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My peaches have black spots and holes in them and look awful. What's wrong?
Cuts in the fruit begin to bleed sap. This can be from physical injuries, such as from a stink bug, or a limb blowing the peach up against another branch. With stink bugs, they cause a condition called catfacing. It's not a worm inside, just some physical damage from some early feeding.
But it can also be caused by the plum curculio, a little weevil that cuts a small crescent-shaped flap on the peach and lays an egg in it. Out of that egg hatches a worm that crawls to the center and feeds around the stone (seed) of the peach, causing it to either look like it's ripening early. Then it just falls off.
If it happens when the peaches are small you'll lose them, but if it happens when they're older, they'll go ahead and develop, but you'll be rewarded with a little extra protein in that fruit you pick at harvest time! Plum curculios are controllable in many ways. Check your Extension Office for tips. Mainly, discard all damaged and/or fallen fruit, keep your trees mulched in summer, and remove all leaf litter in winter where the adults overwinter.
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