Peach pies have been a weakness of mine for many years.
A friend’s wife from church made the most incredible peach pies I’ve ever tasted. I’m sorry to say that she passed away several years ago.
She made peach pies from the peach trees he had in their orchard. He grew great peaches, and she made great pies. What a wonderful partnership they had. I was blessed to have some of her peach pies.
He grew a lot of peaches. She turned them into incredible pies.
At our church fundraisers, we invited people from all over to participate. We were blessed because her pies were always a highlight.
I remember one of her pies selling for $132. Pretty amazing that a person paid that much for a pie. Right!
So today I’m doing a public service for those of you who keep peach trees in your own backyards, because we can store this sunshine on our shelves for later.
A few years back, one of my friend’s peach trees got covered with this gray-brownish powder. This disease really hurt his peach harvest. This led to the lack of peach pies that his wife baked that year.
In turn we experienced a lack of peach pie sunshine from summer at that next auction.
If you want to grow great peaches, pick a spot with full sun and well-drained, sandy soil. Peach trees like acidic soil. Dwarf varieties can grow in pots and reach about 5 feet tall, while regular peach trees in your yard can grow up to 25 feet.
During dry weather, make sure to water your peach trees regularly. Give them about 5 gallons of water per square yard every 10 days until you get steady rain. We had a lot of hot, dry days this summer, so this was important. Don’t let the soil around the roots dry out, especially for young trees.
Gator Bags, which landscapers use, can help with watering. Feed your peach trees in the spring and again when the fruit starts to swell, using potash.
Peaches need a lot of nutrients while they’re growing fruit. Adding mulch in the spring is also a good idea. These tips should help you get started with your peaches.
From what I saw on my friend’s mummified peaches, the problem was Brown Rot.
The first symptoms of this disease are wilted leaves or blossoms. Included in the symptoms you might also see young blossom spurs and nearby leaves collapsing, which is called shoot blight.
Sometimes, gum oozes from the base of infected flowers. Blighted twigs can get cankers with tan centers and dark margins. In humid weather, gray-brown spore masses called Molinia fruiticola or M. laxa show up on infected flower parts and twig cankers.
As the season progresses, you’ll notice grayish-brown powdery spots growing on your fruit.
When it rains, these spores fly to other fruit or spurs spreading the disease. Monilinia fructicola survives the winter on the beige, dried-up fruit that falls to the ground or stays on the tree.
If you have this dried up mummified fruit near your trees in winter, the fungus releases acospores when the tree blooms, starting the infection for the new season.
This event in spring will provide the initial inoculation of the disease. In spring, you’ll see dying blossoms that turn mushy and get gray, fuzzy spore masses on the branches.
By fall, you’ll find more dried, spore-covered peaches on the trees or on the ground. Warm, wet weather like we’ve had this season helps this fungus grow.
Poor soil drainage encourages the disease. To fight Brown Rot, use a standard fungicide made for peaches. You should be able to find it easily.
Prune any branches with disease to improve air flow, and try to prune in a herringbone pattern. Get rid of all dried-up fruit and damaged twigs by burning them or throwing them away.
Mature peach trees are strong and usually aren’t threatened by this disease.
While researching compost teas, I found that some of them can help fight fungi like Brown Rot. The idea behind aerobic compost tea is that the good microbes in the tea eat the stuff peaches give off that attracts Brown Rot.
These helpful microbes compete well with the fungus, so Brown Rot can’t survive. Pretty clever, right?
Brown Rot might cut down on the peaches you get to enjoy, but it won’t kill your tree. And who doesn’t want a little more sunshine in their yard from tasty peaches you preserved on your shelves?
This bit of summer shine shine you can enjoy in the darkness of winter. I hope you enjoy your time in the garden.
If you run into any problems, feel free to email me at ericlarson546@yahoo.com.