Peach Crop Stage Wise IPM

Pre- planting

Common cultural practices:

• Deep ploughing of fields during summer.
• Field sanitation, rogueing
• Use resistant/tolerant varieties.
• Grow the attractant, repellent plants around the field bunds. Apply manures and fertilizers as per soil test recommendations

Nutrients

• Nutrient should be applied on the basis of soil test report and recommendation for the particular agro-climatic zone.
• Prepare land by ploughing and harrowing.
• The pits are dug in summer about a fortnight before planting and left undisturbed for solarization.
• Pits of about 1m x 1m x 1m size are dug at a distance of 4 to 5 meter in square system of planting.
• Under high density planting pits may be dug at a spacing of 4m x 1m.

Weeds

• Ploughing, harrowing, leveling and removing the weeds before planting.

Termite

Cultural control:

• Digging of termatoria and destroy the queen.

Mechanical control:

• Locate and destroy the termite colony.
• Collect and destroy the termite affected setts from the field.

Planting

Common cultural practices:

• Use healthy and certified plants
• Grow resistant/tolerant varieties
• Plant early maturing cultivars i.e, Prabhat, Partap, Florda Prince, Early Grande, Flordasun and Shan-e-Punjab for fruit fly.
• Irrigation should be done by ring method to reduce possibility of collar rot
• Avoid plating in low-lying areas and flooding.
• Do not delay irrigation until the crop exhibits moisture stress symptoms.

Common mechanical practices:

• Remove and destroy the diseased orchard.

Nutrients

• Planting is done in pits already filled with top soil and organic manure during the months of December- January.
• Mycorrhiza culture should be applied at the time of planting or a basket of soil taken from old peach orchard is added to each pit to ensure mycorrhizal association with peach roots.
• At the time of planting, manures and fertilizers are applied @ 50 Kg FYM or compost, 20 g N + 15 g P + 15 g K per plant.

Weeds

• Use weed free seedlings for planting.
• Remove existing weeds in and around the pits at the time of planting.
• During the initial 2-4 years, grow the intercrop like pea, bean, soybean, and cowpea.

Soil borne diseases and nematodes

• Resistant varieties
• Use healthy infestation-free plants.
• Application of neem cake @ 80 Kg/acre for nematode control.

Application of Trichoderma harzianum / viride and Pseudomonas fluorescens for treatment of seed/seedling/planting materials in the nurseries and field application (if commercial products are used, check for label claim. However, biopesticides produced by farmers for own consumption in their fields, registration is not required).

Vegetative stage

Common cultural practices:

• Deep summer ploughing between the rows.
• Timely irrigation
• Avoid water logging
• Enhance parasitic activity by avoiding chemical spray, when 1- 2 larval parasitoids are observed

Common mechanical practices:

• Remove and destroy alternate wild hosts and weeds
• Remove and destroy the dead hearts along with larvae
• Installation of light trap @ 1/ acre
• Prune and burn all attacked shoot and branches.

Common biological practices:

• Conserve natural enemies through ecological engineering
• Augmentative release of natural enemies

Nutrients

• Apply fertilizers according to the age of plant @ 20 g N + 15 g P + 15 g K per plant in first year and doubling the dose each year till a stabilised dose is reached at 6th years.
• Apply manures @ 50kg per plant in Dec.- January every year along with full dose of P and K.
• The fertilizers should be applied in 20-30 cm deep and 30cms wide trench along the drip line of the tree.

Weeds

• Deep ploughing during the first year to check weed growth. Tool weeding on regular basis especially around the plants.
• Frequent tilling/ploughing up to 10 cm depth during winter.
• To suppress the weeds between rows, leguminous crops and vegetables can be grown as intercrops in the initial years. Use slashing and moving between the rows to control the weeds.

Stem borer

Cultural control:

• Keep orchard clean and healthy.
• Clean hole and insert cotton wool soaked in emulsion of kerosene or petrol in each hole and plug them with mud.

Mechanical control:

• Follow common mechanical practices as stated above

Peach tree borer

Mechanical control:

• Follow common mechanical control

Defoliating beetles

Mechanical control:

• Use of plastic-lined trenches, propane flamers and vacuums.

Hairy caterpillar

Cultural control:

• Irrigate once to avoid prolonged mid-season drought.

Mechanical control:

• Dig the pit of 1 inch depth between the fields & dust to kill the larvae in pits.

Peach Leaf curl, aphid

Cultural control:

• In the early stages, wash away the aphids with a sharp spray of water from a hose pipe.
• Put on a pair of gloves and crush them between your fingers.
• Prune curled leaves and destroy them.

Biological control:

• Sprays based on natural pyrethrum/pyrethrins
• Conserve predators such as lacewing and ladybird beetle.
• Companion Planting - Plant yellow/orange nasturtium around the base of fruit trees to attract aphids and lure them away, or alternatively repel aphids by planting strong smelling herbs such as chives, garlic, marigold, and tansy under your trees.

Chemical control:

• Spray oxydemeton – methyl 25% EC @13320 gm/acre
• Spray carbofuran 3% CG @600-800ml diluted in 600-800 l of water/acre

Apricot brown scale

Biological Control:

• Conserve parasites such as Coccophagus, Encyrtus, and Metaphycus spp.
• Parasitized nymphs are almost black and have convex covers; unparasitized nymphs are flat.

San Jose scale

Cultural control:

• Grow attractant plants for natural enemies: viz., sunflower family, carrot family plants and buckwheat

Mechanical control:

• See the common mechanical control

Biological control:

• Parasitoids such as Encarsia perniciosi and Aphytis diaspidis cause effective parasitization.
• Coccinellid predators such as Chilocorus infernalis, Chilocorus rubidus, Pharoscymnus flexibilis

Green peach aphid & Peach black aphid

Cultural control:

• Abiotic factors such as rain and wind reduce aphid infestations.
• Prune curled leaves or new shoots and dispose them.
• Adopt the ecological engineering strategy by planting the attractant and repellent plants.

Biological control:

• Conserve the natural enemies such as Aphidius spp., Aphelinus sp., Syrphid flies, rove beetle, aphid midge, predatory thrips, damsel bug, green lace wing, ladybird beetle and Braconid wasp.

Tent Caterpillar

Mechanical control:

• Egg mass covered with yellowish hair are collected and destroyed (between August-March).
• Put a burlap at the base of tree trunk to destroy the larvae underneath the burlap

Leaf roller

Cultural control:

• Delay dormant treatments and bloom time applications for other pests help keep leaf roller populations under control.
• Regular monitoring each season is important so that prompt action can be taken.

Biological control

• Conserve parasites such as Macrocentrus, Apanteles and Exochus attack leaf roller larvae.
• Conserve predators such as lacewings, assassin bugs, and minute pirate bugs.

Green capsid

Mechanical control:

• Grow rootstock suckers, especially at the edges of orchards where the pest is removed.

Cultural control:

• See the common cultural practices

Mechanical control:

• See the common mechanical practices

Root borer, Consperse sting bug

• Follow common cultural and mechanical practices.

Blossom thrips

Cultural control:

• See common cultural practices

Biological control:

• Conserve coccinellids, anthocorids, lygaeid, predatory thrips etc. for controlling blossom thrips

Chaffer beetle

Mechanical control:

• Removing the rose chafer beetle from the plants mechanically
• Place them in a bucket of soap water to kill them once removed from the plant.
• Drench the soil with insect parasitic nematodes to kill the larvae.

Plum lake worm

Mechanical control:

• The young caterpillars can be manually killed as they collect on the underside of leaves or crawl down on the tree trunks at night. Kill these caterpillars before sunrise early in the morning

Frosty mildew

Cultural control:

• Spraying at full bloom needs to be avoided.
• Alkathene bands cleaned at regular interval

Mechanical control:

• Prune diseased leaves and malformed panicles harbouring the pathogen to reduce primary inoculum load.

Leaf curl

Mechanical control:

• To maintain tree vigor by thinning more fruit than normal, reducing drought stress with irrigation.

Chemical control:

• Spray lime sulphur @ 0.8 - 2 lit/acre

Leaf spot

Cultural control:

• Proper irrigation with drip or micro sprinklers
• Improved tree nutrition [nitrogen, etc.) reduce the disease incidence.
• Avoid heavy tree pruning during the dormant period
• Sandy soils and in some heavy soils, control has been achieved with pre-plant fumigation.

Shot hole

Cultural control:

• Buds can be protected from shot hole during the dormant season (mid-November to mid-December) by a fungicide application before the long winter rains begin.

Powdery mildew

Cultural control:

• Spraying at full bloom needs to be avoided.
• Alkathene bands cleaned at regular interval

Mechanical control:

• Prune diseased leaves and malformed panicles harbouring the pathogen to reduce primary inoculum load.

Chemical control:

• Spray lime sulphur @ 0.8 - 2 lit/acre

Silver canker

Cultural control:

• Pruning is carried out during periods of dry weather between harvest and leaf fall.
• Before pruning it is good orchard practice to clean up any dead wood which may be lying around the orchard environment.

White root rot

• Remove and destroy white root infested plants. All roots, litter and debris from infected plants must also be removed and destroyed.
• Creating a trench with a shovel around infected areas prevent water runoff from distributing the fungal pathogen to nearby plants.
• Preparing the soil before planting with soil solarisation.

Peach rust

Cultural control:

• Angle sprinklers and drip irrigation reduces disease incidence.

Collar rot

Cultural control:

• Pruning diseased wood, removing fruit mummies facilitates light penetration and air circulation.
• Good soil drainage and more frequent but shorter irrigations reduce root and crown rot. Biological control
• Use of biopesticides like Trichoderma spp., Pseudomonas fluorescens, Bacillus subtilis

Bacterial canker and gummosis

Before the commencement of rains apply Mashobra Paint after clearing the wound. Repeat the treatment on the new lesions in the following months.

Brown rot

Cultural control:

• Avoid injury during picking
• Select healthy unbruised fruits for marketing
• Mechanical control:
• Collect and destroy the fruit mummies by burning or burying them in the soil.
• The infected twigs and cankers should be cut out and burnt.

Chemical control:

• Spray lime sulphur @ 0.8 - 2 lit/acre

Flowering stage

Nutrients

• Nitrogen is applied in 2 splits, first half at 2-3 weeks before flowering and the remaining half a month later.
• The fertilizers should be applied in 20-30 cm deep and 30cms wide trench along the drip line of the tree.

Weeds

• Same as vegetative stage

Flat headed borer

Cultural control:

• Wrap or paint the tree trunk above and 1 inch below the soil line with white, water-based paint or whitewash to protect the trunk from sunburn and flat headed borer invasions.
• Prune infested wood and burn or remove it from the orchard

Hairy caterpillar, Peach leaf curl aphid, Apricot brown scale, San jose scale and Tent caterpillar

Same as mentioned in the above vegetative stage

Peach twig borer

Mechanical control:

• Mating disruption is most effective in orchards with low moth populations that are not close (a mile) to other untreated peach twig borer hosts or almond orchards.
• Install pheromone traps in orchards

Biological control:

• Conserve natural enemies such asgray field ant, Formica aerata,

Root borer, Consperse sting bug, Blossom Thrips, Chaffer beetle, Frosty mildew, Leaf spot, Powdery mildew, Silver canker, White root rot, Peach rust and Collar rot

Same as mentioned in the above vegetative stage

Fruiting stage

Nutrient Management

• For mature trees, a mixture of 40 kg farmyard manure, 500g N, 250 g P₂O₅ and 200 g K is recommended. The farmyard manure should be applied during December-January along with full dose of P and K. Nitrogen is applied in 2 parts, first half at 2-3 weeks before flowering and the remaining half a month later.
• The band application of nitrogenous fertilizers should be preferred over broadcasting.
• Under rainfed conditions, apply N through 1 or 2 foliar sprays of urea (0.5%) after fruit set.
• Apply recommended micronutrients, if symptoms are observed. Fruits are deformed under boron deficiency.
• To avoid boron deficiency, apply H₂BO₃ (0.1%) as foliar spray.

Weed Management

• Remove weeds around the plants.
• Use straw or black polyethylene Mulch to avoid weed growth and to maintain soil moisture for longer period.
• Mulching tree basins with 10-15 cm thick dry grass also checks weed growth.

Flat headed borer, Hairy caterpillar, San jose scale, Root borer and Tent caterpillar

Same as mentioned in the above flowering stage

Peach fruit fly

Cultural control:

• Harvest the ripening fruits and do not allow the ripe fruits on the tree.
• Regular removal of fallen fruits from the ground and bury the infested fruits atleast at 60cm depth.
• Shallow ploughing with cultivator immediately after harvest is effective in exposing and killing the pupating larvae/pupae, which are mostly present at 4-6 cm depth.
• If infestation is high, use bait splash on the trunk only once or twice at weekly interval. To prepare bait splash, mix 100 gm of jaggery in one litre of water

Mechanical control:

• Hot water treatment of fruit at 48 ± 1 ºC for 60 min.
• Collect and destroy the adult flies
• Use pheromone traps@4-5/acre

Biological control:

• Release of parasitoids such as Opius longicaudatus, O. vandenboschiand O. oophilus.

Peach twig borer and Chaffer beetle

Same as mentioned in the earlier stage

Oriental fruit moth

Mechanical control:

• Set up pheromone traps@4-5/acre

Biological control:

• The parasite Macrocentrus ancylivorus is a common parasite of oriental fruit moth larvae
• Planting of attractant plants such as sunflower

Frosty mildew, Leaf spot, Powdery mildew and Silver canker

Same as mentioned in the above vegetative stage

Whisker rot

Mechanical control:

• Preventing skin cuts and punctures during harvest and packing is of prime importance in controlling rhizopus rot.
• Clean containers and good housekeeping in the packing shed and storage reduce the rot.
• Store fruit at or below 39°F, the fungus does not grow at temperatures below 40°F.

Peach rust and Collar rot

Same as mentioned in the above vegetative stage