Help me save my Peach Tree (forum)

Ms Bee starts with ...
I have an old peach tree in my back yard in inner Melbourne, its about 5 metres high and accoring to neighbours would be at least 30 years old (pic 4 shows tree). It was in good condition when we moved in a year ago, however did not produce much fruit and they were all stung. I noticed over winter lots of sap coming out of the tree and only now I have noticed wood shavings in the sap. Have removed sap to reveal borer damage (lots - see pic 2 & 3) and when I stuck a coat hanger into the holes to make sure noting was living there anymore, one of the big holes (pic 5) had heaps of ants that started streaming out of it. Tree has virtually no blossoms so far and not much new leaf growth. There are a couple of spots at the base where many new shoots a growing (pic 1). Should I lop off damaged limbs or is there some way to repair them. Have posted lots of photos so hopefully someone can suggest something.
Pictures - Click to enlarge

Picture: 1
Picture: 2
Picture: 3
Picture: 4
Picture: 5

Time: 9th September 2010 11:32am

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About the Author Ms Bee
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
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snottiegobble says...
Unfortunately Mrs bee there is too much damage to save the top of the tree. The borers have certainly done a good job & the loss of so much resin is not a good sign. The tree may have gumnosis which can even affect the fruit.The ants are only taking advantage of the spaces in there to build a nest.
if you really are prepared to wait the top must be removed bit by bit then saw thru the trunk on an angle just below all the damage & leave no damaged edges. The tree should coppice this spring & allow you to choose which branches to retain. Remove all the rest including any at ground level. There will be no fruit this year & maybe just one or 2 next year but you will have you tree into the future. Good Luck!



Time: 9th September 2010 2:13pm

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About the Author snottiegobble
Bunbury/Busso (smack in the middle)
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Jason says...
I will tell you a story.

My grandmother grew a peach from seed about 45 years ago and it was the best white fleshed peach ever, green and pink skin and amazing flavour. When it was about 30 years old it started to decline and fruit less. We wanted to keep the tree but at that time no one in the family knew much about grafting etc so we tried to grow seedlings of it, but never could (didn't know about that either). One day my at the time almost 90 year old grandmother decided to cut it down, I was like.... but I didn't get a seed to grow yet, at that stage I was just starting to graft things too. From the stump it started to grow new shoots but some guy that came to do some work in the garden put roundup on it and finished it off.

The moral of the story is that the best peach tree I knew was gone and wont be coming back in any form. So what you need to do if this is a good peach and an important tree worth saving is that you need to take wood from this tree and re-graft it to a young healthy seedling because peach trees don't live forever. It might come back strongly if you stump it above those new shoots but it might be already weak and not do much either.

But after all that story, your tree might be still healthier than you think, I'd give it a couple more weeks to see how it's doing then. It might just flower late and last year might have just been a bad year for peaches in your area. I've seen some pretty beat up fruit trees that are much in much worse condition and decades older than your peach, I remember seeing an apple tree that was over 100 years old and completely hollow through the trunk but still able to fruit a little bit. If my grandmothers tree hadn't of got rounduped it would have still been alive today, it wouldn't have been in very good condition but I would have been able to re graft it to a fresh tree

Time: 9th September 2010 5:56pm

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About the Author Jason10
Portland, Vic
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Wayne says...
Good advise from both of the above Ms Bee, snottiegobble is offering a solution, Jason is expressing a wonderful value on your Peach tree.

If it were mine I would pull all stops out to save it. Get as much advise from your local professionals as you can eg. DPI

Time: 9th September 2010 6:13pm

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About the Author Wayne
Mackay QLD
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Ms Bee says...
Thanks eveyone for your assistance and help. Will discuss with my husband (he'll need to wield the saw so better make sure he's involved) and will let you know what we decide. Given I am quite a novice at this, is there something you need to paint onto the exposed branches once it is cut to stop gumnosis

Time: 11th September 2010 9:08am

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About the Author Ms Bee
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
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Brendan says...
Ms Bee,
Some people use a 'water based' house paint to paint the new cuts. Seems to work. There is also available a tree wound paint, or use a product like Tree Stac. How far back are you planning to prune it? I would just prune it back by a third, kill the ants with some Pyrethrum (diluted) down the ant holes.

Then, I'd spray it with a copper oxychloride / mancozeb plus spray.

Mix 30 grams copper oxy chloride, 30g mancozeb plus in 4

Time: 12th September 2010 8:09am

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About the Author Brendan
Mackay, Q
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