Backyard Orchards, chronicling, musing and more

Glad that you also posted it on the InsectID thread. A lot of insect experts on that thread.

You also should contact Colorado State U extension service to see if the could identify this issue for you. From the location and type of damage, it did not look like the work of atwig borer or a peachtree borer.

You have a good extension service. Hope they could help you figure it out.

1 Like

@scottfsmith
I am not sure if I interpreted your method of bird scare correctly but I have put the “fence” up around my Black Gold cherry tree.

The scare tape fence was unable to discourage some daring birds. They have started to peck on my Black Gold Sweet cherries. We have to put up any netting today. Otherwise, we won’t get to eat any.

Black Gold (5 ft after 10 years) is a short tree on the left and Juliet (8ft) is on the right.

3 Likes

Tippy, these netting systems look nice

1 Like

Thanks, Annie,
When will you ost your orchard pics here. Pls feel free. Love to see your trees.

Tippy, we don’t have peaches/nectarines this year, and have limited plums due to the weather this year. I will post some pictures of berries which is ripening right now

Sorry to hear that. I have lot of plums, nectarines and apples this year. Not much at all last year. I don’t grow berries. No room.

I just finished bagging nectarines and peaches yesterday.

I thinned twice before bagging time. Still there were a bucket full of fruitlets I had to thin off while bagging. This is a 5 gallon of HD bucket with nectarines from one tree.

2 Likes

@alan , @Ahmad , @thecityman, and anyone growing nectarines in the east,
Do you have a problem with thrips on nectarines?

I have damaged many of my nectarines at varying degrees every year.

It is frustrating because I do not want to spray Spinosad during bloom time.

1 Like

Yes, a lot of my nectarines and peaches have similar deformities. I’d say that pest pressure here in CT is much higher than what it was in Wilmington, DE.

2 Likes

We have more pests here in MA, at least in my area.

I have seen OFM and PC wounds and PC and CM wounds on the same fruit.

2 Likes

Hate to admit this, but I didn’t even know what caused this. But yes, I have a couple nects that absolutely look just like this, so I guess I do have a thrip problem!

The strange thing is that some of my nects get them and some don’t. These are all trees within 100 feet of each other and all get the same spray treatments. Go figure?!?

1 Like

The scare tape is tied on to the tree limb edges and goes all the way to the ground (no poles are used, the “fence” is made of tape only). I think your tape pieces are too short, I never had good luck with shorter pieces, they are not “fencing” off the tree if they are short. The tape should touch or get near the ground so the tape makes a fence around the tree and birds won’t come in from the bottom. They will only peck some of the cherries on the top.

EDIT: A picture would work best… here you go:

I could make these a bit longer but they are pretty close to the ground when not windy…

4 Likes

Why do you think that is thrip damage?. My guess is that it is weather related. If it is thrips, I’ve never had an insect going from non-existent as a pest to suddenly being a huge pest in orchards all over my region as far as 70 miles apart. This usually happens much more gradually.

My first thought was that it was from the temp nose-dive in mid-march causing embryo damage because most of my yellow nects flowered nicely but bore almost no fruit, but I’m also seeing a lot of big cracking (on white nectarines) with it now so maybe it was from too many consecutive days of rain.

Looking at photos of thrip damage I see why you would believe it’s thrips- have you identified them with a magnifying glass?.

This would be very bad news. However, the info here makes me suspicious, All my peaches are fine.

The damage looks like thrip damage. I have had this type of damage on nectarines every year, not just this year. The feeding time of western flower thrips is done during flowering so I don’t want to spray in order to avoid killing bees, too.

I can live with thrip damage nectarines for personal consumption. They may damage peaches but I have not noticed the damage on my peaches.

I don’t have a magnifying glass.

@thecityman
Thrips are in flowers during their feeding time. It causes dilemma re. spraying. Maybe, they may be attracted to certain varieties of nectarines than others.

Scott,
How many rolls of tape for one tree? :smile:. It is very helpful to see the pic re. How it is done. Thank you. When I plant new cherry trees, I will keep this method in mind.

Your tree is much bigger than mine and your orchard is so well-kept. My little orchard look like a jungle!!

I looked closely at several damaged nectarines with a relatively high powered mag glass and saw no signs of thrips- for what it’s worth.

I’m glad you brought them up so I could know to investigate them. I will keep looking.

Did you look into them during nectarines’s flowering time? They are active during that time.

I may use a magnifying app on a cell phone to look for them next year.

“The second critical monitoring period is when the first fruit ripens. Count the number of adult thrips on 10 fruits at each of five sites per orchard.”

This suggests to me that thrips remain on the fruit throughout the ripening process, but maybe they return. My first nects ripen in a couple of weeks and I will check again.