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Fruit & Orchards

Powdery mildew on nectarines

11 months ago

It seems some of my nectarines are infected by powdery mildew. A couple pics below:

I sprayed them a couple times with a mixture of baking soda, vegetable oil and dish soap that I found online. Not sure if its really helping them. How can I manage this? Either with household products or something I can buy? I assume copper fungicide directly on the fruit is not a good idea.

Also, some of the fruit are having this reaction. What is going on here and is this fruit no longer good?

Finally, some of the fruit has a less severe problem and is just kind of bumpy and slightly yellow. Is this fruit OK?

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Comments (4)

Johm Taussig
10 months ago
That does look like powdery mildew. It’s also usually one of the easiest issues to get rid of. One of the best steps is to be diligent about clean orchard management every year. If you’re going the organic route, wettable sulfur can be used for powdery mildew. Many fungicides used for brown rot control are effective against powdery mildew as well. If the infestation isn’t too bad, you can clean off the fruit, and still eat it. I’ve cleaned my fruit with vinegar to get rid of the powdery mildew and then left it on the tree to ripen.Copper fungicide can also be sprayed on every part of your fruit tree, including the fruit. Nectarines, in my part of the country are one of the harder fruits to grow. Regular rotational fungicide management is a must for us. Below is a solid list of fungicides that work for the issue you have. Good luck!

https://ipm.ucanr.edu/agriculture/nectarine/powdery-mildew/
cjgw
Original Author
10 months ago
Hi. Thanks for the reply. How did you go about cleaning your fruit with vinegar? Did you use a spray or water it down? Are you sure you can put copper fungicide on the fruit itself? Ive been advised against that elsewhere, and also told it wouldnt really help it anyway.
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Johm Taussig
10 months ago
last modified: 10 months ago
There is so much misinformation and bad advice around proper use of fungicides.

At least that’s been my experience. There are many different types of copper fungicide and of course you always want to follow the label. Here’s an example from the one that I’ve used in the past. It’s OK if it gets on the fruit, because that is often the only way to prevent powderly mildew and brown rot from occurring on the fruit itself. The link below is from the label of a copper fungicide brand.

https://www.domyown.com/when-can-eat-vegetables-after-spraying-bonide-liquid-copper-fungicide-concentrate-qa-35025.html#:~:text=Answer%3A,to%20wash%20well%20before%20eating.
Johm Taussig
10 months ago
Nothing is better than a homegrown, peach or nectarine, and in my case, I didn’t want to lose any fruit and have to wait until next year’s harvest. I just took straight vinegar, sprayed it on the fruit and gently cleaned and rubbed it with a paper towel. After some applications of fungicide and cleaning up the fruit, I was good to go. Depending on how bad the infestation is, I’m sure it won’t work on every piece of fruit but you’ll likely be able to salvage several. I hope it works for you and good luck!

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