Peach disease black tips

General Fruit Growing
1

I have a 3 yr old contender peach that I noticed is having the tips have some black gunk on it and oozes some gummy substance.

I looked on Google and saw it could be OFM, but wanted to confirm. Should I spray anything after petal fall?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

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Yes, it is OFM.

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Thanks, I pruned the tips off that had strikes. I kept pruning until I stopped seeing a hole in the branch.

I will spray spinosad on all my trees at petal fall. Any other suggestions? I have a couple other peach trees and none showed any of this damage.

Trying to prevent major pest pressure from OFM given the stories I read on the forum.

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That was last years OFM, no need to prune this year. Spinosad after petal fall is a good plan. Surround also helps.

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Thanks Scott,

I follow your low impact spray, so I will have a layer of surround with the spinosad.

I also live in Maryland, so learning what has worked for you has been invaluable.

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What works now may not down the road. We planted 3 Red Havens and got 2 peaches the year we planted. This was with no spray. The second year we sprayed “some” but the OFM found us and every fruit was oozing by golf ball size.

I finally got them under control with Triazicide. But you really have to be on top of it. Missing any early sprays and your crop is done. I consider the first month as the most critical. OFM comes in waves, kill them early and this eliminates the second round.

If it rains soon after a spray, you need to spray again. I don’t spray the last month before harvest.

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Thanks Paddy,

Here’s to hoping I do not have many issues going forward. It looks like a good year for my peaches and nectarines based off the blooms, but still a long way to go. I know my wife would hate seeing a worm in those fruits. Will look to buy triazicide to have on hand if it gets bad.

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ATEC,

You can’t “wait until it gets bad”, by then it far to late. Once they bore in to the fruit, it’s over. Best to get the fist few sprays in and then “hope”.

One year I sprayed most of the season but it kept raining so I skipped the last spray, about 5 weeks before harvest. About 10% had worms.

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Noted, I already do Scott’s low impact spray but will add the triazicide. Thanks again

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ATEC,

I forgot you were using Scott’s Low impact method. If it has been working for you some time, you could be in a light OFM zone.

The balance of no chemicals vs. spraying can be tricky to find the sweet spot for some. For me it was hope for rains just about the time to respray. I really hate it when I spray and two days later we get 1 inch of rain! I recall triazicide can be used up to 14 days before harvest. I try not to use it less 30 days before harvest.

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Thanks again. Yes I am always trying to find a good day to spray and the forecasts can be quite spotty on rain. Last year I missed a couple sprays at the end of the summer and had no problems with any pest and minimal fungal. I think my orchard is relatively young, which is why I’m getting away with this. Trying to stay disciplined and do a good couple of sprays this year to hopefully keep disease and pest pressure to a minomum.

Will let you know how it goes this year!

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