Peachy problems

[patR]

We have a lovely old Quinta here in Portugal and inherited 5 beautiful peach trees. All are a reasonable size and blossom wonderfully each year, each year we also get tons of big golden peaches, then just as they are ripening, they drop... when cut open they are rotten inside round the stone. Ive looked and looked and the outsides are perfect yet inside are maggots... how do they get there, what are they and why... how can I stop this happening... we lose tons each year, barely one or two are ever fit to eat....
I'd prefer not to spray with chemicals, but if it means we can stop this , if I must I must... ideas please.

[Millymollymandy]

The rotten bit sounds a bit like brown rot which I get from time to time but not with maggots in (then again I see the brown rot appearing so don't actually investigate the insides!). Often brown rot will appear on the outside as well, and it's always just as or just before the fruit ripens.

I think that spraying with Bordeaux mix might help but I can't be sure. Damp and humidity exacerbate the problem - I lost nearly all my fruit to brown rot during the wet summer of 2007 (then didn't get any last year due to the late bad weather and nothing except apples getting pollinated.....) But then again if you're in Portugal I'd imagine most of your summers are hot and dry.

[Odsox]

It sounds to me that you are suffering from an attack of plum moths.
I have never had this problem with peaches but as they are closely related to plums it seems likely that it is the same.
Plum moths lay their eggs at the flower stage and the fruit then grows around the larvae ... hence no holes, they then eat the flesh near the stone and you end up with a fruit full of caterpillar crap and rotten flesh (yum)
You can spray with insecticide but as it's so close to flowering you run the risk of killing bees as well, but you can also buy pheromone traps which you hang in the trees and traps the male moth, which means a good proportion of the eggs are sterile and more fruit survives.
Hope that helps.

[patR]

Hmmm that sounds just like it. The peaches look perfect from the outside, right up untill almost ripe then they fall and are full of yucky dark brown mush and tiny maggot type grubs all around the stone...
Hmmm I would never want to harm any bees... any more ideas anyone?

[patR]

Oh poo.... just thought... Ive planted three lovely baby plum trees in the last two years....

[Odsox]

Sounds like you need a pheromone trap or two then.
See details here http://www.marshalls-seeds.co.uk/plum-m ... d2932.html although it doesn't look like they deliver non-seed items to Portugal.
But at least you can see what I'm talking about and maybe get one locally.