Thanks for your suggestions! No squirrels around here and upon night inspection I've seen no slugs or snails or trails of such. Maybe some kind of worm or caterpillar I've yet to discover. I powdered the tree with diatomaceous earth as well as put it at the base of the trunk in hopes that if it is a critter as opposed to a fungus or bacterium, it'll be bothered enough to make an exit. A little late but I'm getting an education at least.

Carol, Birds and squirrels are the last two "enemies" of your peaches. Before peaches get to be big enough for birds to pick and squirrels to steal, you have to deal with the first two "enemies". These are coddling moths (CM) and Oriental Fruit moths (OFM). They get to your young peaches when they are small like a marble size. Are you in Arizona? Check your local extension if these two insects are prevalent in your area. They are in the east coast. If you google, codling moths and oriental fruit moths on peach, you will get an idea. You need to spray to protect your fruitlets very early. Bird nets won't work. These insect can fly through big holes of bird nets. You can use footsies or bread bags with tiny holes to protect the peaches if you don't want to spray.

It might have something to do with all the rain. Mine did ther same thing. I got over 15" of rain in less than 3 weeks. All of my nectraines are spillting from all the rain.

A quick google led to this Here's how to prune nectarine trees. Nectarines are a great substitute for peaches. The main difference between nectarines and peaches is the skin texture. Nectarines have a smooth skin while peaches are sort of fuzzy. Because of the smooth skin, nectarines appear more reddish as compared to peaches. Early pruning is very important to maintaining healthy nectarine trees. When pruning nectarine trees, it's important to remove the previous year's growth, as well as any branches that are dead, damaged or diseased. Pruning the inner branches of the tree helps open it up to more sun light and better growth [source: URI]. Here's how to prune nectarine trees. Prune nectarine trees lightly at the beginning of the summer. Prune away any diagonally crossing limbs that are rubbing against other limbs. All new growth that appears weak should be pruned away. Prune away any dead, damaged or diseased branches, as mentioned above. Stagger the branches. Cut the branches back to different lengths to encourage new fruiting wood to form throughout the crown, not just on the tips of the branches. For example, cut them by staggering the branches thus: the first by ¼ inch, the next by 1/3 inch, and the next 2/3 inch back. Remove any shoots that start growing up the tree's center, to keep the area around the main trunk fairly open. Make your pruning cuts at an angle. Remove all debris and cuttings from around the tree