North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Bob Randall <YearRoundGardening@comcast.net>]

Just to add to the discussion,  here in zone 9b/10a Houston, curculio  
damage is a problem on peaches, less so on plums, and essentially  
never on apples.  Apples however are fairly recent fruits in this  
area, so we may be looking at genetic differences in the curculio  
populations.

Bob Randall
On Jun 19, 2008, at 10:12 AM, Scott Williamson wrote:

> I saw some curculio on my peaches a couple of weeks ago which were  
> about
> the same size as my plums and apples.  They definitely prefer the  
> plums
> and apples to the peaches.  I'm not really sure there was much
> difference in leaf coverage, but I didn't really think to look either.
>
> BTW, would you happen to know from looking at you book if I am lucky
> enough to have only one generation?
>
> Scott
> Central Indiana Zone 5b
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
> [mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Donna &/or  
> Kieran
> Sent: Thursday, June 19, 2008 10:31 AM
> To: North American Fruit Explorers
> Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Surround speculation this spring
>
> Donna writes:
> > I am surprised that you say the main curculio season is over for
> > you, I had to look see where you are. Probably a little behind us in
> > the season. As I understand it, the infested fruit that is falling
> > here now will produce a new crop of adults to go hit the late  
> > peaches.
> I have never noticed any significant late curculio damage myself, and
> would also be curious if others have seen such damage in peaches.  I
> may have gotten some and had assumed it was moths without looking too
> carefully.
> Scott
>
> I went home and looked in my Garden Bug Book, and turns out that there
> is a
> dividing line between those who have only one generation of plum
> curculio
> and those a bit further south who have to deal with two generations  
> per
> year.  Scott in Delaware is above it.  Since the line mentioned is  
> over
> in
> Virginia, I don't know where I am this side of the mtns, but I can
> guess.  I
> ask myself, what is the worst possible answer, and that's it.
>    Speculation aside, my experience this year so far is interesting  
> and
>
> possibly useful.  I have an early peach with large propped grafts of a
> couple of AU plums on it.  The peach is early, a seedling of something
> that
> blooms a bit too early for here but the mild spring allowed a heavy  
> set
> this
> year.  The plums have been ripening for 2 weeks and the peaches are  
> just
> now
> getting ripe.  It has been obvious all along that the curculio prefer
> the
> plums to the peaches.  I wonder if given a choice in a peach orchard  
> of
> a
> Japanese plum tree to work on, if spraying the hell out of the plum
> would
> give pretty decent protection to the peaches.  I wonder if you had
> something
> really effective but really expensive and organically approved, if it
> would
> be affordable to protect the peaches that way.   Or something cheap,
> like a
> chicken pen under the plum, and you tapped the plum tree religiously
> twice a
> day.  Bored, penned chickens who've already scratched up the ground  
> and
> eaten everything interesting are REALLY fast learners if you offer  
> them
> the
> same kind of bug every day.  Curculio may look an awful like a bit of
> debris, but if I can tell the difference, a chicken can too.
>    I've thought that the curculio didn't care for the fuzzy skins of
> the
> peaches, but I could be wrong.  What if the plums just got going  
> sooner
> and
> plumped up faster (they did that) so that made them more tempting?  Or
> maybe
> it was because the plum has better leaf coverage than the peach side  
> of
> the
> tree, and they like to be hidden?  If a person were north of the two
> generation line and had really late peaches, the peaches might not  
> get a
> lot
> of hits anyway if early plums were preferred.  Any comments?
> Donna
>
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"Share What You Grow and What You Know!"

Bob Randall, Ph.D.
YearRoundGardening@comcast.net
713-661-9737