Easy Recipes From The Garden

I was happy to discover the other day that the peach tree on our property has many, many small peaches growing on it. The little green peaches are about the size of two side by side marbles, and are smooth and fuzzy to the touch.

What’s disappointing is that many of them have a tiny little hole in them, indicating a pest problem - oriental fruit moth. The moth lays an egg or two on the fruit, which hatch into little worms that dig into the fruit and set up camp.

I did some research, and it seems early and frequent spray applications with an insecticide like Imidan does the trick. You must begin spraying in very early spring to help alleviate the problem - immediately after petals drop, or even before all the blossoms are gone.

To keep spraying all summer long, it’s important to protect the fruit. It’s been recommended to bag the peaches in zip top sandwich bags with the corners cut off for drainage, and the plastic above the zip strip also cut off. After the final thinning of peaches and the fruits are bagged, they are safe from the pests; however, a new pest may emerge. Earwigs may crawl up the trunk and move their creepy little selves in the bags, so check the bags often.