By Clint Thompson
Georgia peach producers are nearing an end to this year’s harvest season. They are expected to conclude harvesting this year’s crop in early August, says Jeff Cook, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension agriculture and natural resources agent for Peach and Taylor counties.
Cook discussed this season’s production which has been strong despite persistent rains and numerous bouts with bacterial spot disease.
“It’s been a good year. We’re winding down. We’re getting into the home stretch,” Cook said. “(Production) was comparable to last year. We had a few more disease issues across the Southeast. We had a little more issues with bacterial spot on peaches. I think everybody in the Southeast saw that. I got pictures from homeowners that had bacterial spot, which I don’t normally see.”
Bacterial spot is a sporadic leaf-spot disease that can cause defoliation in certain cultivars. Spots can also appear on the fruit, causing damage and leaving fruit unmarketable. Peach producers operate on a strict spraying schedule, between 7 and 10 days. They will spray for the disease, and then approximately a week later will spray again, though the fungicides aren’t totally effective in a rainy summer. That was the case this year.
Producers avoided a devastating freeze event in the spring. But steady rains precluded growers from getting into the orchards to apply much-needed fungicides. It led to more instances of bacterial spot.
“We got a lot of rain early. I think it was just a perfect storm of when the temperatures hit and when the rain hit and when the bacteria was there and active,” Cook said. “Other than that, it’s been a fairly normal year. This has been more of a weather post-bloom year than a weather during-bloom year.”