What's eating my peach rochester?

Peach Rochester, the most widely grown UK garden peach, is troubled primarily by peach leaf curl, green peach aphid, plum moth, and brown scale. Birds and squirrels take ripe fruit in late summer. Aphids are the most consistently troublesome insect pest — regular inspection and early spraying at bud burst keeps populations manageable.

Dense colonies curl shoot tips and leaves; sticky honeydew promotes sooty mould; heavy attacks reduce vigour and fruit size. Spray with insecticidal soap or pyrethrin at bud burst; pinch out infested tips; avoid over-feeding with nitrogen, which encourages lush aphid-attracting growth.

Larvae tunnel into ripening peaches, leaving frass-filled entry holes near the stalk; fruit may drop early. Pheromone traps from May; spinosad at first adult catch and again after 3 weeks; remove and destroy windfalls.

Waxy brown bumps encrust shoots and older branches; heavy infestations cause dieback and reduce the following year's fruit buds. Scrape off visible scales; apply plant oil-based winter wash to bark during dormancy.

Peck and gnaw ripening fruit from late July, often stripping fruit before it can be harvested. Net the tree with fine-mesh netting as fruit approaches ripeness; use reflective tape or a decoy hawk as partial deterrents.