Established peach tree problems

I am currently creating a permaculture farm on my property and the house I moved into has large peach trees already in the yard. The fruit keep leaking a goo out of them and don’t grow to a full size, they just die and get moldy. I already pruned the crap out of them which seemed to help with the leaf disease it had (some kind of leaf shot) but still have problems with the immature fruit. Any advice would be appreciated.

My friend had a similar problem with an old peach tree that came with the property. She tried different things. Nothing worked. The tree was simply old - peaches are short living and at the end we cut it down.

Welcome to the forum!

This just might be a bad year for the tree.

I believe I have read that a weevil or a moth lays its eggs and cause that kind of damage.

Hi Nick, welcome to the forum. From your description it is likely your peach tree has plum curculio(PC) infestation. They are tiny weevils that feed on and lay eggs in the fruits. Lesions on the peach lead to fungal infection and thus the brown rot. The dropped fruits have PC larvae inside so make sure to pick them up and discard. But that alone isn't enough as they may come from other infested trees in the neighborhood.  Next year, take preventative action as early in the spring when the overwintered bugs start to emerge. There are a numbers of things you can try includingthe organic ways. Last year my peach tree had PC and lost the majority of the fruits. The few made it to the end were protected in paper bags.

May Lotito wrote:Hi Nick, welcome to the forum. From your description it is likely your peach tree has plum curculio(PC) infestation. They are tiny weevils that feed on and lay eggs in the fruits. Lesions on the peach lead to fungal infection and thus the brown rot. The dropped fruits have PC larvae inside so make sure to pick them up and discard. But that alone isn't enough as they may come from other infested trees in the neighborhood.  Next year, take preventative action as early in the spring when the overwintered bugs start to emerge. There are a numbers of things you can try includingthe organic ways. Last year my peach tree had PC and lost the majority of the fruits. The few made it to the end were protected in paper bags.

Thanks for the info, I think I’m screwed this year (again) but that’s ok I will fix it next year. At least I saved the pear tree from whatever it was that was hurting it and I’m getting allot of pears in, plus I’m removing the trees that are past saving and planting different species in its place.