What To Do To Peach Trees in Late January and February

Q. Could you direct me to or post a list of things I should be doing to my peach tree now? 

A. I will post the answer on my blog for others but right now you should be finishing up your pruning, fertilizing and begin irrigating once a week if you have surface mulch under the tree.

Peach trees in early bloom this January. Normal bloom date is February 1, consistently, year after year. The warming spell in January kicked everything into high gear early.

Let it finish blooming and then apply dormant oil to the entire tree to suffocate pests that are now coming out to attack leaves and fruit. Dormant oil is NOT dormant spray for disease control.

In about one month you will look for peach twig borer damage to new shoots and applying Bt spray to control these moths and “worms” that attack new growth and later your peach fruits. Watch for the posting on my blog with more detail and pictures.