Peach tree disease or fungus?

[Jason5906]

Hello I have a year old Elberta peach tree planted in my yard. The first year was rough with late spring freezes after planting and I pruned it way back to the point where I thought the tree wouldn't make it, but this year has looked good and the tree has had a lot of new growth. Last fall(age: 6 months old) at the bottom of the trunk there was a split which I thought was gumosis or sun scalding since the trunk was splitting and oozing sap. I poked inside the splits to check for borers but found nothing. I ultimately wrapped the trunk to treat it for sun scald. Today I was changing the wrap and found the split is almost all the way up the trunk now on both sides in a straight line. It appears to be some sort of disease or fungus and I'm not sure how to treat it or if the poor peach tree is doomed. My wife and I aren't peach tree experts but it looks like it might be peach canker from online reading. Also it's hard to find any good documentation about peach trees it seems like.

Is there anything I can do for the tree as far as treatment? We also have other peach trees but they are 30 feet away.

 

[Chuck]

Hello I have a year old Elberta peach tree planted in my yard. The first year was rough with late spring freezes after planting and I pruned it way back to the point where I thought the tree wouldn't make it, but this year has looked good and the tree has had a lot of new growth. Last fall(age: 6 months old) at the bottom of the trunk there was a split which I thought was gumosis or sun scalding since the trunk was splitting and oozing sap. I poked inside the splits to check for borers but found nothing. I ultimately wrapped the trunk to treat it for sun scald. Today I was changing the wrap and found the split is almost all the way up the trunk now on both sides in a straight line. It appears to be some sort of disease or fungus and I'm not sure how to treat it or if the poor peach tree is doomed. My wife and I aren't peach tree experts but it looks like it might be peach canker from online reading. Also it's hard to find any good documentation about peach trees it seems like.

Is there anything I can do for the tree as far as treatment? We also have other peach trees but they are 30 feet away.

I really hope I am wrong about this but it appears that your tree has Armillaria Root Rot, aka Shoestring Rot. Primarily it was caused by the split trunk and by being planted too deep. It appears to have been planted about 4 inches too deep as it shows being buried at the graft point. If it is Shoestring Rot you may as well dig it up as there is no cure and it can spread to other trees. Have a local expert have a look to make sure.