Peach trees in NC and fungus issues

Was talking to my local nurseryman today and when I discussed peach/nectarine trees he said in our area (western piedmont of NC) peach trees need to be sprayed with fungicide every couple weeks after flowering to get to full fruit. He said that the trees if not sprayed will start to ooze and will drop fruit once they get about 1" in diameter.

Has anyone in my area experienced this, or found a companion planting (guild) that can prevent it without the need to spray? Would really like to put in some of these, but not into wasting time and money if it can't be worked around.

Thanks

Ah yes, the "need to spray". Better living through chemistry and more profits for the chemical industry.

Healthy fruit trees that live on healthy soil shouldn't need a weekly fix of fungicide. The permaculture solution for this "problem" is to use compost tea to make sure that there is a healthy microbial community on the leaves, blossoms, and new fruit and there isn't an opportunity for pathogenic fungal spores to take advantage of.

There is also the matter of the weather. Dry weather after flowering is much less conducive to the spread of fungal diseases than continuous wet weather. I would encourage you to try peaches the non-chemical way, just get out after every rain and reapply some compost tea or neem oil to stay ahead of any potential fungus issues.

Don't worry, ain't no spraying gonna be happening here. The choices were either find a natural solution or not use those trees.

So the compost tea, would it just be added to the soil around the drip line or used as a foliar spray?

Thanks

Victore Hammett wrote:Don't worry, ain't no spraying gonna be happening here. The choices were either find a natural solution or not use those trees.

So the compost tea, would it just be added to the soil around the drip line or used as a foliar spray?

Thanks

Foliar spray when you can. If the rain is coming in and you need to empty your compost tea bucket, then you might as well put it around the drip line because the rain is going to do that anyway.