What is causing my peaches to rot?
Question:
What do you recommend to treat brown rot on peaches? All of our seven-year-old tree’s fruit has fallen to the ground, half rotten, or rotted when picked to ripen indoors. In late June, many green fruits had tiny extrusions that looked like airplane glue–clear–as well as early signs of rot. Could this have anything to do with last year’s fruitless season after the hard winter freeze?
Answer:
I’m so sorry to hear about the peach issues. Brown rot is a fairly common condition, so I’m not sure if last year’s conditions are having much of an impact, but the warm and rainy summer we’re having now most definitely is.
The Univ of IL Extension has a nice information page on brown rot in peaches here. It’s a fungal disease, so your management practices will be similar to those for other fungal pathogens. Promptly remove any infected fruit, as well as fallen fruit and plant debris, cut out diseased branches and twigs when the tree is dormant, and properly prune to promote airflow through the canopy. Pay attention to your fruit load, as well (which you should be doing anyway, as it improves the quality of your harvest), as too many developing fruits will put them in close contact with one another. Funguses love warm, moist, close, still air, so any tactics that keep things airy and dry will help prevent and/or mitigate infections.
If you choose to use a chemical intervention (discussed in the Univ of IL link above), it needs to be done early in the season (applied to flowers, not fruit), as the treatments are relatively ineffective once the infection gets going. As always, read carefully and follow conscientiously all instructions on the label.
Good luck and happy gardening.