poor choice of semi-dwarf rootstock - Citation in particular. The DWN monopoly is pretty fierce. I may have to resort to sourcing rootstocks and grafting them over myself.
First of all Joe, I’d like to thank you for testing all of those tropicals and sharing your results with us. That project has been very interesting and informative.
My peach and nectarine have also been hammered by PLC this year. I sprayed with copper once but it was too late. The peach may be a goner, virtually every leaf is affected and I removed all of the fruit. The new leaves that are pushing out are also infected. I pulled out another DWN peach tree last year when I found heavy gummosis at the graft union. At this point I am not sure that peaches will have much of a future in my orchard.
I agree with others that plums do relatively well in our area. In my orchard this year aphids, earwigs and some other pests are a little out of control but the most prevalent disease is shothole fungus. Most of the fruit is unaffected but there is a lot of leaf damage. Regardless, it appears that I will have my largest plum crop to date.
I confirmed that I had this problem on my Hollywood plum. It looked like fireblight but was actually a population explosion of aphids on the tender new growth. They also seem to favor my Mirabelle De Nancy in a big way. Its interesting how aphids seem to prefer specific cultivars.
I think you have a good point about Citation roots. Of about 12 varieties, we only ended up with one on citation because we couldn’t find it on other roots: Indian Free. It is the only one that got terrible mildew last year and the peaches were terrible. We almost pulled them out but we decided to give them one more year.
All the others are on Lovell. And doing well when we get enough winter chill. We are only about 10 miles from the coast.
After some initial failures, I’ve also stuck with Lovell for peaches, and chosen only PLC-resistant varieties: Indian Free and Indian Blood (Cling), Black Boy, and Peregrine so far. I’m right on the coast as well, and PLC is a big deal here. While I saw a bit of curl during this wet spring, all the peaches are doing well, having shrugged off a late cold snap that killed several apricots and four of my apples as well.
I live in a very good climate for growing fruit tree wood (sound fruit is another issue) here in non-coastal S. NY state, so citation works fine if you want a small tree. However, if a tree faces stress, such as PLC you would naturally want a more vigorous root stock. The greater stored energy would help a tree trying to survive ill-suited weather conditions for this species, which occur in Oakland. Here peaches are never killed by PLC (IME) because conditions that suit it only exist in early spring. Once things heat up with average temps above the mid-70’s, healthy leaves return- often the damage doesn’t even destroy the crop.
The funny thing about coastal CA is that if you just go uphill a few hundred feet above the fog line, conditions become much more accommodating, so at least you can buy high quality nects and peaches at the farmers markets. The best conditions in the world for growing this kind of fruit is so close to you. I can buy good stonefruit at farm markets here but for great I have to grow it myself.
The biggest and best stone fruit I’ve grown have been on Citation. I’m wishing I hadn’t cut those trees down. And none lacked vigor although I’m fine with less vigor than most. Lovell has smaller fruit. K1 fruit is half the size of Citation.
Outdoors in the northeast I have seen no difference at all in fruit size, although I don’t get a lot of comparison with peaches. I certainly don’t need peaches larger than what I get on Lovell and can’t imagine that a more dwarfing rootstock could provide them. Mostly it is only pluots and plums on citation in orchards I manage, and the advantage is not in fruit size but in early bearing of Euro plums. I hate that my Flavor Grenade is on Citation because I’d like a more vigorous tree. DW controls the variety and only sells it on citation.
I think the advantage you speak of may be unique to your situation.
All of our farmers market stone fruit come from the baking hot Central Valley. Very different conditions from around the bay. Not saying their fruit is bad, but the few times I’ve gotten a good peach or apricot harvest in my backyard it blows them away.
Only a tiny handful of local stonefruit growers remain, notably Andy’s Orchard in Morgan Hill, which will probably become condos in the new future.
I’m not a fan of citation either. It does not do well here. With plums and pluots I have not seen any issues, but with peach I have. Of course a few trees and how they act doesn’t tell me anything really. Still, I like how Lovell works here, and sticking with it when possible. I won’t buy a peach on citation, I would a plum or pluot.
Hey Alan my Flavor Grenade is on Myro and I got it from raintree last year. Don’t know if that stock is suitable for NY or if you want to go through the trouble of starting over on a tree but I thought I throw that out there.