Canker on Peach Trunks

General Fruit Growing
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I’ve been growing Reliance and Contender peach trees now for about 5 years in Maine zone 5A and have had pretty good success with one exception…I’ve had problems with canker developing on the trunks either near where the tree was grafted or where the trunk got nicked by mowing, etc. The canker incidence is about 80% Reliance and 20% Contender. The Contender seems to fight through it and heal better. Unfortunately when I first started out I did not pay a lot of attention to small scrapes or nicks on the trees…whether they were damaged before I got them or by mowing, etc…I have figured out that it is imperative to be super careful around the peach trees…they are not forgiving like apple trees. Any small defect on the trunk seems to develop into canker more often than not…especially on the Reliance.

I will be taking numerous trees out and replacing them next spring. I’ve decided that I will replace any Reliance that I take out with Red Haven as I have 2 of them that I am pleased with so far and I like their fruit much better. I am keeping a few of the trees with canker that seem to be holding their own. I am hoping that these 5 year old trees will produce next spring and I would like to get some peaches off from them while they are healthy enough. My peach orchard is planted in what was a pretty heavily wooded area…there were assorted trees there which included a locust grove as well as a few cherry trees which I know can harbor canker in the soil. Hopefully, I will beat this condition that seems to be plaguing my peach trees…I think getting rid of the Reliance trees as they die off will help…fingers crossed. Thoughts?

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Good luck with your change. Bill

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I’m not in a cold weather climate, but I’ve read enough to indicate canker is much more of a problem in colder zones. There is lots of info on Valsa/Perennial/Leucostoma canker, but evidence suggests it can grow w/ temps just above freezing. Here, summers are generally hot enough callus tissue eventually closes up the wound (a lot of the time). I understand in colder climates it’s much more challenging.

So far I’ve kept cankered peach trees (even cankered scaffolds). We had a hail storm here last year which tore up a lot of branches in which some canker set in. If the canker is so bad it affects the performance of the shoot/branch, I remove it, otherwise I’m living with it. But like I say, many times the canker heals up on it’s own here, but even if it doesn’t, I wouldn’t take a good tree out unless canker is making it unproductive.

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Olpea, just curious. Have you ever tried cutting out the diseased tissue? Also, I wonder if (and this may sound crazy) applying some antifungal type cream like those for athlete’s feet or something similar would be beneficial. I’m sure there must be known antifungals for the different fungus that cause canker. I, on two separate occasions came across research papers where Iodine was used somewhat successfully to treat canker. It was done in the 60’s in the USA and I think somewhat recently in India I think. We have a dollar store near here where I bought a 16 oz. bottle of Povidone Iodine for $1 and it’s pretty concentrated, but I don’t think Povidone is the type they used.

Localized fungus seems pretty easy to kill on anything else, I don’t see why it should be any different on a fruit tree. What do you think?

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One of the issues with a few trees that I cut down yesterday was that the canker had degraded the lower trunk so much that it literally looked like the entire trees’ weight was being supported by a lower trunk that was only half as wide as the rest of the tree trunk above it. The canker had really eaten away at them. The trees still had lush foliage but with the winds that we get…I felt like these trees were doomed sooner rather than later. I did keep a few others that had canker but were healing better and had more width to their lower trunk.

I also had less tolerance for keeping the Reliance trees that were struggling because it seems like they have been more susceptible to the disease.

The lodine idea is an interesting concept.

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Apple, Your comments make me think deeper about this particular blight. What you say makes some intuitive sense to me.

Once, I treated some canker with hydrogen peroxide. It healed up.

I must say however that many peach trees I’ve not treated have also healed from canker.

Sometimes if the damage is too severe over the whole tree (like from hail damage) the tree won’t heal very well. But most of the time they do with our hot summers. Heat is the enemy of canker.

We all have our challenges growing peaches. In the north, I understand canker can be a pretty big deal. In my area spring frosts are the biggest challenge.

Here is a pic of a trunk from a peach tree. You would never know it from the pic, but when the tree was smaller, the trunk was completely eaten up w/ canker. I thought the tree may die. Now not only has the trunk grown, but the callus tissue has covered up the canker. Now it just looks like a wound.

The sad part is that I discovered this year that this is yet another mislabeled tree sent from a nursery. It was supposed to be Silver Logan, a white peach Scott spoke very highly of, but this tree produced very small yellow fleshed fruit, which was bitter.

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Does this look like fungal canker on my Elberta Peach? I’m in zone 8 southern Oregon and these leasions seemed to present last year and have gotten a bit worse this year with some declining vigor this spring as it has leafed out. Any advice from you Peach experts?Uploading: 71C933DA-3382-41C7-AD68-E95015CD228D.jpeg… Uploading: 01B15381-A8CA-4DB7-A7D0-D938A066FFD8.jpeg… Uploading: 064500E8-5903-4388-9F8E-A8DF0D880CEA.jpeg… Uploading: EFFD875E-67F1-40BF-90B5-D0ECEFCCCC9E.jpeg…

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Clearly you have a little dieback, but I don’t think it’s canker related. I get some dieback on some trees. I just cut the dieback off. Some years it comes back on the same trees. Sometimes it doesn’t.

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Sounds good. Thank you very much for your input and for taking the time. I’ll take off the dead bits and see how it does going forward👍

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Hi,

I’m new to growingfruit forum, but have been learning a lot from reading your past posts, & very grateful for the info. I ve been growing fruit (well trying) on my south facing, moderately downward sloping 1/2 acre of rocky clay in the foothills at the base of Pikes Peak, beginning in 1999, during the early stages of an 8 year drought.

I have questions about dealing with wildlife, canker, & general peach tree decline, as well as choosing rootstock: specifically is there a rootstock for peaches (and also apricots & plums) that improves tolerance/resistance to canker, drier clay soils, & nematodes. Does the hydrogen peroxide work for canker???.. I have some on my apricot trees. How & when do you apply it? Any other controls for canker & nematodes?

In case it helps…here is a
History of my peach growing escapades:
I had 5 peach trees (including 2 called Fantasia, which is classified as a Nectarine, but tasted like an “out of this world peach”. Back when I planted them, between my house & a 7.5’ cedar fence in my front yard the soils clay, modified heavily with oak leaf mold & horse manure). The of the trees were from Stark Bros. Nursery & failed within 2 years. The other 2 were Fantasias from Home Depot, rootstock unknown. They grew really fast & tall and each, with very productive cropping for several years, of course those peaches drew in some raccoons, bears, and other ne’erdowells (stealing fruit is one thing but injuring the trees is hard to abide.
Of those two, the first one died after its 3rd year of big crops, (bushels of fruit). The second Fantasia, even more prolific, finally succumbed ~4 years after that. Both had developed numerous large, open, sticky, weeping cankers, and began declining soon after, with small sickly yellow leaves, & some peach curl, taking 24-36 months to warrant removal.
They’ve been gone for about 5 years now and I want to try peaches again, but… wondering if I should replant on the same site, or move them to a new site, which would be harder to water as it’s further from the house on a downward slope with soil that dries out much easier, and faster, and is doesn’t have as high a level of organic matter as previous site.

Thanks!

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