What should i spray on my peach tree

If you know peach tree diseases are common in your area, planting easy-care, disease-resistant peach trees may give you an advantage. It bears repeating: Always follow instructions printed on the label for more detailed information about timing and application methods.

Spraying Peach Trees First and foremost, be sure to familiarize yourself with the existing or potential pest and diseases issues for peach trees in your area.

Spraying Fruit Trees: Dormant Oil. Controls overwintering pests and their eggs. Application : Follow the label. Controls pests on contact. Pests must be present for spray to be effective.

Apply as directed, every 10 days, up to 6 times per season max as needed. Can be applied up to 7 days before harvest.

Apply as directed, weekly or bi-weekly as needed. Apply as directed when eggs or newly hatched larvae first appear. To avoid fruit drop, apply 30 days after full bloom. Apply as directed, every 7 days, up to 8 times per year max as needed. Can be applied up to 3 days before harvest. Controls and prevents fungal diseases. Do not apply these sprays after the blossoms open, as it will kill the bees and other beneficial insects that aid in the pollination process.

Once all of the blossoms have fallen for one week, start your summer spraying every two weeks, up until the last two weeks before harvest. Spray with a fruit tree spray that combines and insecticide and a fungicide, or buy specific sprays for your tree's specific problems. For the last spray at two weeks before harvest, or the sixth or seventh spraying, do not use an insecticide so any insecticide has a chance to wear off before the fruit is picked.

As infection progresses, gum may ooze from the lesions during periods of high humidity. As the fruit and the infection age, the lesions may crack open and perhaps sink.

Bacterial infections can only be managed with proper sanitation, copper-based products, or antibiotic sprays and host plant resistance. There are cultivars with resistance to this disease. Bacterial spot is a very difficult disease to manage. If you are planting peaches or plums, please select a resistant cultivar.

Black-knot is caused by the fungus Apiosporina morbosa. The primary symptom in established infections occurs on wood and consists of outgrowths or knots on shoots, spurs, branches, and trunks. Old knots are hard, dark, almost black, raised areas. The raised areas are often invaded by insects whose damage may, in turn, be invaded by secondary pink or white fungi. Infection starts in the spring when the tree enters the green tip stage, with most infection occurring between very early bloom and the end of petal fall.

Spores released from 2-year-old infected tissue are moved by wind and splashing rain to new shoot growth. Symptoms of new shoot infection are difficult to detect. Perhaps the most obvious symptoms are the branches growing at right angles. Less obvious are the small, olive-green knots that might be firm to somewhat corky. The knots later turn hard and will probably break off easily. Black-knot can be a problem in Mississippi plum trees, usually when those trees are within about feet of wild plums and cherries or when the trees have not received care for a substantial length of time.

Fungicides apparently suppress the disease, but pruning out black-knot cankers anywhere on the tree is a necessity. Wild plums and cherries within feet should be removed if possible. Prune infections in wood about 4 inches below the lowest symptom of infection.

Midsummer pruning is the most effective since the outer swelling is the closest to the infection on the inside of the wood. Fungicides should be applied during the time of active shoot growth if the disease is a problem in your area. The fungus Taphrina causes plum pockets disease, but, while present in Mississippi, it has not been a serious problem.

It is included here because it occurs frequently enough for many people who raise plums to see it. Although the fungus infects leaves, shoots, and fruit, symptoms are most obvious on fruits. Symptoms become obvious on all plant parts 6—8 weeks after bud break. Fruit become enlarged up to 10 times their normal size , wrinkled, and distorted. The centers of the fruit are spongy or hollow and may or may not contain a pit.

Twisting and curling are the most common signs of leaf and fruit infections, but these symptoms may not be present. If planting new trees, select resistant cultivars. The most effective fungicide practice is a single fungicide spray in late autumn or before spring budbreak.

Bordeaux mix, chlorothalonil, and liquid lime sulfur are effective treatments. Captan-containing fungicides with labels for use on residential orchard trees include the following products:. Chlorothalonil-containing fungicides with labels for use on residential orchard trees include these:. Copper fungicides come in different formulations and brands.

Formulations include basic copper sulfate, cuprous oxide, copper hydroxide, and copper octanate. The labels differ depending on the percent of metallic copper in the product.

The rates of use should decrease the later in the season the product is to be used to avoid damage to the trees. Check your water pH before using coppers because spraying coppers in water with pH less than 6.

Adjust the water pH using an appropriate spray buffer. Do not use copper fungicides in conditions that may be overcast with high humidity for 3 or more days. Propiconazole-containing fungicides with labels for use on residential orchard trees include these:.

The plum curculio, Conotrachelus nenuphar , is one of the most damaging insect pests of homegrown peaches and plums. Adults are small weevils that overwinter in leaf litter and ground trash in or near the orchard. The adults become active about the time peaches begin to bloom. They fly to trees to feed on buds and newly set fruit; females chew crescent-shaped punctures through the skin of developing fruit to insert their eggs. Grubs hatch and feed inside the fruit until mature.

Fruit that are attacked when small usually abort, but larger fruit remain on the tree with developing larvae inside. Picking up and destroying fallen fruit can help reduce future infestations. Mature larvae drop to the ground when they are ready to pupate. There are two to three generations per year.

Successful control of plum curculios depends on killing the adults before they are able to lay their eggs in the fruit. Begin including malathion in cover sprays as soon as petals fall and apply on a to day schedule tighten the spray schedule during rainy periods. Extending the spray intervals will result in reduced control. Tightening spray intervals to 7—10 days, especially for the first few cover sprays, will improve control. The first few sprays after petal drop are the most important because they target the overwintered adults that will lay the eggs for the first generation.

Several species of stink bugs, as well as tarnished plant bugs, will feed on developing peaches and plums, causing catfacing injury. It is usually adult insects that cause this damage. Their feeding kills developing cells at the feeding site and causes the fruit to be distorted as it grows. Cover sprays containing malathion will usually control catfacing insects. Permethrin is also effective against stink bugs and will control plant bugs in non-Delta areas of the state.

The caterpillar stage of the oriental fruit moth, Grapholita molesta , bores into the terminals, or tips, of peach tree branches, causing them to die back 4—6 inches. This damage is not serious unless populations are high, but once the terminals harden and become unattractive, the caterpillars begin boring into fruit. The oriental fruit moth is relatively uncommon but can cause significant fruit damage. Watch for early signs of dying terminals and tighten the cover spray interval if necessary to protect fruit.

Infested fruit may have masses of gummy sap containing frass at the point of entry. Permethrin can be substituted for malathion if necessary to control heavy infestations.

Two species of peachtree borers attack peaches and plums: peachtree borer PTB , Synanthedon exitiosa , and lesser peachtree borer, Synanthedon pictipes.

Both are wasp-like, day-flying moths whose larvae bore under the bark and tunnel in the cambium. Peach tree borers usually focus their attack on the lower 10—12 inches of the trunk down to the root flare and extending a few inches belowground. Lesser peach tree borers attack higher on the trunk and on lower scaffold limbs. Peach tree borers are the more damaging of these two species.

Moths are especially attracted to trees that have injured areas on the trunk or have previous bore infestations. Keeping trees healthy and protecting trunks and root flares from mechanical injury helps reduce attacks. The eggs are deposited on the surface of the bark, and newly hatched larvae promptly bore into the tree.

If PTB are not controlled, trees may die as the result of the cumulative damage caused by larvae tunneling through the cambium. Young, small-diameter trees are especially vulnerable. Balls of gummy sap that contain frass and sawdust indicate bore infestation. Note that some disease infections also cause peach and plum trees to exude gummy balls of sap through the bark. The key to controlling peach tree borers is to kill the newly hatched larvae before they bore through the bark.

This means applying a trunk spray at the proper time of year so the newly hatched larvae have to crawl through the insecticide residue as they bore into the bark. Low numbers of moths may be active in June and July, but cover sprays for other insect pests usually control these.

Heavy PTB moth flight does not occur until August and September, usually peaking around early September, and this is the time to apply trunk sprays for peachtree borer control. Permethrin is currently the best treatment available for peachtree borers in small home orchards. Mix at the highest rate labeled for trunk sprays, and thoroughly spray the lower scaffold limbs, the trunk, and the root flare.

Apply a second spray in 2—3 weeks; a single application of permethrin will not provide adequate residual control. Treatment dates around mid-August and the first week of September are appropriate for most of the state. To protect trees that are heavily infested or especially vulnerable, make three applications at 2-week intervals, beginning in mid-August. This tiny beetle occasionally attacks and kills peach and plum trees, as well as many other trees in the home landscape.

Actually, it is not the beetle that kills the tree, but the disease it carries and inoculates into the tree. Because they are less than one-eighth of an inch long, the beetles themselves are rarely seen. Integrated Pest Management IPM teaches a method of encouraging natural predators to control the harmful insects on peach trees. Natural predators for peach tree insect pests include ladybird beetles, lacewings, assassin bugs, parasitic wasps and hover flies.

The peach tree borer is not subject to natural predator controls, so spraying is recommended. Fixed copper sprays are used in the winter dormant season to control potential disease outbreaks in the growing season. Typical peach tree disease problems include bacterial canker, brown rot, coryneum blight and peach leaf curl.

Dormant season copper spray is important because it does not kill beneficial insects. Scale insects develop when green shoots begin to grow, and aphids overwinter as eggs on the tree. The peach twig borer overwinters as larvae in pruning wounds, deep cracks or bark crevices. Peach twig borer larvae are detected when bloom time begins.