I think a lot of it has to do with how much our temperatures can swing compared to other growing regions. I have always read how hardiness increases as the temperature decreases slowly. If it starts to warm up then the trees start to lose hardiness. On Jan 3rd I was 66f, then on the 6th we bottomed out at -12f. On Feb 6th we had -15f, but it had been over a week since we saw 50's. I think the freeze in Jan probably hurt more than the one in feb. Most places don't get swings like that. The guys in WI might get -20f without seeing too much damage, but it was probably a couple of weeks of 0-10 highs before that, and after it for that matter. My reliance and redhaven (20 trees) are either froze out completely, or later and not swelling yet. I have one Q-1-8 that has bud swell now. I haven't checked at the orchard further north. There was still snow on the ground there yesterday, so I doubt they are doing anything there yet.

The palces oozing try poking around in them with a straightened paper clip. That will kill a borer and it will heal up. the other may just be splits from the amount of growth. You are doing a great job on shaping your tree

I did find an Alderman plum yesterday covered in brown rot... i buried that. I more or less lost my entire sweet cherry crop from brown rot....that is 3 trees worth. We ate a few under ripe cherries. In the past its been hit or miss. Seems like if its hot/humid/wet...its bad. This late July/Aug has been more like autumn. Sunny days/cold nights (52F this morning)...lots of fog/dew so not sure if that is good or not. I'm in the river valley so its always more foggy here. Under 3 inches of rain since July 1st. I just hope to get this stuff ripe before Christmas! I still have Flavor Queen pluots that are fully green, the Flavor King have at least started turning. Dapple Dandy have started coloring up...and the Geo Pride are fully turned..just waiting for them to soften up some. The TangOs almost look ready..just waiting a few more days. My Raritan Rose are ripe..but they also seem on the small side this year.

Hman, You're right, I do thin more than commercial guidelines. I think perhaps the difference may be related to vigor. A lot of my shoots are 3' long as the norm (although not this season with the drought). Someone with just 18" of shoot extension would leave two fruit on that shoot (by commercial guidelines). However with my shoots being much longer, I'd leave five fruit on a 3' shoot (by commercial guidelines). Multiplied by lots of shoots, it becomes too much weight for the tree to bear. So I have to thin a bit more aggressively to compensate for the increased vigor, I think. I believe it's also a little windier here so that it takes less weight to break branches than in most parts of the county. I noticed I had a large broken branch yesterday on one of the trees, but I've been catching a lot of possums lately, so it could have been a possum that broke it down. I do think I sometimes over thin on some trees, but I still try to follow the 12" rule because I have a somewhat laissez-faire attitude about yield. I know I have some mature trees that produce two bushel of fruit when they should really be producing three, or younger trees producing 25 lbs. of fruit when they should be producing 50 lbs., but at this point I don't get too excited about the lost opportunity. Maybe I'll go broke with that attitude. I'm sure I've still got a lot to learn about growing peaches commercially. I recommend thinning to 12" on this forum not only because I do so, but also because the tendency for most people harvesting their first fruit is to under thin. Even if they over thin a bit, as I sometimes do, I think a lot of people will be happier with their first harvest of nice large fruits vs. making a mistake the other way and have a tree full of peaches that are little bitty. But you're right, I think a lot of trees can tolerate one fruit for every 8" of branch space or so, under lower wind and vigor conditions.