PEACH GROWING IN MASSACHUSETTS 



By John S. Bailey 

 Assistant Research Professor of Pomology 



The peach growers of Massachusetts are highly favored by many good local 

 markets, a factor which has led to a considerable peach industry in the State. 

 However, the effects of winter injury, X-disease, oriental fruit moth, and the 

 hurricane of 1938 have greatly reduced the number of trees as shown by Table 1. 



Table 1. Number of Peach Trees in Massachusetts 



At the present time, peach growing in this State is not as highly specialized 

 an industry as it is in some states. Peaches are usually grown as a secondary crop, 

 and therefore peach orchards do not receive the thought and care they deserve. 

 To be successful, the grower must give more attention to such important items 

 as the choice of the best varieties, the selection of sites free from danger of winter 

 injury, control of such pests as oriental fruit moth and X-disease,' and better 

 methods of culture. 



WINTER INJURY 



The killing of fruit buds and less frecjucntly of the tree is one of the great 

 obstacles to peach growing in Massachusetts. Fruit bud killing results from 

 one or a combination of the following sets of conditions: 



1. The fruit buds develop slowly all through the fall and during warm periods 

 in winter. A late warm fall, especially one with a great many sunny days, causes 

 the buds to develop past the condition in which they are m.ost resistant to low 

 temperatuie; that is, the buds fail to mature and harden off. Then during a 

 period of extreme cold they are killed at a temperature which they might have 

 withstood had they been in the stage of greatest hardiness. 



2. Until the rest period of peach buds is over they develop ver}- slowly, even 

 at a high temperature. However, the rest period is short, ending in late Decem- 

 ber or early January. A period of warm weather during January or February 

 will cause the buds to develop enough so that they are not able to withstand a 

 temperature much below zero. It is not known how high a temperature is neces- 

 sary to bring about this condition. Probably there is some development between 

 40° and 45'^ F., and undoubtedly, considerable takes place above 45°. 



3. In some winters, the temperature falls so low that the buds, even in their 



