August Orchard Care

We have 3 different varieties of peach in our orchard. The two yellow varieties are Contender and Flaming Fury. The white variety is China Pearl. The China Pearl is the last to ripen so we are harvesting China Pearl from late July / early August, until the middle of August with all the fruit done by the 15th.

There is a short period of time, it was a few days this year, between the last of the yellow peaches and the selling of the China Pearl. Typically, the insecticide we use at this time of year – Seven XLR Plus, or Carbaryl, require a minimum 3 day pre-harvest internval (PHI) and the fungicide has a zero day PHI. Consequently, we do not spray with either pesticide category after the nectarines so we can be sure we are well clear of the pre-harvest intervals for the peaches.

This makes our China Pearl a little more susceptible to both June beetles, Japanese beetles and a few others like sap beetles. While they are a nuisance, they don’t do much damage to the crop and don’t bite people.

Problems

Once all the fruit has been harvested it is time to treat the trees for a real pest, a clear wing moth that lays it’s eggs at the base of the trunk and the larvae then attack the tree roots and bore into the tree. These pests are known as Greater Peach Tree Borers. They do attack peaches and nectarines and can kill your trees.

You can usually tell if your tree has borers by checking for sap around the trunk up to the scaffold and the lower limbs. The scaffold is where the main branches come out of the trunk to form the tree. A well pruned tree will only have 3 or 4 main branches growing from the trunk, ideally around the 24 – 36 inch mark above the soil.

If the sap has frass in it – wood / sawdust – then you probably have borers. If the sap is clear then it is there from some other injury and it isn’t borers.

There are other insects that infect the tree that should be treated at this time. San Jose Scale, Peach Tree Scale and Lesser Peach Tree Borer.

The Scale will kill your tree. Unfortunately, they are pretty impervious to insecticides because once they have attached to your tree they form a scale on the outside. So to treat your tree you use a horticultural oil which suffocates the scale insect. You can tell if you have scale on your tree because it looks like “snow”.

The Lesser Peach Tree Borer is not supposed to be a major problem in our area so I don’t treat for it specifically.

The Greater Peach Tree Borer will also kill your trees, like the scale, and must be treated. You can’t treat the tree for GPTB right before or while harvesting as the insecticide can enter the tree and thereby the fruit. This is unfortunate because in our area the moth is active from about May through August.

Treatment

Once harvesting is over, I drench spray the trunk of our trees, from the scaffold down and some of the lower branches, with a mixture of horticultural oil – 3%, Yuma 4E (which is a restricted use pesticide) and Champ 2F, which is a copper based fungicide.

The horticultural oil is to kill any scale, the Yuma 4E is to kill the Greater Peach Tree Borer and the Champ 2F is to control fungus.

You can purchase the horticultural oil and copper based fungicides at places like Tractor Supply, Lowes and Home Depot, as well as your local co-op. Depending on how many trees you have, you won’t need much.

3% horticultural oil means if you need 5 gallons of mix – with water – then you need 19 ounces of oil. 5 gallons of water is 640 ounces. 3% is 19 ounces.

The labels on the other products will also provide information as to how much to use. For example, in our orchard I use 3 gallons of oil, 2 Qts of Champ 2F and 3 Qts of Yuma 4E per 100 gallons of water. These are all mixed together in the tank and then I use a spot spray wand to spray about 1 Quart (2 pints) per tree, scaffold down, and make sure to pool a little around the base to soak into the soil and kill the GPTB larvae.

Horticultural oil and Champ 2F are not restricted use in Tennessee (as of the date of this writing. Champ Formula 2 Flowable (Champ 2F) is a copper hydroxide-based fungicide and is not classified as a restricted-use pesticide in Tennessee. Other copper hydroxide based fungicides may be purchased in quantities more suitable to your needs so do a little research. I purchase Champ 2F in 2.5 gallon jugs.

Please note that there may be plenty of other alternatives to the ones I provide for any restricted use chemicals I use and you should do additional research to find one that suits your purposes.

Restricted Use Pesticide		Non-Restricted Use Alternative
Name	Active Ingredient	Name	Active Ingredient
Yuma 4E	Chlorpyrifos	Conserve SC, Entrust SC, Monterey Garden Insect Spray	Spinosad

REMEMBER: Read the labels on any pesticides you use and follow their instructions !

That is pretty much all I do in the orchard in Augusts, except perhaps to mow. I will treat the orchard floor later in the season to reduce broad leaf growth generally and also to eliminate grass from beneath the trees altogether.