About 1/3 of my peaches on my Earligrande suffer this issue where the pit doesn’t form. I can tell which ones when I pick them and the stem attach area has a hole in it extending to the pit. You can see on some of these water got in and caused the seed to mold.
What is this issue and I do I avoid it going forward? Thanks in advance.
After doing a bit more research I believe this is split pit. It is a genetic disorder. I am unsure if my trees young age contributed but quite a few peaches (roughly 1/3) have this condition.
Most early peaches have this problem.
Aha…good to know. Thanks
Split pit is a frequent problem with peaches, some varieties get it more often than others. In commercial orchards they teach pickers to recognize split pit by the shape of the fruit. Some plum and pluot varieties also have this issue.
For me, Flavorosa is the worst pit splitter.
what is considered an early peach?
In today’s peach climate an early peach is probably considered anything earlier than about a week before Redhaven. At least that’s how I’d answer.
Generally speaking, the earlier the peach, the more prone to split pit. If the tree has a low fruit set, that compounds the problem substantially. One way to mitigate split pits on early varieties is to make sure the trees are not over thinned.
This is a double edge sword because early varieties won’t size and build as much sugar unless they are thinned hard, which induces more split pits. We generally go for the heavy thin option and deal with the split pits. On early varieties we sell split pits as long as they aren’t open. If they are split that the top allows air/water inside, they get tossed.
You can spot a split pit pretty easily, even if it isn’t open. They have a kind of bulbous look to them, but it doesn’t hurt anything as long as they aren’t open.
My peach experience is pretty limited thus far to three trees…A Flordaking, tropic snow and a seedling of unknown variety that I’m using as a basis for grafting…I’m assuming early depends on the zone…living in NE Florida that would be even earlier…Here’s a picture of some of the fruit on my tropic snow,you can see how big it already is. not sure if this qualifies as early…that’s why I was asking…
I’ve not grown Tropic Snow, but a Dave Wilson chart lists it as about 10 days before Redhaven, so it’s probably considered an early peach.
I probably should have mentioned split pits are also somewhat variety dependent. Some early varieties rarely split, while I once had a variety (White County) that ripened about 8-10 days after Redhaven which was very prone to split pits. In general though, early varieties are more problematic when it comes to split pit.
Thanks…I’ll take a look at the Dave Wilson chart, remembering seeing it a while ago, probably something I need to bookmark.
Is there a good way to tell if it is a split pit other than the open hole at top? Those are easy enough to spot but I am down to checking by inserting a knife and slicing downward. If I am going to give some peaches away I would rather give the non split pits away but want a way if any to tell before slicing.
The split pits are kind of bulbous. That’s not a very good explanation I know, but it’s kind of like trying to describe the shape of someone’s arm.
I might say the shoulders of the peach are a little fatter on split pits. I think that’s the best I can do from my mind’s eye. If you look at a few which are barely open (like a teeny hole in the top) then you will see what they look like if they are split, but closed.
I’ve read that a lot or rain during last three weeks of the peaches ripening up can split the pits. We had very little rain this spring and I saw very little split pit in my early peaches.
