Len, I'm sorry you're still getting conflicting advice. Both Scott and Harvestman are both very competent growers. I think the lack of consensus is a testimony to the difficulty of your problem. However, my view is that your peaches are suffering from plum curculio, which is what Hman said in the first place. I know I said earlier, I thought it was oriental fruit moth, but after viewing your pictures, the extreme deformity and what looks like tunneling, I think the problem with these peaches is PC. That's not to say you won't also have OFM (since they are both common pests to stone fruits) but the pictures you posted look to me like PC. I think the problem with your spray program is the intervals are too long. As a homeowner, a pyrethroid like Triazicide is still a good choice, but it is not foolproof. This season, I sprayed a strong pryrethroid (Mustang Max) at 7 day intervals and still got significant PC damage on plums. Earlier in this thread, I recommended spraying at 7-10 day intervals, or at 10-14 day intervals. It's difficult to know how much pest pressure you have from a forum thread (and this has been a long thread) but it's apparent now, your pest pressure is pretty extreme. I would spray on a 7 day interval for a month an a half, starting at petal fall. Make sure your spray is good (i.e. don't store a mixed spray solution to be used later) and make sure your coverage is good (The fuzz on peaches tends to repel the spray, so make sure with your hand sprayer, the spray penetrates the fuzz to wet the skin.) I'm sorry this has happened again. Is there any fruit on the tree that is clean?

We had a vendor at our spring show, once, only once. He was not re-invited. He had a spread of beautiful Blcs and other fluffy catt hybrids. I liked one and wanted to purchase it but noted that 2 of his other offerings had color break in the flowers. I pointed that out to him but he insisted that it was a nutritional side effect. I then offered to buy the plant with a money back if it test positive for virus. He declined saying that this is not their policy. At that point I threatened him that we would make an anouncement at the 'Orchid care session' taking place on the other side of the wall where his site was to warn people of his plants. Since I was 1st VP of the host society he relented and told me to take the plant, no charge, but he did not want to hear about it anymore. 2 hours later the virused plants were still offered for sale, later in the day they were gone, some lucky person got them. The perfect looking plant I got tested positive sure enough a few days later, the instant tests were not available then. I warned other member as of this vendor's plants and subsequently heard that a couple had positive tests. It turned out that his main business was cut flowers for corsages and other floral arrangements and selling surplus plants at shows a secondary activity. He has huge growing areas full of 'fluffy' Cattleyas which have their flowers cut for the florist trade. Can you imagine a minimum wage employee cutting a few hundred flowers every day using sterile technique? Neither a fresh razor blade nor flaming the instrument fits into their business model. No doubt someone with a pair of sharp clippers or what ever goes from plant to plant cutting flowers. Obviously virus must be rampant in a situation like that. I am sure they don't care, as long as the plant produces flower, fine, otherwise to the trash it goes. We did not have them back but the growers in the cutting flowers business are also a source of virused plants and are to be avoided. Nick

I persevered and have another response to my email. Here is their recent response to me: "Unfortunately it is company policy that we do not divulge our supplier list. However, Pan American ensures that our product is free of this virus, as we are one of only two Nurseries in Ontario that are part of the 'Clean Plants Certification Program.' This means that we are able to track each and every plant from supplier to customer. We are audited annually to ensure that we are following best practices, and also have CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) to monitor our facility for any disease and/or pests. Our Head Grower must complete regular inspections in order to maintain this certification, and comply with CFIA regulations. I have attached a link for further information on this program. http://www.cleanplants.ca/Page.asp?PageID=122&ContentID=852 As Natalie mentioned, our Hosta plants are 100% Canadian. The are purchased through a Canadian supplier and are then potted and grown at our facility. Again, I apologize that we cannot provide you with our supplier information, however I hope that this information will help to answer your question." Any further comments, anyone? And Bernd, regarding your losing a couple of plants every year due to the one plant from W-M., I understand what you are saying. That's the problem with even just one virused plant---you just never know if you have unknowingly infected your other plants.

Thanks lindalana, for the link. Seems to be somebody's dissertation in Germany who had a Cuban product, nice grant and a good Danish plant analysis lab. I had difficulty getting through it since the writing style was all over the map. The research looked reasonable for a graduate student, but it's definitely something to sleep on. It would be nice to see this in its peer-reviewed final published form and to see if other researchers in the field consider the results remarkable enough for citing. I think it was a very cool project, and may well illustrate some benefits that had been known for years before (old Tami U website of Davies Googles up where they had been studying this for years before but caution it is not a panacea but say it can help. I really don't know what to make of the test setup. I have some questions on the very small pots ("3 kg"), that the plants were measured in the early vegetative stage when in my particular case, plants are usually disease free, and not when fruiting when mine show symptoms, and the generalization of the results based on some "soil" chosen was 50% sterile sand and some undisclosed 50% other soil irradiated to sterility with a powerful electron beam. Not sure how this translates, if at all. I'm not disputing the findings, I like them. I am just wondering how applicable it is to a real life situation. Thanks very much for taking the time to post the link :-) "PC, how do you cope with mold ? peroxide ?" Hi Sey, I try to keep my main plants dry and airy in a tall hoop with open ends. Daconil sprayed on them lasts a long time this way in addition to the benefit of keeping water off the leaves in the first place. I'm starting new seeds today. I only use peroxide to disinfect between crops but that helps, so soon I'll be doing that. The ground in the hoop is covered in landscape fabric and everything gets drenched in the peroxide including plastic cover pvc supports, irrigation tubing and other support hardware in there. Peroxide might provide some initial disinfectant activity if applied to the leaves, but in too high concentrations it could risk damage to the good parts of the leaf and give the fungus more openings, because the despicable mold penetrates the protective barrier of the leaf. So it all still comes down to prevention :-( Daniel wrote: "Tomatoes are subject to a number of fungus diseases which are lethal and can ruin your whole crop. [ Yes, you should rotate your tomatoes. ]" I can't resist Daniel. While we are still passing around the pear wine from rgreen, I decided to rotate your tomatoes. I hope you don't mind ;-) (EDIT: removed picture, and note tomatoes were not Daniel's) PC