In Defense of Stone Fruit, Part I

In February of 2021, with visions of many bountiful seasons to come, I acquired a truckload of “overstock”bareroot fruit trees from Dave Wilson Nursery. All told, I ended up with 11 varieties of stone fruit along with some figs and pomegranates for good measure. These were to become the new fruit orchard at the farm I manage, which as I planned it would bear a crop of new fruit every 2 weeks or so through the growing season. I had carefully prepared the soil at the site over the previous year and when the trees went into the ground they began to thrive rather quickly. For the next two and half years I fawned over my new orchard like a watchful parent, adding thick layers of mulch each spring, carefully checking soil moisture all summer, and meticulously pruning in winter.

Finally, the spring of 2023 had arrived, my trees had good structure and the branches began to fill with copious amounts of fruit. I could hardly find enough time to thin it all out, but with great effort and some very long days I was able to get it done just in time. The hard work was done, and I was ready to watch, taste, and wait for the perfect moment to reap the rewards. The row of Leah Cotapriums was the first to begin showing me the signs. They went from a limey green to a dull orange and finally a brilliant color I can only describe as “sun fire” with splashes of crimson here and there. A truly beautiful fruit! I began testing them daily for flavor and sugar and at last the moment seemed right make a large harveDuring my tastings, I would find the occasional insect larvae or a bit of bird pecking damage, but most the fruit seemed flawless as I casually browsed the row. However, when harvest day came, I began to realize that while I was waiting for the perfect moment, so were the array of creatures who had taken up residence in and around my trees. Seemly overnight the bird damage had doubled or tripled. This was a bummer, but not completely unanticipated. Unfortunately, my next realization was quite a bit more troubling. Picking and eating my way along I began to notice more and more of those insect larvae, which could either be revealed by simply opening up the fruit or looking near the stem for tiny perforations and little mounds of frass (insect poop!).

 The larvae turned out to be that of a peach twig borer (Anarsia lineatella), a type of moth which lives and feeds on stone fruits off all kinds. I was aware of this little menace but had never seen it in such large numbers before. When I took a final tally of theaprium harvest something in the range of 70% of the ripe fruit had been attacked. Needless to say, the presence of the larvae greatly reduces the marketability of the fruit, not to mention the shelf life, so this discovery was not something I took lightly. Finally, things went from bad to worse when I came to the realization that all of my peach, nectarine, and apricot varieties were infested by the moths to some degree.

I was ultimately able to mitigate the problem by harvesting the remaining fruit a bit early, but as a result the flavor and quality of the ripe fruit went from outstanding to run-of-the-mill. This was unsatisfactory to say the least, however it was also a reminder that we are all occasionally humbled in the face of nature and that farming or gardening always presents us with challenges which must be overcome. Afterall, finding solutions to those challenges is part of what I love about being a farmer.

Time to become an expert on peach twig borers…Stay tuned for part 2.