A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion Plant pests and problems Pests or disease attacking my fruit trees

I am a novice and have not sprayed my trees ever. I have pictures on Flickr at this link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/29212516@N02/ I planted fruit trees last spring. I planted Apples, Pears, Peaches, Plums, and Nectarines. The Asian Plums I planted have it worst, but all of the stone fruits are hit. Toward the end of fall all of my stone fruit trees are displaying the symtems of the Lesser Peach Tree Borer. I say Lesser because all the sources I have read from say the Lesser are more prone to attack the upper section the trees. On my trees both the upper and lower sections have been attacked, but more of the upper. I also did see the some black moths, that to me looked scary. I am not an expert on insects, but this does follow with what I have read about the Peach Borer. From the syptoms and what I have read online I thought the stone fruits are infested with Peach Borer, but I don't know. I took pictures today Jan 16 2010. In the pics of the pear, there is fresh cuts on it as you will see. About an hour ago I cut a limb off one of the plum trees, and I just disected it. I did not see any anything that my novice eyes would regonize as a bug. To me it looked like the limb was diying from the inside out. I will take some photos tomorrow and try to find another way to put them up besides flickr.

Welcome, cjackson.
I am not an expert on trees and their diseases or pests. It could be someone will come along with answers for you. Looking at your pictures made me actually wince for your poor trees. And that is a lot of investment to have so sickly too.
I think I would take examples of the wood (sealed in plastic baggies) and the pictures to my local county extension office to see if they could help and maybe suggest a fix. The extension offices around here are often located in a nearby university.

What is a local county extension office and what would they be listed under in the phone book? Thanks for your help.

Craig

A county extension is an agricultural info center for an area. It will be where you find out if you have any crop pests like med flies here in California. Or a particularly bad mosquito infestation or pine borers killing your trees or something like that. I am blanking on other names they are called right now. But I would call my county information offices to find out where to find info on my problem. That would have to be on an open business day. All of our offices are closed today for MLK Jr. Day.

Look into Peach Tree Borer at the links below.

Borers tunnels into the bark and wood of the trees such as peach tree borer and shothole borer; the third is Pacific flathead borer. Borers cause the most problems in newly planted trees.

Peach tree borers attacks stone fruit trees. The borer is steel blue to black moth which emerge in late spring and early summer. Female moths lay their eggs during summer on bark at the base of the tree trunks; hatching larvae tunnel into the tree at or slightly blow ground level. [source: UC Davis IPM]

Preventive spray for peach tree borer
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/PUBS/INSECT/05566.html

apples
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/GARDEN/FRUIT/apples.html

Peaches and Nectarines
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/GARDEN/FRUIT/nectarines.html

Pears
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/GARDEN/FRUIT/pears.html

Plums and Prunes
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/GARDEN/FRUIT/plumsprunes.html

Thank you, Papito. Wonderful info.

Thanks for the great resources, I will be reading over them.

Craig

I just went outside and examined the trees more closely. In one of the peaches on the trunk very close to the ground where the bark looks like a canker I saw a extremley tiny "larvi" of something. It was in the size of mm. I only saw one. Also both of the plums are ozzing amber at ground level where the roots meet the trunk. We are having spring like conditions down here in alabama. There was one "tiny hole" that was ozzing clear between the ground level and the graft union. I am starting to think that I have a combo of peach borers and cankers.





Thanks,

Craig