I am located in North Texas and have been fooling around with fruit trees for about eight or nine years. I have plums, pears, apples, and persimmons. In the last few years I have finally started getting some good plum production but usually lose the crop to a late freeze. These last two years I have been lucky and have escaped a late freeze but have lost my fruit to what I believe is plum curculio. This year I lost all of my plum crop which were only three trees. All of my Apple crop which was another three producing trees. I also have several pear trees that are producing but all of them have the classic plum Curculio markings but they have not dropped. I have an ashmead kernel which is producing for the first time this year and I have noticed the plum Curculio marks on the fruit. In order to try to salvage some apple fruit I sprayed over the weekend with triazicide and ordered surround. It arrived yesterday and I sprayed my lone apple tree and everything was good with the world. Overnight it rained about 2 inches and upon checking my tree this evening I noticed these long scraping cuts on most of the remaining fruits that did not have this yesterday. Is this plum Curculio? If so I am greatly disappointed because I sprayed over the weekend and two days later I sprayed with surround and I still could not protect my apple tree. How many sprays does it take before surround actually begins to work. I believe one of two things happened, one the single surround application was not enough and the plum Curculio or whatever this was had a field day last night or the rains washed off what surround and triazicide was on the fruit and then the plum Curculio came in after that and still had their way with my apples. Looking for recommendations at this point as I’ve thrown my arms up and about out of ideas. Thanks Rick.
Nope, curc bite is much different
Thanks, I recognize the “classic” Curculio bite which to me just looks like a dark blemish and they are all over my pears and apples. This just means that I probably have more than one insect problem in my orchard.
That is cracking. Could be because you had a stretch of dry weather and then it poured all of a sudden. Fruit cracking is a result. Some fruit have more tendency to crack and others have more resistance.
I hope it is cracking, that would actually be a relief! Thanks.
Does PC even exist in North Texas? You need to know what pests you are facing and that general info must be available from your county cooperative extension. When I started growing fruit I studied pictures of the pests and their damage known to be prevalent in the northeast. Usually it is the famous ones that end up being a problem and studying photos helps with diagnostics when you see damage in the real world. Here’s a bunch of photos of PC and their damage. It’s so easy now with the internet.
Thanks for the link. I should have been more specific, I am located about an hour north of Dallas and scrolling through the photos, PC is alive and well in my area. The range maps indicate that I am a couple of hours east of it’s western most range (yippee, lucky me). As the rest of my fruit trees begin producing I am certain that it will not be the only problem that I will have to face but that’s why I am here, thanks again.