I’m having an issue with brown spots and clear sap dripping out of my peaches and nectarines. I really can’t identify the culprit. Based on my Google searches I can tell that something is definitely wrong, but I don’t know what and if it is possible to/how to remedy the issue. Any advice is much appreciated!
The peach tree is Red Haven, and the nectarine is Mericrest.
Both of the trees themselves look fine, but the fruit on both is damaged, with brown spots and clear sap dripping down. Yesterday my wife saw one nectarine with a worm boring in it, but I can’t find that example for pictures right now. She must have thrown it out.
Within the last two weeks I treated both the peach and the nectarine with Bonide Fruit Tree Spray, so I was not expecting to find pests, the brown spots and sap showed up about a week ago.
I have two apple trees nearby, and they both seem fine for right now.
Here are some pictures that demonstrate the issue:
The good news, I guess, is that I opened up one peach and the inside looked ok to me, I’d post a picture except that I’m a new user and can’t add it
However, I opened up one nectarine and it had a dead spot on the inside, like a hollow cavity surrounded by brown tissue. I thought that maybe something had burrowed in/out of there, but I don’t really see an entrance/exit tunnel, just this cavity. Again, I’d share a picture if I could.
I don’t really see half-moon bites. I did find a worm though. It had a little tunnel visible on the outer part of a nectarine, and when I cut it open I found the little guy below:
That guy looks like an oriental fruit moth. They are a major pest on peaches and nectarines. You should look up spray programs for OFM. All the infested peaches should be removed as well.
But the cat facing is from bugs, I think, as Mamuang suggests. OFM doesn’t make a mess of the outside of fruit when they infest my peaches.
If there is a lot of peaches that look like that I’m thinking BMS, unless there’s little green stinkbugs all over the peaches. Tarnished plant bugs usually don’t quite annihilate a peach so completely in my region, but then again, the TPB wounds go into the flesh itself.
Brady,
No scar like the PC. No particular pattern. They just eat the surface of a peach leaving ugly scars. When you cut a peach open, there is no damage inside. No tunnel, nothing.
I do not see lots of little bugs crawling around, I see a few ants here and there, but I am under the impression that ants are not really an issue.
I’ve only seen the one nectarine with bore marks on it, the one in the photo I posted above, the rest are just damaged on the outside as in my original picture.
So, right now I’m working under the assumption that even though I haven’t seen them yet, I must have some kind of stink bug or tarnished plant bugs damaging the outside of my nectarines and peaches. I might have a few oriental fruit moth, but I think there are fewer of those (at least I don’t see any others immediately).
I’ve read online that Sevin, which is zeta-cypermethrin, should work as well. I have some Sevin concentrate around, so I’ll give that a try. Does anyone know if it is a bad idea to do both Sevin and Triacizide?
I would use one or the other, not both. First look over all your fruits carefully. The spray will not reach the worms inside. If they are oozing the dreaded clear gel, they are lost if small green fruit. I heard from an extension agent her tree was hit late in the growing process and they were salvageable by cutting out the bad parts.
The bad news is you are late in the life cycle of the OFM. They start in the new green growth, sometimes you may see “flagging”. The next generation goes for the fruit. Pick all bad fruit and get rid of it. They hold the next generation of OFMs. You maybe lucky and knock them out. Don’t give up, there is always next season…
When I got hit 2 years in a row, the next year I got serious about spraying with a fresh bottle of Triacizide. First is at petal fall. Don’t be fooled by the tricky peach blossoms. The shuck can be so red they look like petals! Don’t ask me how I learned this one. Petal fall is when “most the of petals fall”, 80 percent. If you wait for the last few petals to drop, you are a week late. Second at shuck split, when you get a peak at the tiny green fruits. Then try the follow the timing on the label.
In the spring it rains so much. Just when petal fall or shuck split, you have a week of rain! I feel you are better to get the spray on at the right time, even if it only has a few hours to dry before a long rain spell hits.
Lastly, keep a log of what and when you sprayed. There is a big difference between 2 weeks ago 3 weeks ago in the bug world.
I did not travel during the corona virus and spent a lot of time looking at the peach trees…
