Things To Do With Fruit Trees Now

While pruning the last couple of days I saw some things  to do that I wanted to bring to your attention.
I saw an increase in borer damage to even small limbs now. I think that is because of a lack of borer removal and not whitewashing. It is also possible it could be due to lack of water if they have gone through drought.

Borer damage to peach

I saw peach twig borer damage from last year in small shoots that were still attached to the tree. That means populations were very high and not controlled.

Peach twig borer damage from last year on young growth. The twig borer burrows into soft, young stems causing the stems to dieback. Populations of this moth build during the summer months after with each successive generation. When fruit is out and getting soft they will attack soft fruit causing wormy peaches and almonds.

 I will cover these more in detail as the season progresses. 

Nectarines need to be sprayed immediately after petal fall for thrips. Use spinosad in rotation with other labeled sprays.

Things to be done at the orchard:

·     Fertilize all trees and vines

·     Borer removal with knives. Eliminate loose bark down to healthy wood.

·     Whitewash upper sides of scaffold limbs for borer prevention

·     Purchase pheremone traps and pheremones for peach twig borer (peaches, nectarines and almonds) and codling moth (apples and pears). Set one trap each for monitoring in early April. As soon as moths are caught, set two more traps in the orchard for trapping. This has worked on codling moth in the past.

·    Bt sprays need to be timed for the first wave of peach twig borer. This will reduce the numbers in future generations. If you don’t start spraying after the first flight the population will blossom into some heavy damage including infesting the fruit later.

·    Nectarines need to be sprayed with Spinosad immediately after petal fall and follow up sprays are needed for scar-free fruit.

·    Bubblers and drip emitters need to be checked for plugging monthly.