Season Progresses

June 12, 2009

Peach fruit in central Alabama are coming along. Some growers are experiencing ligher crops than they expected up to this point. Beginning to see some color development in 'Harvester', meaning we are beginning to finish up with varieties like 'Junegold' and 'Surecrop', 'Rubyprince' and picking varieties like 'Juneprince' and 'GaLa', 'Redhaven'.

Seeing some shape issues in some varieties and some fruit are softening on the shoulders and suture somewhat rapidly. I'm hopeful that as we move along, negative fruit quality issues will be less and less. I've seen some very nice looking fruit but, flavor has been mixed. Fruit in the upper portion of the canopy has better flavor in general than some of the fruit produced lower in the tree. With the amount of lower light conditions (cloudy weather) that we have experienced it has affected our early fruit.

Fruit quality related to flavor is beginning to improve. As we move into mid-June varieties we normally see a change but, we are also seeing more sunshine and that makes a big difference.

With the increase in heat and humidity we are seeing an increase in some diseases. Preventative sprays are being made to control pests. Plum curculio emergence has been erractic, however, in the last few days we have been collecting higher numbers in our traps. This new generation of adults are looking for fruit to deposit their eggs so protection is important.