I have a peach tree that has some sentimental value to my daughter (a Golden Jubliee for Jubilee ). I discovered this last summer that peach borers had been having their way with it and it was nearly girdled at the base. Sorry if the pictures aren’t clear, but i’d put it at about 85% of the bark is dead around, maybe more.
I was hoping to saving it with a bridge graft this spring, but the tissue below the soil line doesn’t seem to have bark, and I"m not even sure if you can bridge graft to that tissue. I’ve also heard about using nurse trees.
I’m just looking for some general life saving measures I can take. My other mature peach tree died of some fungal infection last summer and I’m motivated to try and save this one.
Welcome to the site Jeff,
Borers are a real challenge
A couple of ideas that may help if not too late:
Remove all of those bulbs from within 2’ of the trunk and the topsoil which could have borer eggs.
Try using a small wire to probe the borer holes to kill ones there.
Then replace original soil with clean garden soil that hopefully is not contaminated with borer eggs.
Top dress new soil with a layer of fire ashes and renew the ashes annually. Then plant garlic around the perimeter of the trunk.
The tree may rebuild its tissue if you can prevent more damage.
Good luck
Dennis
Kent, Wa
A lack of vigorous growth of peaches renders them more susceptible to death from borer attacks- a healthy tree exudes tons of resin and closes wounds quickly. It helps to keep other vegetation from growing around the base of trees. I like a 6’ diameter weed and grass free ring or closely mowed grass when the soil is good and the trees are established. They can be permanently stunted by brief periods of drought during the growing season while other species show no signs of ill-effect nearby. Overcroppoing and allowing rotting fruit to hang on trees can also stunt them.
Insecticide is sometimes needed, but as noted, borers can often be found while cutting away the punky dead bark where girdling has occured and poking into tunnels with wire, but new formula Sevin sprayed on the base of the tree is affective although guidelines suggest timing is important and that the window of opportunity for chemical control is very small- my own experience contradicts this. Supposedly insecticide won’t reach borers once they are in their tunnels, but I manage hundreds of peach trees at many sites and have controlled them by spraying the base of trees during my spring insecticide sprays. I’ve also noticed that they are often working the trees on the exterior in fall- they can be very easy to see- at least in my region around S. NY, so when I see damage I spray then as well. I’ve never lost trees that I’ve sprayed when I’ve seen damage. As long as trees aren’t nearly totally girdled they can be saved.
Some on this forum swear by neem oil, but I suspect if it works it is as a repellent.
Here is one guideline that my own experience partially contradicts- I don’t think the science of managing fruit trees is researched well enough to ever bring true clarity, we have a hard enough time figuring out the human body, and it is a single organism whose well being we poor billions into research for.
The comparatively paltry level of fruit tree research seldom stops university gurus from speaking with absolute confidence in their total understanding, however. Just like advice here, all sources of info have to be taken with a grain of salt and as suggestions. You try things out and if they work you use them again.
Peach trees have a limited life. Your best bet is to have a root sprout come up and graft to it. I’m afraid you’re fighting a losing battle. I’ve cut down three this year and replanted.
Thanks for the advice Dennis. I will take a “scorched earth” approach and have my wife move her bulbs. They look pretty, but we can find a new flower bed. I’ll see if I can make sure the borers are all dead in the vicinity and spray with some some permethrin. I started that last fall once I realized what the problem was.
When I first saw the damage I assumed it was something I had done with my lawn mower.
Haha, I’ve worked in academia and now in cancer research for 10 years. I can tell you first hand that loudly and confidently proclaiming something that you think my possibly sort of be right is par for the course in any research.
I had aphids on this tree 2 years ago and I hosed it down with Neem Oil twice a week for a month and the aphids did not seem to be bothered in the least, so I am not confident in that stuff. The extensions office said permethrin would be effective since it sticks around on the surface and should kill the adults and larva before they can penetrate. I’ve purchased it and will be spraying regularly as soon as my trees stop blooming.
When it starts growing give it a nice dose of nitrogen. Make sure the tree gets enough water.
Someone mentioned peach trees are short lived, and they are, compared to apples and pears, but that doesn’t mean they cannot reach a ripe old age of 50 if you aren’t trying to get the most peaches possible in a commercial orchard.
It depends on the variety, soil and other issues- you know, things like being attacked by borers.
When I’ve sprayed trees with a pyrethroid at the base in spring, it does seem to kill borers in the trunk. Just a tradesmen anecdote- not science.
I saw some borer damage on a peach tree I manage today. The worms were on the outside of the crown and easy to find when I pulled soil away from the lower trunk- I killed four of them. Even though there was quite a bit of damage, I’m confident the tree will survive because this has happened many times before and I’ve never lost a tree to borers.
Nothing those borers were doing today matches the description of their life cycle in the extension article, incidentally. It is late winter here. I guess they missed the memo.
I have had good luck with neem at the base but it needs to be 100% raw neem, no dilution. I tried standard diluted neem for various pests and had no luck at all, and I only tried the neem on the borers because I was about to toss a gallon of raw neem and figured there was no harm in trying. I try to treat once a year when the insects are flying. It is hard to predict as it varies by climate but it’s in May primarily for me. If I don’t quite get the timing right I can get some infestations but four out of five years I get almost no borers. If I do see borers I dig them out.
In terms of your tree, I had trees which were on their last legs from borers but after five years of self-repair they finally got going again. I also had them die. It’s hard to predict. Don’t bother with a bridge graft, if the tree is not dead it already has a bridge and it just needs a few years to widen it which it will.
). I discovered this last summer that peach borers had been having their way with it and it was nearly girdled at the base. Sorry if the pictures aren’t clear, but i’d put it at about 85% of the bark is dead around, maybe more.
. I usually hit it with some 10-10-10 in the spring.