Greetings, I live in Mass 6a. Last summer we had a very wet summer and I had issues with fungus and nectarine cracking. Any tips for preventing that in case we have another wet one? Thanks in advance!
@Agc123
I am in MA, too. I know what you meant re. a lot of rain last year.
Were you sure that your nectarines cracked because of rain?
What variety you have?
Early season peaches and nectarines tend to crack and over thinning can cause cracking, too.
The only way I could think of to minimize cracking is to bag your fruit with peach bags. The one I use is Clemson peach bags. However, trees absorb water from their roots, too. With so much rain we had last year, varieties that tend to crack, may have cracked anyway.
I have two nectarines trees. All fruit were bags. None cracked. Those that bags were not tight got some rot (despite spraying against rot) as moisture seeped in.
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Thank you so much for responding. To be fair I’m not sure. This was the first year I had a fruit set and I did try to thin appropriately (1-2 fruit every 12 inches or so. Like you, I had PC pressure but was pretty good with surround. I also bagged all the fruit with organza bags… I’m going to try a whole tree net this year after a surround spray. The 3 varieties of nectarines I have are Fantasia, Independence and Frost. The Frost is on a Multi-V and was supposed to be a peach but is a nectarine… all three cracked by harvest time in august pretty much every single piece of fruit… I did carve out the bad parts and eat what I could… so good…I’ve been following your posts on some of the other categories since we are in the same zone, I’m curious how you’ve managed to keep the pest pressure in check and whether or not you’ve had issues in the past.
What county are you in? I am in Worcester County.
I started off over 10 years ago using an organic approach. After many years of getting poor results on stone fruit, I had enough so last year I went with synthetic pesticide. I still try to minimize my spraying using all kind of bags.
Organza bags do not work with peaches and nects or plums, OFM and plum curculio can lay eggs through it. I had that happened several times.
Re your cracking fruit, it could be a combo of thinning and so much rain we had. My did not crack at all inside Clemson bags but a few rotted.
With new synthetic sprays, I had a better result (good fruit) last year.
I’m in Norfolk county, 35 min southwest of Boston. What synthetics do you use and on what schedule do you mind me asking?
We have many members in MA. A couple on the south shore, I think.
I use new Sevin, zeta cypermethrin. Once at petal fall and again 7-10 days later. We often have rain weekly. Going 14 day interval is risky.
I would have spray more if I don’t bags my fruit after that.
Plum curculio is only 1-2 generation in a growing season but oriental fruit moth has up to 5 generations. I see peach shoot tip flagging into Oct sometimes (a sign of them boring into those you g shoots).
I have other pest pressure like stink bugs, tarnished plant bugs, coddling moths, etc. They have annual get together in my yard all summer long.
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Thanks! Do you typically just use the Clemson bags for all of the bagging? or do you use specific bags for specific fruit? Just ordered some clemson for the nectarines… hopefully that will help.
This is one of many threads about bags and bagging.
Back on the question of cracking there is not much you can do, some years are just bad.
Some nectarine varieties are more prone than others, I have removed several mainly because of how they cracked.
I wonder if rigging something like a tarp or plastic poly sheet around the trees during heavy rains may help.It could be extended out from the trunk as needed.The part near the base could be raised up,so that water flowed down and away from the root area.
It likely is water absorbed during rains that causes them to crack. I suggest you try Rutger’s bred types although most years most varieties do fine for me.
I have to point out that I manage scores of orchards in S. NY and my experience is different than Mamuang’s. The only species that I sometimes have a bit of trouble with when using a 2 spray sched. 10-14 days apart with a pyrethroid is a few sites losing a percentage of Euro plums to curculio- but I’m not sure if the damage doesn’t happen when I’m waiting for latest apple to lose their petals. All trees on orchards are sprayed at the same time. I’ve started spraying my own plums earlier that apples and haven’t lost significant fruit to PC since.
However, it could be a difference in the pyrethroid or the spreader-sticker we use. Asana, that I use, is restricted.
You spray with top of the line commercial grade pesticide including Imidan that has a kick back effect.
I have no doubt you can get by with two timely spray.
I cannot.
I haven’t used Imidan for a decade. I use Assail for some kickback, but many of the orchards I manage have someone else using Asana exclusively. I’m not sure it kills bugs any better than what you are using- are you? These are a lot of orchards and some very big ones.
Where I’ve had a problem is when 2nd spray was delayed a few days beyond 14, sometimes a whole week or more. Than the sprayer hears from me.
You have to believe your eyes, though. I just can’t be sure what the problem is as you seem to be. It is possible pressure is different on your site.
Thank you everyone. I do believe the rain was a MAJOR factor last season so I’m hoping for a drier one this year. The only other thing is I may clear out some of the mulch I have around the tree in a wider diameter if it ends up being a wet one again just to give time to dry out. Alan, I wasn’t familiar with those rutger bred types. Any idea if they are hardy to 5 or 6 even? I’ll have to give some of the spraying strategies a go and be aggressive about it. I’ll use the synthetics and inorganics if it comes to that and it seems based on most peoples responses that it will. Again, thanks for everyone’s input. Looking forward to posting a good harvest this year!
I used to use triazicide but that did not worked. Went an organic route many years. Not working to well.
Start using zeta cypermethrin last year. It had a good result but too soon to say for sure.
I am in my yard and check things out up close and personal daily. I recognize damages from ofm, pc, stinkbugs, coddling moth, tarnished plant bugs. I have them bc all bc and more.
In my yard two spray of pesticide does not work.
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That is an anecdote without a great volume of information, IMO. Others in our general region have had a different experience based on responses I’ve received about positive results of forum members following my schedule with material packaged for non-commercial use. There are a ton of variables and you are not likely speaking from more than several seasons of experience on your site, no matter how attentive you are. You said you only used ZC once, so how can you draw a conclusion about how little you can get away with?
I’m worried that someone will follow your advice and tighten up the schedule without adding a third spray- or perhaps spraying more than they need.
Your roster of villains is about the same as mine, although I don’t know what your are referring to by bc.
manuang,
Funny how something works great for me but not others, triazicide has worked wonders on my peaches. But there are other factors. The first year I used triazicide, not a single OFM. Last year, due to the rain, I had maybe 1 out of 20 peaches with a worm at the pit. But fruit still good for pies.
I sprayed my first shuck spray last Sunday, rained 1 inch Monday! Now we are forecasted for 2 more rains Thurs and Friday! I feel they are unprotected…
back to fruit split topic. If the fruits that did not split had subpar taste, likely excess water.
I did not say I used Triazicide Once. How can you draw an assumption like that? You make a lot of assumptions here.
All I said is that two sprays of pesticide does not work for me. I have read many, many posts on the forum. I know people have had varying results with their spraying schedule.
Do not worry that people who follow me will spray more. If they follow me, they would know that I am not crazy about spraying and do not spray more than I need to.
There are people on the forum who spray every week all summer to protect their fruit. I am not one of them.
I wrote ZC and nothing at all about Triazide. I suggested long ago that Triazide may be sold that has lost potency as there is no expiration date on the container, but I don’t know. As I understand it, where it failed it failed absolutely. Nothing to do with time between sprays that I remember.
Are you offended to be contradicted? I assure you, I am only striving for accuracy. All anecdotes have to be taken with a grain of salt, mine included.
Did you read that I said “but too soon to say for sure”?
I am not offended to be contradicted at all. I am offended by the tone of your statements. To me, it sounded patronizing and a tad condescending. Most of the posts here are posters’ anecdotal accounts. This is fruit forum, not a fruit scientific study.
I do not want to turn this to be our argument and scare off @Agc123 or newer members who don’t know either of us.