Peach canker or peach borers?

General Fruit Growing
#1

My two peach trees are not doing so well here in Northern VA. Rough winter and I transplanted the now 2 year old trees which resulted in root loss in the process. Now I believe they either have peach borers or peach canker since there are many areas with peach “gel” oozing out if the bark. Right now I am leaning towards it being canker since the gel is pretty high up on the trunk and on some scaffold branches.

Should they be saved? Another consideration is that I have a row of cherry trees 10 ft away that I do not want to get canker.

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#2

I think it is canker. Tow of my peach trees have the same thing. I will remove the worse one next year as it loses much of the vigor.

#3

That is a very small amount of canker, I have peaches with 10x as much that are still highly vigorous 10 years later. Peaches don’t decline with canker like cherries do. So, I would just ignore it unless the tree starts to decline.

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#4

Thanks for the responses everyone! Sounds like the peach trees will be okay. Should I be concerned about the canker spreading from the peaches to the nearby cherries?

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#5

No not really. They can hit cherries, but it is a fungal canker and won’t hurt the cherry tree anymore than the peach. Cherries get a bacterial form that kills them. So we are talking different organisms here.

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#6

Thank you for clarifying the distinction Drew. That is something I did not know

#7

I’m not sure if peaches can get the bacterial form or not? I have infected peach trees too, with the fungal form. So far my cherry tree is fine. Only prune cherries when hot and dry, like about now! I did mine today. Only time I prune it all year. I butchered the thing!