Hi, I’m new to gardening and brought a peach, plum, and fig tree from a local nursery last summer. This year the peach have been ravaged by leaf curls and peaches have damages and have all fallen off the tree. The plum was ravaged by aphids and the fruits have fallen off as well.
Can someone give me a game plan how I can be more successful? Should I use dormant oil or horticulture spray when the trees are dormant over the winter, shield the peach from rain and moisture to avoid fungus and leaf curl. Maybe my native soil is no good. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
There are many great subjects that will help you. Use the search function with as few words as possible and you will find many many hours of great reading. Welcome to the forum. You should introduce yourself in the appropriate thread so people can give you answers according to your location.
All gardening is local – you are right to inquire based on your growing zone. I’m in a completely different region and wouldn’t have much to offer. Hopefully some one will come along and provide some resources and/or personal experience that can help you. Good luck!
I’ve had good luck this year with just two sprays for managing peach pests and disease.
One at chuck split that was an insecticide and fungicide and another that was just an insecticide 14 days later.
You will find it hard to get good advice because it will be highly dependent on the type of problem you are having, your climate and how often you are willing to spray.
Once you get fruit you will find that squirrels can be an even worse problem.
@giants11596
Do you know how to use the search function? Pleas let us know if you need help with it.
There is no magic bullet to cure all fruit trees’ malice. You should let us know where you live. From that, it should giveus a better idea what pest and disease pressure you are facing.
I’ve had my trees for 2 years. They even fruited last year, but would drop. I think I have ant issues as well. The bark and fruit have this clear hard puss. I thought spraying kaolin clay would get rid of the pests, but no.
No. Surround, kaolin clay is protectant. It deters but does not kill pests. It washes off after heavy rain and needs to be reapply.
Not only you need the choose what to spray, it is as important when to spray. A day late, pests could ruin a lot of your young fruit in one night.
There is ton of info you can read. Key words like “canker, gummosis, plum curculio, Oriental Fruit Moth, brown rot”, will bring up ton of info. Those are problems peaches and plums often have.
If you are using Surround and want to avoid bug killers, you might want to look at my low-impact spray schedule:
It sounds like you have peach leaf curl (red on leaves and curling) and plum curculio (all fruit drop, with a bug in them), and will probably get oriental fruit moths soon if not already. None of these problems are insurmountable but you will need to do several sprays in the spring.
Thanks Scott, I just read your guide. It’s exactly the info I was looking for. What zone are you in?
My god, why do they even sell fruit trees? It’s so much work. It’s good I only have 2 trees. I think I will give my peach and plum one more year. If I can’t manage to keep pests at bay, I will have to get rid of the peach and plum, and just concentrate on figs.
& @Ahmad Thanks guys for reminding me about OFM. For some reason I had it in my head all they did was cause flagging shoots. I think I am getting too comfortable with how well things are going now versus same time last year.
This is my 3rd year of fruit production on my peach.
Soon you will be introduced to brown rot. Where you are, it will come. Like @Stan said, I am tired of fighting these pests and diseases. I never like spraying and going fully organic for stone fruit is not possible here.
Those do so well because they are native to here. The right raspberry and blackberry that avoid swd in your area should be good too. Sour cherry is supposed to be the easiest stone fruit out East. The bush cherry like Romeo and Juliet are great for fresh eating.