Tm.
Humid summer plus fungus will cause fruits rot. Immunox. Spray as directed. Just make sure you discarded all the rotten fruits so they could not contaminated other good fruits.

Tony

It could also be Oriental fruit moth or plum curculio. Look those up and ask more questions if you have them. Brown rot is easily distinguished from either of the insect pests. In VA if you don't spray for those insects you will get few eatable fruit just as you are seeing.

It is probably brown rot -- search on that term plus peach to make sure thats what you have. Immunox works but a better spray is Monterey Garden Fungi Fighter - it has myclobutanil which is one of the most effective sprays for brown rot. In Virginia you need all the help you can get. A good garden center will stock it (not Home Depot though). If you can't find this product locally you can order it from e.g. Amazon.

Scott

" Immunox works but a better spray is Monterey Garden Fungi Fighter - it has myclobutanil which is one of the most effective sprays for brown rot."

Scott had a typo. Immunox is the myclobutanil. Monterey Fungi Fighter is propiconazol. Of course he is correct Monterey Fungi Fighter is more effective against brown rot than Immunox.

Chances are your Home Depot spray is one of those "combo sprays" which aren't very targeted or necessarily effective.

This season look carefully for any internal feeding grubs in your fruit. If you see any, you will need to add an insecticide spray with appropriate timing in addition to your fungicide application.

For best control, your fungicide should go on sometime w/in the last month of harvest. Fruits are most susceptible to brown rot as they get closer to softening. That will also be a clue to what you are dealing with. If the "flesh eating" symptoms are w/in the last month of harvest, you are probably dealing with brown rot only.

If you see the peaches drop earlier, you are probably dealing with internal feeding grubs which can provide an entry point for the fungus. But you should be able to see the internal feeders when you cut open the fruit.

It wouldn't at all surprise me in VA, if you had both.

Thank you all!
I understand everything you wrote. To be clear, I'm going to do the following:

I'll order this (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BSULSHA/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2ENTBEZKGXKVW) from amazon and spray it NOW (March 19th).

I'll also get this (http://www.amazon.com/Monterey-LG3335-Agri-Systemic-Fungicide/dp/B005G8601Y/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395239454&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=Monterey+Garden+Fungi+Fighter) and spray it now and as the fruit come out.

is that correct?

Thinking,

Just to be sure you understand, the copper is for leaf curl and will do nothing for rot of your peaches. If you have a problem with leaf curl (deformed leaves) in your area, you need to spray the copper now.

The Monterey Fungi Fighter (MFF) needs to go on the last month before harvest (unless you are dealing with blossom blight, which you haven't mentioned).

The label will give the appropriate spray timing for what you are trying to control.

This post was edited by olpea on Wed, Mar 19, 14 at 10:48

I see. No, i'm not having any leaf issues.....in fact, the fruit (hundreds of them) look very healthy until perhaps july time frame.......then they either start having little dots on them with sap/liquid coming out...or they just drop......then later they start the fungus you guys mentioned....(confirmed with pictures).....and well, that's it. I guess i could have a combination of bug/fungus issue....but the last time i checked when opening the fruit, i didn't see any bugs....but i guess how would i explain the dots/holes on the fruit then.

Ok, i'll NOT order the copper spray......i'll get the Monterey Fungi Fighter and apply it the last month before harvest. So i guess i'll put nothing on the tree until the buds are out and it's harvest time. but what if i start noticing the dots/holes? i guess it's too late at that point....but what can i do to prevent that NOW?

The dots with the sap coming out sound suspiciously like Oriental Fruit moth (OFM). It could be just some external feeding by cat facing insects like stink bug. Any puncture to the surface of the peach can cause oozing. Nevertheless, oozing and dropping peaches is one of the tell tale signs of OFM.

The worm can be very small and easy to miss. Sometimes they penetrate a peach and exit, leaving no worm upon examination.

Thanks for the catch, Olpea. All these chemical names blur together for me.

I agree with Olpea that it sounds like you have OFM. You need to spray for it. Pretty much any peach in Virginia will eventually get brown rot and OFM, they are everywhere and are a major barrier to home peach growing.

Scott

Ok, so just so i understand, i need to only get the Monterey Fungi Fighter and apply it the last month before harvest. So i guess i'll put nothing on the tree until the buds are out and it's harvest time. Do i need to spray it for the Oriental Fruit moth (OFM) at any point? Now or when the buds come out?

Generally you start to spray after the fruit has set on the tree...once the little petals on what were the flowers start to fall off (petal fall)... a spray (pesticides) for plum curculio that are very active in the spring looking to make a little slit in your peaches to lay their eggs, which will grow into larvae, eating your fruit from the inside out as they grow bigger as the season progresses (your fruit will most likely fall off early or rot).

When we talk pesticides, we usually talk about 4 types (mainly)...be it neonicotinoids, carbamates (Sevin), pyrethrins (i use these) and organophosphates (generally limited in use these days---phosmet)...

What you have to figure is what your pest pressures are, when they are active (a growing degree chart helps here) and what you want to spray to limit the damage from these pests.

In my growing area here in Wisconsin the season starts with heavy pressure from plum curculio (hits everything, some more then others...lots of damage if left unsprayed)....then it moves to Rose Chafers (a beetle that feeds on foilage and fruit), then its the Japanese Beetles (same as chafers, except even worse)... You also have to watch for borers (peach trees) and of course birds and squirrels...and maybe some bigger animals... So i spray early and just continue coverage until I think PC is done...then i limit my sprays...

PERFECT :-)

so, here's the plan.....

do NOTHING right now......wait for the buds to come out.....during or right after petal fall, i will spray pyrethrins. then at harvest time, i spray Monterey Fungi Fighter.

Am i missing anything? :-)

I used Spectracide Triazicide Insect Killer Once & Done for fruits and vegetables. It works well so far.

Tony

This post was edited by tonytran on Wed, Mar 19, 14 at 17:14

"during or right after petal fall, i will spray pyrethrins"

Thinking,

Make sure you don't spray during petal fall. Wait till the petals have fallen off, else you are likely to kill bees with your spray, if they are actively foraging your blooms.

Frank and Tony gave you some good advice.

For my area, I don't spray anything on stone fruit until shucks off. It may just be my locale, but I've not seen any egg laying of Plum Curculio (PC) until fruitlets are out of the shuck (I have heard some people witness PC feeding on flowers, but I've not seen it here.)

As Tony alluded, Triazicide Once & Done generally gets good reviews for controlling PC and OFM.