identifying peach disease

[Galadhwen]

I inherited an old peach tree in the San Francisco Bay Area, where they don't typically do well. An arborist came by last month and was impressed this guy is still kicking, though it's got an impressive menu of illnesses: peach curl, fire blight, and at least one disease affecting the fruit directly. The arborist couldn't identify the fruit disease on sight, and is going to get back to me during fall pruning--but I've got some ripe fruit with minimal mold now and am trying to figure out whether it's ok to cut out moldy sections and eat the rest of the fruit. There are white-to-light-tan spots/patches of varying size that look most like powdery mildew except they affect only fruit, not leaves at all. These spots appear when the fruit are small and green and continue when they are bigger and ripen. The mold fuzz doesn't rise far above the skin of the fruit even on the badly infected fruits. Pictures I've seen of gray mold and brown mold seem too furry (and the color is a little off, though it's not consistent on my fruit and it's hard to say for sure). On the other hand, the rotten-hemisphere effect of brown mold is appearing on some fruit as well. Thoughts? I'm leaning toward "play it safe, don't eat the fruit" but if I can, I sure want to because they smell good!

 

[Chuck]

Pictures would help but the disease is probably either Botrytis or Brown Rot. A peach tree is a short-lived tree, even in areas with the correct climate. San Francisco does not have the correct climate although one can probably get a few years production. You can eat the non-moldy parts of the peach if you really want to but I think I would pass. If it has all these diseases you may as well remove the tree and plant something that likes the climate like a plum.

 

[DirtMechanic]

If it would grow there I would suggest a japanese persimmon tree. We have had both in the yard, and the peaches are just trouble all the time.