What variety and size is the peach tree. Did you cut one peach in half. Then you can tell it may be a split pit, aborted non pollinated or curculio drop. It may be a virus or not enough sun or root problems.

the tree is large- about 6-7 yrs old. dont know the variety. this dehyrdating things happens to most of the peaches every year. i think it must be some type of virul bacterial issue?
anyone have any ideas?

No bacteria. No virus. More likely environmental.

As was previously asked, have you cut one in half? Potential clues inside.

jean- how do you know its not bacterial or a virus?
i dont recall if i cut one in half. when you say environmental- what are you thinking? too much/little water?

jean- how do you know its not bacterial or a virus?
i dont recall if i cut one in half. when you say environmental- what are you thinking? too much/little water?

Looks like a tree that ran out of energy to feed the growing fruit. If the bacterial spot was heavy that could do it - not the disease directly on the fruit but the disease greatly lessening the productive leaf area thus weakening the tree.

Scott

OP asked "when you say environmental- what are you thinking? too much/little water?"

No. Instead, not pollinated. You won't know unless you cut one to look inside.

Further, bacterial would have obvious spots. Virus would be quite different but, to tell the truth, is extremely rare in home gardens.

I want to bring this post to your attention again, in case anyone has any ideas what might cause this dehydrating of my peaches that has occurred the last few years on my (unknown variety) peach tree. A few of the peaches have ripened to the size of very small peaches and have been very tasty and sweet, if pretty dry.

Anyone have any idea what could cause the majority of my peaches to shrivel and have this watermarked wavy appearance. I would really like to try and stop this happening this year.

The cause is not evident from the outside of the fruit. Which is why others have asked you to cut one open. If you don't cut one open then the cause cannot be confirmed or eliminated. If the cause is not found inside and you have the same problem this year it could be several things as mentioned by others. The last thing to look for is viral not the first. One because its so rare and not easy to diagnose two because its so easy to check for all the much more likely possibilities.

Lycheeluva:

I recall having seen some photos of Lychee acres and a few of your previous posts. It sticks in my mind that sunlight may be a scarce commodity for you. You can't grow peaches without a lot of sunlight.

I prune my peach trees immediately after thinning so that sunlight directly strikes each of the peaches I have left on the trees. All day long.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

FWIW, watermarking is evidence of viral infection in some vegetables and is a seed borne problem.

How about taking some of said fruit and some leaves over to your local Extension office for identification....

Those guys know way more about this sort of thing that many of us ever will....

Unfortunately, you only have about 5-months to go till you get some more.

Thanks

John

Im curious as well...

My tree has begun to do the same thing. It has a ton of peaches and is growing strong but just recently some have started doing the same thing.

I know I havent watered in a while and I did not feed the tree at all this year so I am thinking it might be a water/food issue?

I will cut one open tomorrow and see whats inside.

The tree growing right next to it is not showing the same symptoms, so that is strange. But one does get more sun than the other and the one in the sun has the shriveled fruit.

No brown spots or anything and the other fruits look fat and great but even some of the bigger fruits have begun to look "dry"

I watered deep and fed them today so we'll see if that helps.

Blazeaglory A mature tree doesn't need watered by you unless a bad drought year. Unless you have really bad soil doesn't need fertilizer either. Regarding fertilizer I have seen a lot of fertilizer damaged plants posted on forums for diagnosis but aside from potted cannot think of a single post with a problem from infertile soil.

I am new to this, but have visited many other people and orchards. The best peaches I have ever had came from a neglected orchard with no running water in a drought year. The peaches were on the small side, but the favor was really concentrated and picked at the perfect time for sweetness. Also the dude never fertilizes or sprays. Regardless of this still had plenty to give away last year.

As for why these are shriveling up. Until someone will dissect one, the subject cannot move forward.

Yeah true, I have read that also, in some zones but this tree is still young and only on its third year and has had some problems with canker and heavy pruning. I am also in Zone 10. It depends on where you live and some other circumstances that determine when and how you feed and water your peach tree.

The soil has been very depleted of nutrients for the last 10 years now...But yes, I try not to water my peach trees and I rarely feed them as well. The feedings I do is all organic anyways and I maybe feed them once per year...

I might water once every 2 weeks very deep but when they are fruiting, I might water more frequently now that I see they like to "dry out", still I am not going to water more than once a week, if even that (depending on how hot and dry it gets). We have hot days around here and things like to dry out. If you havent noticed, Im in Zone 10:)

But it looks like the watering solved the problem. I did not water them for almost 2 weeks and we have had a very dry season this year. The soil was bone dry so I watered deep and fed them and this morning they look fat and plump again, so Im hoping I fixed the problem. The trees are growing very strong now with many branches and many fruit!

This post was edited by blazeaglory on Fri, Jun 14, 13 at 15:02

cckw,

Your statement regarding irrigation and fertilizer is very general and doesn't apply to a lot of areas in southern California.

We don't get much rain in the summer. A lot of the soil is mostly sand without any nutrients. If I didn't water, mulch, and fertilize my trees regularly they would get sick and die.

My neighbors don't fertilize or irrigate their trees on a schedule. Their trees are mostly sick and dying.

Tom

Dear all it is one of the fungal disease called brown rot and come from blossom blight and these deyhydrate fruits dropped in may and when fungicide treatment done in bloom periods and u w not face this problem

M riaz