Sap Coming from Small Fruit Trees Usually Borers

Q. I have some newly planted peach
and nectarine trees with sap coming from them. They don’t look healthy.

Sap oozing from newly planted fruit trees nearly always borers.

A. Borers are most likely the
problem. On small, newly planted fruit trees it doesn’t take many borers to
kill the trees. They usually “attack” the south or west sides of a trunk or the
limb of a tree. That’s where there is sun damage. Painting these trunks and
limbs with white latex paint lowers the surface temperature about 4 or 5
degrees. It may be enough in some cases. But shade is better.

Borers will usually start to damage the hot side of a tree, either west or south.

            The
sun plays a role also. Direct sunlight on the trunk of a thin barked fruit tree
can be a problem. The “smell” of sunburned and dying or dead limbs and trunks
attracts female borers that are looking to lay their eggs, scientists believe.
When limbs and trunks of newly planted fruit trees have sun damage, then borers
are more likely to be found.

This is a locust tree. Borers “smell” or find their way to the sun damaged areas of any tree. Here the top of the branches have been damaged by the sun. The bottom of branches out of sunlight are undamaged.

            What
to do? 

Shade the young tree from Western and Southerly direct sunlight. Paint
the trunk with diluted white latex paint. As a last ditch effort, drench the soil
around the tree after it flowers (if possible) with a borer systemic
insecticide and don’t eat the fruit for at least 12 months after the
application.

Which came first? Here sun damage eventually led to borer damage.