Matt,
I hope sulfur alone will work for you. It did not work for me. I had PBM atfer the tree were fully leafed out . I sprayed it with wettable sulfur spray a few times. It did not work so I gave up. The tree ( Blake Pride) looked aweful for the rest of the year. The following spring I sprayed with lime- sulfur at a late stage of bud swell, it worked . I have used one spray of L- S since.
In looking at my logs I only used sulphur one year but it killed it (or it just happened to all die then). Usually I use lime-sulphur which is more potent against things inside leaves as it enters the tissue. Lime-sulphur works very well in the growing season, it should be used more often then but it has this reputation as a dormant spray that it canāt shake.
Iām not aware peach trees are susceptible to pear blister mite. However, peaches are susceptible to other mites. If you can obtain a hand lens, you might try checking the foliage to see if you can see any mites.
Thank you. What I thought was pear blister mite damage, could be bacterial spot. (Sorry, I know Iām all over the place ). I posted a picture in disease ID thread. Do you mind taking a look? Thanks.
I looked at the photo, and while it could be bac. spot, it looks perhaps a little more like coryneum blight, or possibly even peach rust. I wouldnāt rule out bac. spot, which looks really close. The bottom photo almost looks like there could be a cambium/root issue.
I know that still leaves a lot of options, so may not be the help you are looking for.
Look at the base of the trunk of the bottom pic and make sure the trunk is undamaged. Do you know what cultivar this is? Certain peach cultivars are very resistant to bac. spot, so we may be able to rule that out. Personally I donāt think itās bac. spot because itās never affected trees this late in my locale.
Corneum blight is the closest fit by the photos, but it mainly occurs out west. However, it can occur anywhere in the U.S.
One thing I would rule out is mites. It doesnāt look at all like mites to me.
I would say itās probably Corneum blight or some cambium issue.
Yes I sprayed copper twice while tree was dormant. Also did one spray of copper couple of days ago after I noticed these spots. (Bottle says ok to spray during growing season) But it got much worse over the last few days. Your comment about trunk damage makes sense to me because this is the only tree showing this (I have 2 more somewhat clean trees) and trunk on this tree was damaged but healed now. Iāll take a picture tomorrow and pm you since this is no longer related to pear blister mites I probably shouldnāt post it here.
Iāve never used wettable sulfur at any point- always read it was pretty nasty stuff. Hort-oil has worked without failure on PFM in my experience and I fail to see how sulfur could treat them after they are in the interior of the leaf, although Scottās anecdotal observations are very carefully construed.
Cornell recommends oil, but once leaf growth starts itās just too late for it to work so it should be timed about the same time you spray for peach leaf curl.
Here the damage from PBM is usually pretty much cosmetic, the killer is pear psyla which doesnāt come with an easy cure. The best thing is to start with resistant varieties. I have 3 separate insecticides, two specifically for the purpose to keep psyla under control at sites where it has shown up.