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Peach tree borers

Posts: 9907

Location: a temperate, clay/loam spot on planet earth, the universe

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posted 2 years ago

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I find starting peaches from seed relatively easy compared to the maintenance it takes to keep the tree and peaches themselves at least somewhat free from pests.
https://permies.com/t/23607/Propagating-Blood-cling-Peaches
I would love to hear how others are preventing peach tree borer damage especially as this has pretty much done in my oldest trees and irreversable damage to some younger ones.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synanthedon_exitiosa
I think, because the trees are so easy to grow from pits I maxed out the number I can grow without attracting an abundance of borers?

Curculio I had managed to prevent by routine knocking the tree beginning at bloom...it really does work but I missed a few years and the last crop had big beautiful peaches riddled with damage...they at least don't kill the tree.

The variety I grow doesn't get leaf curl...really it's the peach tree borers that challenge me to frustration.

I lapsed in my bark scraping and poking wire in borer tunnels...tried ashes around the base and I think that helped for years but did not prevent.
Seems I remember one year I used tanglefoot on yellow cardstock hung in the trees and had fewer curculio and also caught adult borers.

So, all of you peach propagators

...I'd love to hear what you do to prevent this pest?

(Other than give up

)

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Judith Browning

Posts: 9907

Location: a temperate, clay/loam spot on planet earth, the universe

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posted 2 years ago

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Just in case the answer is floating around out there?

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

bruce Fine

Posts: 1521

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posted 2 years ago

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I like the idea of sticky boards. this might be my first year getting peaches on my new trees. time will tell.
so far I have done nothing to the trees except let them grow and cut the grass from underneath them two years ago. I have three cherrie trees that just blossomed last week and there has been and should not be any chance of frost to wipe out the fruit setting.
fingers and toes crossed.

Judith Browning

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Location: a temperate, clay/loam spot on planet earth, the universe

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posted 2 years ago

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Thanks for the input Bruce!

I think it takes a number of years for the borers to build up a population that can devastate the tree and I believe I overplanted peaches because they are so easy to grow from seed and that played a part in attracting even more borers.

And I slacked off monitoring over the winter.
I don't believe they are a fruit one can grow without some maintanance?

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

May Lotito

gardener

Posts: 2112

Location: Zone 6b

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posted 2 years ago

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I only grow peach tree for a few years and haven't experienced any borer yet. But from now on I will keep an eye on the tree for any signs of sickness to catch at an early stage. I have guild around the tree trunk, do you think it's better off clearing the vegetations to exposed the trunk for easy inspection or the plants, or leave them on to hide the trunk from possible pests?

Recently I found borers doing lots of damages to my elderberries and fig tree. I might lose the 4 year old hardy Chicago fig (already propagated some cuttings). Borers are very vicious. I wish I learned more about tree pests and have done something in the past winter.

Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil

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Judith Browning

Posts: 9907

Location: a temperate, clay/loam spot on planet earth, the universe

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posted 2 years ago

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May,
I didn't know borers were a problem with figs and elderberries!
I grow both and have for years with no signs of that kind of damage.
Since the borers seem to be specific to the crop maybe we all don't have all of them lurking

I thought the wood ashes I piled at the base of the peaches was detering them but the larva that enters the tree from the soil moved through that barrier apparently and have practically girdled six to eight inch tree trunks at the base...if they are caught early, (watch for a gell oozing at the base of the tree trunk)...there is some hope of limiting the damage by inserting a flexable wire into the tunnel until you are able to squish the invader.

I think I'm going to try tanglefoot on a yellow card again....

It's always been the older trees that are damaged...the young ones that are only a few years old don't seem to attract them? Maybe when they begin to bloom well?

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Judith Browning

Posts: 9907

Location: a temperate, clay/loam spot on planet earth, the universe

3055

posted 2 years ago

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Bump

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Judith Browning

Posts: 9907

Location: a temperate, clay/loam spot on planet earth, the universe

3055

posted 1 week ago

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I've just decided to keep propagating more trees when we have a good year like this past one and assume their life span is short.

As a possible preventative, I have, just this fall, cleared an area a foot or so from the trunk down to bare dirt and will try to keep it that way...the idea I read was if you could keep the larvae in the soil stirred up they wouldn't make it to the trunk? doubtful but not a lot of effort to do.

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Amy Gardener

gardener

Posts: 795

Location: 5,000' 35.24N zone 7b Albuquerque, NM

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posted 1 week ago

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Judith writes,

As a possible preventative, I have, just this fall, cleared an area a foot or so from the trunk down to bare dirt and will try to keep it that way...the idea I read was if you could keep the larvae in the soil stirred up they wouldn't make it to the trunk? doubtful but not a lot of effort to do.

I have had good luck clearing away the debris about half way to the tree's trip line to keep borers away from peaches, plums, apricots, cherries and almonds. My understanding is that the peach tree moths lay eggs in and around the lower part of the trunk throughout spring, summer and early fall. Removing the ground litter near the trunk gets rid of some of the eggs, though the base of the tree remains vulnerable to borers under the bark. Carefully examining the base of the tree while the ground is cleared allows me to see if any sap is running. When I do see a bubble of sap, I assume a borer is at work. I pull the sap away and use a heavy duty stainless steel basting syringe (cooking gadget available at Walmart) to inject neem oil into the hole.
To further protect the ground, I plant garlic around the base of the tree in autumn since I'm clearing the ground anyway and garlic is generally a good bug deterrent. Pulling the garlic in spring is another opportunity to clean up and poke around for signs of larve.
Since using this approach for about 20 years, I have never lost another stone fruit tree. I hope this works for you Judith!

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Alder Burns

pollinator

Posts: 1781

Location: southern Illinois, USA

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posted 1 week ago

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The only way I've had success with peaches in the South is to grow them in a chicken yard. Or basically fence in the orchard and allow chickens in there a lot of the time. Sometimes I would keep them out during the winter and grow a cover crop, but otherwise I would keep them in there and let them scratch up the ground. Usually I'd have to fence in the smallest trees to keep them from being dug up. Pretty much any insects get eaten up. They break the life cycle of things like curculio by eating any fruit that falls early, and also picking up the adults when the go to hibernate or when they hatch back out. I had good control of curculio that way, especially on early peaches, and never saw any borers at all.

Judith Browning

Posts: 9907

Location: a temperate, clay/loam spot on planet earth, the universe

3055

posted 6 days ago

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thank you Amy and Alder both!

Your ideas make me feel like I'm on the right track at least.

As much as we would love to have chickens again we hesitate because of dogs and raccoons and recent experiences.

I'll clear back even farther from the trunk though and see about getting some neem oil. I've never used it.

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

John Kempf

Posts: 18

Location: Snow belt, Ohio

posted 5 days ago

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Peach trees, (stone fruit in general) have a very high boron requirement.

In the commercial orchards we work with, we have found that supply generous levels of boron seems to solve borer problems permanently.

You can use borax, applied to the soil underneath the tree. You need a rate that is equivalent to about 4 lb of actual boron per acre, spread over several applications per year.

The best way to predict the future is to create it yourself.

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M.K. Dorje Sr.

pollinator

Posts: 289

Location: Oregon Coast Range Zone 8A

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posted 5 days ago

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My solution is to paint the trunks of young fruit trees with white latex, preferably indoor latex. This also prevents sun scald, sunburn and rodent damage. IV Organics makes a special paint that also contains essential oils for this purpose:

https://ivorganics.com/product/3-in-1-plant-guard/

The IV Organics paint is super pricey, so I just use regular latex on my trees. I paint my young trees in the winter during a dry spell. I seem to have good results.

Here's a video from Dave Wilson nursery:

Good luck Judith!

"In action, watch the timing."-Tao Te Ching
"Jus' Press"-Ledward Kaapana

Judith Browning

Posts: 9907

Location: a temperate, clay/loam spot on planet earth, the universe

3055

posted 4 days ago

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thanks mk!

and John!
I've considered boron...will see if I can figure the bare minimum amount to use under the peach trees.

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

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