Hey everyone, I need help with my peaches, I'm in NJ, and I e been growing 5 varieties of white peaches and nectarines, my trees are about 6 yrs old and produce tons of peaches every season, yet I havnt had one yet, I lose 100% to some sort of a burrowing insect every year , it bores a hole it leaks clear liquid and it's ruined, I tries going organic the first 3 yrs, what a joke that was, and then, I used a few items from Home Depot, I wasn't totally vigilant maybe sprayed a few times, cause I felt maybe toxic, this year I don't give a F, I want a peach, I will use agent orange if I have to! I've been spraying ortho and carbaryl literally every 5 days at this point, and I haven't seen a bug yet, my question is will this be suffice for the season or does anyone know a better solution, I want to eat just one nectarine or peach just one that doesn't have a god forsaken maggot in it, please let me know your experiences and solutions if u have any at all!
Thanks
Justin
Ps that's why I do figs now zero pest for me so far! Knocking on wood right now

It's a good time to attack the insects. Your main problem is probably PC the plum curcullo. They are rather a persistent pest. Not much options for the home grower. I have 2 problems, PC and brown rot. You probably have not kept a peach long enough to discover that brown rot is going to be a problem for you too. It's possible the codling moth is the issue and not PC. The CM usually is the worm in apples. Unlike apples peaches fall off before PC or CM develop fully. Remove that fruit immediately from the yard, burn, destroy, throw out and don't take longer than a NY minute.

I would try using Bonide Fruit Tree and Plant Guard. Follow label directions. It takes care of PC, CM and brown rot.
This may not be enough, use the other insecticide products you bought in between Bonide. I think you can only use Bonide every 21 or 14 days? Just make sure those other products are safe on fruit. You can find Fruit Tree and Plant Guard on Amazon, or at any independent nursery, not the box stores. They usually don't carry it. You also need a sticker. Bonide makes one, ask at the nursery. I use a commercial grade sticker. You have to buy about 10 years worth. A sticker holds the pesticide on the tree, even in rain. otherwise it will wash right out.

Also most pesticides work better when in acidic water. Tap water is very basic. Add one tablespoon of any vinegar to pest tank mix. First add water, then vinegar, then pesticide.
Peaches are tough. I use even more products, but this should help a lot. It's a start.
If you do this you can take your own photos of harvest.

I wanted to mention that you should probably buy the Bonide product on Amazon. The insecticide can breakdown with age, and with heat. Keep bottle where it will be under 75F. In the nursery, so few know what to use, the bottle could be there from last year.

Here is my full regime.

After leaf fall in the fall
Lime-sulfur and all seasons oil dormant spray. For leaf curl, and to kill any insect eggs that try to over winter on tree. You can use copper instead, Lime-sulfur is impossible to find. I have a large supply I bought before they stopped making it.

Late Winter/early spring before bud swell

Kocide copper spray with sticker or oil for peach leaf curl
For sticker I use Nu-film 17, excellent top rate sticker. Online only and expensive. Made with pinene think pine tar. If used in spray tanks have to be washed out with soap and water after use.

Before bloom or during -   Monterrey Fungi Fighter for brown rot, a fungicide.

After pedal fall

Fungi fighter with insecticide like malathion 3-5 times a season every 21 days, use sticker
Bonide Fruit Tree and Plant Guard 3-5 times a season every 21 days 2 weeks after Fungi Fighter is used. Use sticker.

Stop using 21 days before harvest!!

So I rotate use of these products.

Some bigger guns exist if any of the suggestions in last 2 posts don't work that well. See how it goes this year.
I have not had to use them, you may?

The Mediterranean fruit fly has been eradicated from the lower 48. it is in Hawaii.  It never ever was in New Jersey.
The codling moth is a moth. The Plum Curcullo is a beetle. These are what cause worms in peaches here. Nothing else I know of? (besides SWD fruit fly) I'm friends with professional peach growers all over the USA. I learned what to do from them.
If codling moth you can also use hormone disruptor. I never had to use it. If I had apples, I probably would. I only have PC to deal with here. CM prefers apples, and I have never seen it in my peaches.
Last year I had one peach with PC, and I killed the larvae inside. Timing is important. They attack fruit at night. Two generations a year. So you have to spray all season.

We do have the spotted wing Drosophila fruit fly, and it is in NJ. I have never had it attack my peaches, but I have blackberries and raspberries it goes after every year. These sprays will kill it too. I'm trying to attract humming birds for this fruit fly, they love eating fruit flies. The maggots are very small.

Thanks guys, and gals! I got the bonide fruit tree spray and guard, bottles looked brand new no dust from last season! And I was able to get captan for brown rot! I hope I'm good, I've never had blossoms rot off the tree, but I do get swollen branch tips that look kinda nasty, I always remove, is that brown rot manifesting off of fruit?
Thanks

Yes, it can affect tips, it might be something else, like stem borer, or other fungi. The products should help there too! Fruit Guard is very effective against brown rot, the only version that is not commercial. Although brown rot can be so bad, it's best to fight it with multiple chemicals with different modes of action (attack in different ways). Captan is a fine product, but will not work one bit if not in acidic solution. In tap water it has a half life of about 2 hours versus days in acidic water. So use that vinegar! I use it to fight grey mold on strawberries, and in tap water it does not work at all. I know, been there, done that. Once I was told about the acidic water it worked like a charm! Amazing what a difference. I myself use sulfuric acid to acidify water. I have professional pH sticks, and need the acid for my blueberries. Vinegar breaks down in a week and releases all carbonates it binds up, so pH rises. Not effective for blueberries. Sulfuric acid change carbonates to gypsum, which is neutral, and stable, It permanently removes carbonates. Vinegar is OK in pots because you can flush carbonates bound to acetic acid out the bottom holes. Just water heavy. My in ground blueberries do better with sulfuric acid for reasons stated.

Here is an example of a sticker

https://smile.amazon.com/Bonide-097-Turbo-Spreader-Sticker/dp/B000PKTPP6/ref=sr_1_1?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1494015003&sr=1-1&keywords=bonide+sticker


This wetting, penetrating, and adhering agent improves the performance of all pesticides by dispersing the application uniformly.

It may work on grapes, see if listed on label for use on grapes.

Use Captan first as it works on brown rot stem blight better, which tends to hit early or before it hits fruit. The sticker is used with whatever product your using. So it should be in whatever you are spraying. use it every time except if you do an oil spray. Which you are not doing, nor need to.
Always add water first, then mix the other stuff in the water. If captan is put in first then water, it tends to clump and clog sprayers. And yes use Malathion with the captan, that product is actually sold! Bonides Fruit Tree Spray is captan and Malathion. Bonide makes a number of sprays. Another is Fruit and nut tree spray. Don't forget a tablespoon of vinegar! Put in 2nd after the water and mix/shake.

If you do still have problems with brown rot, next year buy Monterrey Fungi Fighter, and mix it with the Captan/Malathion spray. Looks like you will not need to use it, as you really have not seen problems, but brown rot is everywhere except some parts of California, so using these products is a really good idea.
See how this works for now, rotating these two sprays good luck and if it works I'm expecting some fresh peaches :) Well maybe some peach jam! Actually do you know what varieties you have? If I don't have them, I would not mind some wood to graft unto my trees next spring. Pencil size or less, about 6 inches long. You have to take them while tree is dormant. Treat them like fig cuttings, slightly moist paper towel with cuttings,  in the fridge to store.
If you ever take up grafting you can have cuttings from mine. I like to graft figs too, as I get about 85% takes or more, and can get two grafts from each cutting, which means every fig cutting I get, always takes. Every time. It's a great way to do it instead of trying to root hard to root figs, they all graft easily!

Later I will do air layers to get them on their own roots, cut off  the rest of the graft not air layered and do another on the same rootstock.

All were bought from stark brothers, I have the white Saturn peaches with literally 1000 on the tree right now, I have blushing star white peaches, and I have what is nectacrest white nectarines, they no longer sell them it's the only 5 star nectarines they had, I would gladly send u cuttings, so when I mix the chemicals I could mix everything at once? Like captan sticker malathion water and vinegar all in the same 1 gallon sprayer? And I'm a little confused I can also spray the fruit tree guard as well? Or I have to wait? I'm sorry never had a regime before, I just don't wanna kill these guys
Thanks

Great information, Drew. Thanks. And nice looking peaches.

Sorry to hear about your misfortunes with peaches, Jsavkov.

I try to avoid spraying my peaches as much as i can, but sometimes it's inevitable, although the one's i have more problems with are those that mature in late August, and September (brown rot can be a big problem).
Nevertheless, i usually can eat good peaches in June and July without having to use pesticides, except for a winter treatment and the ocasional early spring fungal treatment in very wet springs (mainly to avoid or stop leaf curl disease - i had to do it this year)

Regarding varieties, I've been collecting quite a few in the last years and, regarding flavor, some of the old varieties i had (some more than 40 years old) are still some of the best in my collection. 

A few photos:








The blood peaches and the white flesh flat peaches are excellent also:






Some more phots in this Album

I'm on the other side of the pond :-) Europe-Portugal

But my zone is quite humid (near the ocean) and the fungus are a big problem. The Mediterranean fruit fly is the worst insect we have but i place traps and spray for my apples so their numbers are controlled. They get some peaches each season but its manageable.

Regarding flavor, i also like white peaches (like White Lady, Ice Peach and Gladys) and white flat peaches (like Sweet Cap and Galaxy). My white nectarines are still young. All these are very sweet, but most are too mild to excite my taste buds (there are exceptions like Ice Peach).
Most of the times i find some acidity mixed with sweetness more appealing. My yellow peaches (like the very ancient Pêssego de Alcobaça) are also so sweet that the acidity doesn't come out as bitterness, but instead gives additional flavors and is quite exciting to my taste buds, making them much more exciting to eat when fully ripe (with the juice dripping at each bite), than the white ones.

Regarding your insect problems. If you follow Drew's recommendations you can keep those problems under control and taste some wonderful peaches in the summer. Best of luck.

The blood peaches in the photo are Vinhateiro Português (an old portuguese variety) and Sanguine Vigneuse (a french variety). I also have Preto Carnudo (similar to Vinhateiro but matures a few weeks later in September) and this year i may sample Sanguine d'Auvergne that i grafted last year.

I may add a few more in the future (from Spain and France) if my friends that have them confirm that they are different enough (in taste or date of maturation)

Ola Jsaca. The Vinhateiro, and pessego de alcobaca are they frost/cold resistant? My mother is coming here to visit in a month or so might ask her to bring some cuttings and try to see if I can make them grow

Olá, Luís.

They are grown mainly in the North of Portugal, so i  think we can say with some degree of confidence that they can resist colder temperatures (within the limits that peaches can endure).

There are a couple of northern nurseries, near Porto, that have Preto Carnudo and Pêssego de Alcobaça on their list (Pessegueiros).
Viveiros Albar
Viveiros Castromil


Drew,
Don't get me wrong. I am also quite excited of some of the new flavors that are being developed and do not think that only heirlooms are worth it.
But i am waiting for some feedback on some of the hybrids, before investing in them. For instance, some friends say that Nectaplum is nothing but a glorified nectarine, similar to many others on the market and not really worth all the hybrid hype.
And the Pluerry may be down the same line, but i see your interested regarding further hybridization.

Have you tasted your Cherry-Plum yet? Is it worth it?

Jsacadura. Thank you for the links, I live in The US. I don't think they would ship here. But I wish. Here I pay $50 for a 1 or 2 year old fig tree.
Maybe when my mother comes to visit or when I go there I'll buy some and ship them.

I'm familiar with North Portugal. My father was from Provezende a small village near Vila Real
Spent many childhood days there running aroundceating grapes and figs off the tree. Lol