My peaches, sorry there is also a pic of me, my 'Lavender
Touch' eggplant and me looking at my Italian Plums! Can't get the hang of selecting pics on my computer. I'll get better, but you get the gist of this years Peaches. Lovely! Mrs. G

On the tree!

Peaches on the sill and tree.

I"ll get the hang of this picture thing sooner or later.

Nice work MrsG47!

Thanks Glenn, you're a pal. There are 30 of them! Can't wait till next year. Hope we have a mild winter again? Mrs. G

The peaches grown in my rocky soil look terrible when compared to your pictures. And my Alberta fruited about 3 months ago, you think maybe WalMart mislabeled the tree?

I bought this tree on sale last Sept. from an excellent nursery here in RI. This was the first tree I ever bought 'on sale'. It was labeled properly and well maintained. Many people in this forum buy trees from 'big box' stores and have more experience with them as I do not. It has been mentioned here that big box stores occasionally mis-label trees. It is possible. But, that said, it sound like you need better soil to expect any type of good fruit.

My Elberta peaches look quite different, but the ripening time is very similar. I'm kinda kicking myself about my first peach planted 5 years ago being an Elberta though, because it's now my most mature and productive, but nearly every other variety I try fresh off the tree tastes better (even though the Elbertas are still much better than store bought fruit).

Benny, I can almost guarantee that you have something different. As far as I know, Elberta is always a late ripening peach.

Fab, you'll have to send me one of your 'other' peaches for a taste test. My 'Elberta's' are delish! Mrs. G

That looks so good MrsG47!..Now, that's something I can't grow in my climate.

Konrad! What a compliment, thank you. They are plump, sweet and tangy. They are very late. There are still over twenty on the tree and are ripening very slowly. If you can grow Mirabelle, why not peaches? (the size?) Still wish I could buy your honey! Mrs. G

MrsG,

Is the netting to deter squirrels?

Yes, Bamboo it is. They are a real problem. As are racoons. I think the size of the peaches scares the birds! LOL. Mrs. G

MrsG,

Does it work?

Yes it works very, very well. I carefully wrap it around the base of the canopy after all fruit has been thinned and is set. I then 'weave' netting carefully around and through the branches. So when the netting is removed I have not lost a leaf! I use large 'twist-ties' to keep the netting in place. Same for plum trees. Mrs. g ps, I also will wrap the trunk of the trees with netting as well. The squirrels really don't want to get caught up in it.

Squirrels, at least the ground squirrels at my house, can bite through and reach through plastic netting. If this is working for you, MrsG47, is it because you've created such a labyrinth of netting that the squirrels can't get close enough to touch the peaches? My experience with bird netting has always been that getting it off the tree causes more damage to the fruit spurs and branches than it's worth. Have you evolved a technique for removing it without the netting catching on every protruding branch. I'd sure like to know how you do this.

John

7 Springs Organics sells a nice woven netting that I used at several sites this year with success. Although squirrels can chew through it, for some reason, this season they did not. It's much easier to use than mono-filiment.

At one site where I tied the netting completely around the trunk of plum trees the raccoons tore up the nets to get fruit trapped at the base of the tree by the net. Strangely they or the squirrels did not climb into the trees to clean out the fruit.

Unfortunately the netting only comes in 15' widths so 2 30' long sections must be sewn together to make an adequately sized net for a semi-dwarf fruit tree.

H-man is is correct. Also I am patient, so any branch that might have grown through the netting (which it does), I carefully cut away with very sharp scissors. There is no damage to my trees or leaves. You just can't rip off netting.

Harvestman, I'm really glad to know there is a better quality bird netting. Is it heavier material than the junk netting you find at Home Depot(and most nurseries). I looked at 7 Springs and they have two different woven bird netting, a diamond 3/4" mesh, and a hexagonal .6" x .6" mesh. Which one do you use? The hexagonal mesh is the one that comes in a 15' width, so I'd guess that's the one you have. Is this netting easier to remove from a tree(doesn't grab the branches as much as the Home Depot netting?)?

When I used to use the cheap netting, I found it was impossible to remove it, from a tree that was a few feet taller than my height) without breaking a branch or some spurs. It was so frustrating to use that I just go without. Do you have a technique that makes it easy to install and remove the netting...ie: using a helper, using long poles, ???

6" must be for deer the 3/4" for birds. Yes it's much easier to use and one person with a pole can place it over a tree in a few minutes although a latter and a second person can both be useful on larger trees. It doesn't get as tangled and if you are careful causes much less damage than monofilament.

Stuff lasts several years.

I bought a dwarf 'July Elberta Peach' 3-4 years ago & had the first crop of peaches this year... & they did ripen in July! Must say they were delicious but had forgotten how 'fuzzy' the skins on those peaches were!! I try not to peel any fruit or most veggies & found by rubbing the peaches under running water I could remove some of that fuzzyness & could eat it skin & all OK. Now what can I use to deter borers on the fruit trees? What I had used in the past is no longer available (Bore-Sol)!

Triazicide is fantastic for borers. I mix mine with Immunox and Captan for a triple threat and it works like a charm. I have my trees on an, every three week spray sched. during the summer.

Triazide may work well for borers but a set 3 week schedule seems unwise unless you know what you're targeting and it is indeed necessary. Sooner or later mites will enter the equation if you keep using that triazide indiscriminately I'd bet. Borers are dealt with with 2 applications usually, unless you're using Lorsban where a single ap is should be adequate.

I saw more mites in orchards I manage this year after switching over to a pyrethroid- and this was with using it only twice (triazide is a pyrethroid). Could be a coincidence but Cornell did warn of this consequence. Pyrethroids kill and irritate beneficial insects.

I only use the ingredient in Immunox for scab and cedar apple rust and this is 2 or 3 aps in spring. I wonder if tank mixing it with Captan improves the brown rot control over Captan alone. I would use Monterey Fungus fighter instead of Immunox for that.

So you spray for the borers on fruit trees? I had been applying the Bayer product solution on the ground around the tree in spring & fall when the borers go up & down with the sap. Will the spray get the borers in the sap then? The Bayer product has Imidacloprid & clothlinidin in it as the ingredients. Years ago the one kind of mothballs that worked by burying them in the ground around the trunk of the fruit trees is no longer available that I can find... nor the Bore-Sol solution that also worked.

H-man, due to my spray sched. I had zero mites this year. Vieja, triazicide really works. I also spray with Monterey Fungi fighter which is great, but for borers listen to Harvestman. Triaz. has worked very,very well for me. (IMHO), Mrs. G

Don't be so confident. Triazide kills indiscriminately but that doesn't mean you will suffer the consequences the first or even the second season. The mites have a way of breaking codes and developing immunity.

In the orchards where I had mite issues I may have been able to prevent them with a constant blanket of poison but with different materials I never needed to deal with mites at all.

I just don't think the idea of continuous pesticide applications without specific targets is a good way to manage pest control. It's great that you've managed to successfully harvest fruit but you will probably fine tune your approach as time goes on- you may find you don't need to spray so much.

H-man that is amazing. I really thought I was doing the right thing. I get weekly reports from the Univ. of RI hort. dept. about what is in the air, flying, and crawling. I spray according to when the warnings are highlighted. How often should I spray? Mrs. G

Those warnings are to put growers on the alert for those pests and to spray when they've been identified in their orchards. You need to purchase a really good magnifying glass and even a portable microscope (radioshack carries a nice cheap one- about $15) and start scouting. Given your obvious dedication and willingness to do the work to become an expert this may be your next step. On-line you can find numerous pictorials of the common pests in your region.

I am still learning, and although I've been doing pest diagnostics from the field for decades I'm still an idiot (can't alter the DNA), but if I can't identify a given pest I can always catch an insect and have it identified through my cooperative extension. This year I was taught what a juvenile green stinkbug looks like- it was the most exciting moment of the season for me. I had thought they were a separate species from a mature green stink bug.

Fortunately the roster of fruit pests is a manageable quantity and you will learn to identify the common ones fairly quickly.

This isn't to say that you should always wait to see a pest to spray, sometimes being proactive is a necessity.

Here's a great handheld microscope, it comes all the way from China (about 10 days shipping time), current cost is $3.53 including shipping. It isn't really the 45x power advertised, more like 20x...but works really well for spider mites because not only can you see the little buggers waving their many arms at you, but you can also see their eggs. And that is critical since just killing the spider mites (I use Safer's soap and it works great) is meaningless since their many eggs will be hatching in the next 7 or so days. When you can monitor the eggs you can see the effect of repeat sprays; if you spray the underside of the leaf every four days or so, pretty soon all the eggs are hatched and no more mommy and daddy spider mites to lay thousands of new eggs.

This microscope is small, but has two bright LED lights and once you get used to using it it's easy and quick to use.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002E0MU70/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i00

What ever kind you get, LED lights make a big difference since the leaf isn't always going to be in the perfectly sun lit position, especially if you're looking at the underside.

Here is a link that might be useful: handheld microscope with led lights