Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Peach Crop Failure

Brown Rot. Our peaches are rotting on the trees before they ripen.

This is all we got from one tree. We should be getting 5 times this much from each tree. They won't even be edible. But we'll use them to make peach brandy. Jane from Hard Work Homestead has a great recipe.


Adding insult to injury, SVBs are on the attack. At least we got one healthy squash out of this plant. Thankfully we have several other productive plants.

We're really sad about our peaches this year. A 200 pound harvest has turned into a 20 pound failure.  We really count on them for our winter store. Aaarrrggg! We'll be lucky to get 5 gallons of wine and a little brandy this year.

I must say, for all the loss, there are also great gains. There always seems to be enough and I'm thankful for that.

14 comments:

  1. I had a few Pears in the spring that had that look, but they grew out of it and I'm going to have a good bounty..But my Peaches were full of worms for the last two seasons ( I had them sprayed last year) I asked the Quilted Hollar and she recommended pouring soapy water all around the base ..I'm going to try that ..now Fall, winter and Spring it can't hurt and it may do the trick.

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  2. Oh the HORROR! Well this has been one horrible year. I guess it takes years like this to make us grateful for the years we do get a good harvest. And at least you got some wine out of it. After all, thats what helps us get through years like this - the wine ;)

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  3. How sad! Is this a peach disease that will likely recur?

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  4. Sorry to hear about your peaches. It's just been one of those years!! All I can say is at least you will have some brandy and wine to help you get through the winter!

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  5. Hi Ginny, we're not sure what we'll do yet. Did the soapy water seem to help?


    Jane, Yea, we sure have had better years. Thanks for the peach schnapps recipe. At least we'll find some comfort in peaches this year.

    Granny, Belle has been doing the research on it. She thinks it's brown rot, the effect of heavy rain combined with very hot days. She says we need to rid the trees and ground of all infected fruit and treat with a copper spray that is organic garden friendly.

    Daphne's been having a similar problem with her veggies, and she uses copper spray to fight the rot. We used copper spray on our veggies this year and it was extremely helpful. Next year we're going to try it on the peaches too.

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  6. Granny, Belle said I have my information all wrong. Daphne doesn't use copper spray that much. She uses Serenade. We used copper spray this year, but next year we'll use Serenade. Sorry for the confusion.

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  7. The weather in the NW has been hard on fruit too. Late freezes, heavy rains, and cool weather have not helped--there is only so much us little humans have control over. What are the SBVs?

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  8. Hi Me, spoken like a true theologian! There truly is only so much we can control. We're still working out how to deal with the peaches problem. If you haven't met with SVB's yet. Be thankful. They are Squash Vine Borers. They are little white worms with black heads that enter the heart of the squash vine at ground level and eat it from the inside out. We posted pictures of them about 3 weeks ago. They can kill the entire plant in less than a week. The good news, chickens love them!

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  9. Oh wow! That is really disappointing :( But you have a very good attitude. That says alot!

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  10. Sorry to hear about that. Hopefully next year will be much much much better.

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  11. So sorry to hear about your peaches. I would love to have a tree someday but I've heard that they can be incredibly difficult to grow. I think I read that commercial peaches have one of the highest concentration of pesticides and herbicides. Hopefully your harvest will be back to normal next year.

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  12. Apple Pie Gal, thanks.

    Malay-kadazan girl, it's really sad. The great thing about gardening is that there is always next year.

    Thomas, they are very high maintenance. After raising them ourselves, I understand why they would have so much pesticide residue. Out of all the stuff we raise, I'm most tempted to spray the peaches.

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  13. Having had my own peach problems this year, I was very interested in the discussion in the comments. Looks like we're all going to be trying new tactics next year.

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  14. Hi Leigh, sorry to hear that you're having problems too. Next year we'll try new tactics for sure. One thing we're going to try is foliar fertilizer. We found an organic fish/kelp spray from the Pennsylvania based company Fertrell (fertrell.com) I'm hoping that by spraying it directly onto the leaves the trees will be more resistant against bugs and disease

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