Peach Tree Care: Common Peach Diseases

Peach tree care includes planting your trees where they will do best, such as in an orchard or large back yard. It also includes making sure your trees get enough water and sunshine and chances at pollination. However, peach tree care also encompasses protecting your trees from peach tree diseases.

Types of peach tree diseases

There are several peach diseases that can attack your tree. A couple of the most common peach tree diseases are brown rot and peach scab. Both of these diseases can cause peach tree die back, or at the very least will damage the fruit, which is something you do not want to deal with.

The first peach tree disease mentioned is brown rot. Brown rot causes a decay of stone fruits including peaches. As far as a peach tree disease goes, brown rot causes the fruit to turn soft and brown. It starts out as a small brown spot and expands to destroy the whole piece of fruit. Brown rot also causes blight to the blossoms and twigs on the trees in the springtime, so as peach tree diseases go, this one truly is a big one.

Rotted fruits can either stay on the tree to become mummies or fall to the ground, attracting insects and bees that will also eat the tree. These rotted fruit cause a place for the brown rot to start. Blighted twigs and leaves should be removed once the final fruit harvest has happened so that the tree can heal.

Clean up any fallen fruit and twigs to prevent the brown rot from spreading to other parts of the tree. Just by allowing these things to just lay around under the tree will spread this disease quickly.

Another peach disease that causes problems to peaches is peach scab. This one is a fungus that causes spots on the fruit. These spots can make the skin harder to remove when canning the fruit. It also causes abnormal fruit growth.

The best way to combat this particular peach disease is to prune the tree correctly. The best way to do this is to provide ample space within the tree when pruning to allow for penetration of pesticides and water. It also allows more space for aeration of the tree which means there is a less likely chance of fungus growing.

If you are growing peach trees, know that peach tree diseases are preventable and also controllable once caught. You just have to pay attention to any signs and symptoms of disease and treat the peach tree disease appropriately and promptly.

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