Does anyone on this forum grow peaches organically? After years of going without peaches, cause you just can't buy a tree ripened peach here in Florida, I finally found a new variety of peach tree developed at UF/Gainesville that requires really low chilling hours to set fruit. I planted one about 6 weeks ago, but when I was reading my fruit tree book today I remembered the other reason I have never grown one- all the chemicals. According to my book, I have to start spraying in January with a dormant spray of either lime sulfer or miscible oil, immediately after pruning. Once the flower buds swell I have to start spraying a pesticide with insecticide (malathion or methoxyclor), and a fungicide EVERY 10-14 DAYS- yikes. This continues until 21 days before harvest. If pests get out of hand closer to harvest I must use single products such as malathion, sevin, Captan, or Benlate. Then, after harvest, I can resume spraying with the pesticide cocktail. If my tree has borers I can also use Thiodan or Lindane. Oh boy. Well, I'm not using any of that stuff, so can someone offer me some guidance on chemical free peach culture?

-- Elizabeth (ekfla@aol.com), May 20, 2001

Answers

Elizabeth, I live in Wisconsin, so have NO experience growing peaches. However, you might want to look over the information and products offered by Gardens Alive! They only sell products for growing plants without chemicals.

Their website is: Gardens Alive!

-- Joy F [in So. Wisconsin] (CatFlunky@excite.com), May 21, 2001.

Elizabeth, good choice of tree for your area. now for some help for you. I hope you planted it where it can get full sun and has good drainage and then regular hoeing during the growing season is the best way to kill soil dwelling pests. your first hoeing may kill larvae of the oriental fruit moth,after that regular hoeing helps control borers and plum curculios. But don't hoe too deep because peach roots are shallow,do only the top few inches. also if you hoe about 2 weeks before blossom time you can protect the blossoms from frost damage. Dress around your tree with compost then cover that with about 10 inches of straw or organic mulch, but leave about a 10 inch bare circle around the trunk. also new trees need to be prune really good right atfer planting. Also make sure it gets plenty,plenty of water,and then during the growing season spray tree with liguid seaweed or compost tea about every 5 weeks. and yes, late winter or early spring coat it with dormant oil spray(perfectly safe,all organic orchards use it). During spring & summer look for lumps of drying sap on the trunk,sure sign of peach tree borer,to get them before they get the tree apply beneficial nematodes to the surrounding soil. if you get weevils just trap them with the red spheres used for trapping apple maggots but paint them light green,set the traps out after the flowers have fallen. to control fruit moths spray tree with "Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki" (BTK). Fungal diseases(brown rot,peach scab,bacterial leaf spot) can be taken care of by spraying sulfur or lime-sulfur,spray these every 2 weeks until harvest. If you get peach leaf curl liquid seaweed sprays can help prevent,spray the tree when the leaves are open,then do so monthly during late spring and summer, make sure to remove and destroy the infected leaves. I think this should help you keep your tree organic growing.

-- TomK (tjk@cac.net), May 21, 2001.