How to Identify Diseased Limbs on Peach Trees

Peach trees produce sweet fruit when well taken care of.

Peach trees are pleasant, beautiful trees that produce sweet, good smelling fruit. However, peach orchards can be severely damaged by disease, and it is important to identify and remove diseased limbs. With attention and care it is possible to keep peach trees healthy and producing fruit year after year. If proper care is not taken it is possible for an entire orchard to become diseased and need to be destroyed.

Things You'll Need

• Magnifying glass

Instructions

Determining If a Peach Tree is Diseased

1. Examine the suspect limb of the peach tree for a seeping brownish liquid coming from a lesion on a branch or trunk. If lesions are left unchecked they will spread to the rest of the tree.

2. Look for a white powder on leaves of a suspect branch. A tree that has been affected by a fungal disease will have a powder residue on the leaves.

3. Inspect the leaves for leaf spots with a magnifying glass. A peach tree that is affected by a certain fungus will appear as tiny spots of different colors on the leaves. Trees with bad cases will lose the leaves with leaf spots. If a branch is allowed to get to this point it should be removed from the tree immediately.

References

• Virginia Cooperative Extension: Pruning Peach Trees