Alas, despite netting to avoid the depredations of birds and red squirrels, we're still sharing way too much in the way of peach flesh.
The culprits?
Based upon one miscreant caught in the act from this picking, at least some of them are click beetles.
Regardless of the losses, we're pretty happy that our tree is producing in its fourth year. Not enough fruit to can or even freeze, but enough for sliced peaches in the morning or over homemade vanilla ice cream. Peaches, like tomatoes, are one of those fruits that are best ripened all the way on the vine and then eaten fresh. I don't think I've ever purchased a decent peach in a grocery store. Next year, if it looks like we'll get peaches again we'll look at some control so we don't have to share quite as much with them.
2 comments:
When we built our house I went on a tree-planting binge, just went totally nuts: three apples, four pecan, a couple pears, two plums, and three peach trees. Between the heatm the drought, the sand, the wind, the deer, the bugs and the black thumb, I'm down to one pecan, one plum, two pears and a lone apple. We usually get a good crop of plums, pears and a few apples about every other year or so depending on late freezes. Fortunately this was a good year, but I told my wife I'm done being Johnny Fruit Tree Seed...
I like the "plant 'em all and see what sticks" method well enough. Pear preserves and plum jam, not to mention apple butter, are all worthwhile.
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