I have brown spots size of a quarter on my peaches, actually started early season, doesn’t seem to be inside the peach, just surface. Treated early after petal drop with Captan and Immunox
. Curious some varieties do not have these spots on them. When I rub the peach, the brown fuzzy comes off. I appreciate your taking the time to look at the pictures.
Just to let you know, Captan and myclobutanil (Immunox) mix is not effective on brown rot.
Your have a lot of trees, it may be worth it to look into these fungicides like Bonide Infuse, Indar or Luna Sensation instead.
Thank you for the heads up, will look into the recommended fungicides. Puzzled, Bonide infuse is not labeled for fruit trees, “Bonide Infuse Systemic Disease Control is not labeled to be used during the dormant season or on fruit-bearing trees”. What concentration do you recommend?
Check out this thread.
Thank you for making sure Cliff and others know that. I’m not sure anyone else on here has better proof of that than me, mostly because I’m too dumb to learn my lesson and have therefore tried that combo multiple years and always without success. But I also haven’t had those brown spots.
So to @Cliff and the rest of the world, hear me loud and clear. I have applied Myclo (I use Eagle 20 EW) and Captan gold 80 WPG more than 2 years. I mixed both as strong or a tiny bit stronger than label says and in the same tank. I completely soak my trees with an electric hand sprayer (so not just a light mist/air spray) to the point of dripping. I spray before and after petal drop, and spray every 2-3 weeks until harvest. All that, and I’m not sure it helped with brown rot any more than pure water would have. This year I’ve lost about 90% of my peaches that have ripened so far to brown rot, Its the most excruciating thing to watch because I work so hard pruning, thinning, applying copper and oil in dormancy, and doing the hard work and expensive multiple sprays of captan and myclo, only to loose almost everything. What makes it so painful as that I don’t see any early warning on my fruit. They look healthy (no brown spots like Cliff is showing) all season even after the color up. But just about 2 days before they get ripe and start to soften a little, they get covered in brown rot and are completely ruined within 24 hours. But the blooms look good (maybe a little blossom rot but nothing to indicate the scale of horror that is coming!). fruitless look green and healthy, etc. THe only hint of what is coming is that when a fruit gets damaged (bird pecks, scraped, etc) they get covered in brown rot fungus, but that’s it. The only way I can get peaches is picking them when they are still rock hard. I guess some people like them firm like that but I am not one. I can buy early-picked fruit at the market. I can honestly say that one of the whole reasons I got into growing fruit was my love and obsession with picking a ripe, already softening peach, right off the tree and eat it with juice running down my arm. Giving that up and picking underripe (well, I call any non-soft peach underripe even though I know that isn’t really correct) fruit to beat brown rot to them is just not a viable solution to me.
All that being said, I haven’t had the OP’s brown spots in the years I’ve used the muclo/captan combo so I’m a little doubtful if that is the cause. Just my 2 cents.
Thank you, Thecityman, for your response, so sorry to hear about your experience with brown rot. Fully understand the “pruning, thinning and applying…” My father had a peach tree, wonderful peaches, I do not remember him battling with brown rot, birds, yellow jackets, peach borer, that was 60 years ago. I am sure they were around. I will try the propiconazole and see what happens.
I am incorrect, Bonide Infuse is labelled for fruit trees, this is from the Bonide label
I would mostly concur with Scott. It doesn’t look like brown rot to me, or at least I should clarify, not brown rot I’ve seen in my orchard. I’m on a commercial spray regimen, so maybe I just haven’t seen brown rot like that.
But in my own experience, and my reading, brown rot mostly affects ripening fruit, or blooms (blossom blight).
I’m not sure what I’m seeing on your green fruit.
Perhaps it is some super virulent brown rot, but I doubt it. It’s also not captan damage. I’ve sprayed captan at max rates under the worst conditions (mixing with oil, high temps, plus high humidity) and never seen fruit damaged. The leaves are the first thing you will notice on captan damage, and peach leaves are pretty tolerant of Captan.
Btw, I’m swimming up stream of the group thought on something else regarding captan. Namely, I’ve had good results with it for controlling brown rot. But… a couple caveats. First I’m spraying weekly during the wet spring. Not bi weekly, not every 10 days, but weekly. Using a sticker too.
The other thing is that I always condition the water before the captan is added. It breaks down so fast because of alkaline hydrolysis, that it can be worthless by the time you start spaying it, depending on your tap water pH.
Most spray guides rank Captan as good. Not as powerful as some of the newer chemistries. But I like it from a commercial perspective because of it’s multiple modes of action. Something a home grower wouldn’t need to be concerned with.
There are so many azoles, with single modes of action, I’m a bit glad there is something affordable out there with multiple modes of action, like Captan.
One other thought before I turn in for the night. The spots could be rusty spot. I remember I had one variety which got rusty spot. I had no idea what it was. I finally suspected rusty spot, then read that particular variety was very susceptible to it. Rusty spot shows up in green peaches.
Thank you Olpea for your response, I forgot to check pH of water, will do so in future, also your additional thought on rusty spot seems to be the ticket, I found this picture on Utah State Extension-Plant Health. This is exactly what I am seeing on my peaches. It started very early in my little orchard, I am curious that the captan and immunox did not stop it. Could be the pH.
It is! I use captan for gray mold on strawberries. Or used to. In tap water it didn’t work at all. In rain water it worked super well. Mold was completely gone. I now grow different strawberries and gray mold is not an issue. Most pesticides require acidic water, but you should check proffered pH. Usually on the label.
https://www.bctfpg.ca/resources/reference/pesticide-resistance-management/
If it is rusty spot, Captan doesn’t work real well, by itself, to treat rusty spot. It’s not labeled for it. In the past, I’ve kept my peaches regularly sprayed with Captan, so that there was zero brown rot, and still had rusty spot on Redskin.
Rio Iso Gem is also a highly susc. variety. There are probably others.
"2. Rusty Spot of Peach is usually rare disease in most orchards. This is a fungal disease developing on peach fruit only, thus leading to losses and it is caused the same pathogen causing apple powdery mildew – Podosphaera leucotricha. The fungus either probably overwinters in peach buds, or trees get infected from nearby apple trees as the source of infection (conidia i.e. spores of the fungus are spread to peaches by wind, dew droplets, and rain). Critical timing for application of fungicides is from shuck split through 3rd cover (pit hardening) In other words young peach fruit are susceptible and get infected if protection is not timely applied. However, the infections can start as early as petal fall. If you are scouting orchard frequently, finding the first white or rusty patch spot of this disease should be the trigger for an immediate fungicide application. The most effective fungicides are Gem, Luna Sensation, Merivon, Fontelis, Tilt, Elite, Inspire Super, Rally, Indar but keep in mind that Rally will not give good control of scab on peaches. Sulfur has good efficacy but requires more frequent application than single site fungicides. Combinations of Topsin and sulfur or Topsin and Captan have fair to good efficacy. When using single-site fungicides do not apply more than four application per year of fungicides belonging to the same group and strive to alternate fungicides from other groups i.e. with other modes of action every week or a fortnight. This will reduce chances for development of fungicide resistance in P. leucotricha fungus to any of the groups individually, which if present would be a problem in both apple and peaches. Additionally, do not exceed the total number of sequential applications listed on the label (e.g. Group 7 fungicides aka SDHI-s) or their total number per season. Most cultivars are resistant to this disease but few examples like Rio-Oso-Gem and Redskin are highly susceptible. If you have a history of this disease in your orchard make sure to upgrade your spray program next year by starting a growth stage earlier with applying effective fungicides than what you used to do before (at least start from petal fall)."
Interesting! My Redskins show the worst spotting on the peaches. I use Fontelis on my tomatoes for early blight, I see it is effective for rusty spot. According to the posted guidelines I need to start earlier. Thank you!
Thanks, Drew51, will collect some rain water, right now we are in the middle of what the drought index calls “abnormally dry”, field corn is curling
when I use Captan on my peaches, I add a lot of white vinegar. maybe a 1/4 cup for a 2 gal mix.
