OFM and plum curculio are my number one fruit destroyers. They lay eggs through organza jewelry bags and perforated bread bags.
They can do it if you use Clemson paper bags. Plastic zip lock bags did not work for me.
Can somebody confirm that this is oriental fruit moth? I pruned close to a foot off of dead branches. Found this little guy inside one branch. I don’t even have any fruit. Not sure what they are doing in my orchard.
Yes, those were flagging shoot damage by OFM. They don’t just eat fruit but feed on shoot tips as well. Those were classic signs.
In my areas, I see such damage until Sept. Penn Stae extension has good info about this serious pest.
Thank you.
I cut those flagging shoots off when I can. Sometimes I find worms inside, sometimes I don’t.
It looks like it’s time again. Today I saw an adult OFM around the peach tree. I came here and dug up this thread and it looks like I had the flagged tips around first week of August last year too. I’m thinking I’ll spray Sevin on just the peach tips. That should be enough, right? No need to spray the entire tree? I got few peaches on the tree that should be ready in about 3 weeks. (Going by ACN ripening chart for Contender)
I never used Sevin. I can tell you that Surround does not work with OFM. I sprayed Surround and the next two days many flagging shoots occured. I have them more the last two weeks of July. I had to add BT and Spinosad to slow OFM down.
Since my peaches are in bags, I spray only areas near shoot tips and shoot tips. They like to bore into young shoots.
I haven’t noticed any OFM flagging Here yet. Probably about to happen any day now. Glad I sprayed spinosad yesterday.
I sprayed Spinisad last week but we had rain a couple days ago. Also, Spinosad is effective for about a week only.
No thanks,I don’t want any.bb
Mamuang,
Have you been spraying? When I was having OFM hits it was mostly the fruit with the clasic clear ooz.
I don’t spray after the harvest so they might come back to do a bit of flagging.
I sprayed against the first generation OFM that arrived around petal fall, just a few days behind plum curculio. I sprayed every 7-10 days 3 times before I bagged peaches and nectarines. We have high pest pressure here.
The second generation are left with shoots to attack. I just trimmed to tips off and made sure I threw them out with trash.
I sprayed from petal fall to 30 days before harvest. A few slipped in at the end, but 90% fruit is perfect. No flagging though
The variety I have is a late one that ripens in Sept. If I spray without bagging, I would need to spray for several months.
Your fruit looked very nice.
Mamuang,
When i saw just how many peaches I would have in a 10 day window, I wished I had planted 3 staggered types to spread it out. My wife made it clear, “one and done!”. But the point about a later fruiting tree would require such a long time of being venerable to the OFM, make me glad to have the Red Haven
Why not grow Early Star, Rising Star or Glenglo? They are good early peaches that ripens 2-3 weeks before Red Haven. Based on @Olpea ’s report here.
