Using Paper Bags for Growing Peaches in Backyards

Production of peaches in backyard gardens is extremely difficult because peaches are very susceptible to pests and diseases. Pests include plum curculio, thrips, scale, and mites, and diseases include brown rot, peach scab, bacterial spot, and anthracnose. Backyard gardeners typically do not spray or spray very few chemicals, and consequently they are often unsuccessful to produce a crop. The objective of this study was to develop a strategy for homeowners to produce fruit without the need for regular applications of pesticides. The use of paper bags on peaches as they grow on trees is an unconventional method of protecting them from insects and diseases in the U.S. but is a strategy that has been successfully practiced for many years in Japan, China, Australia, and Spain. Peaches are individually bagged by hand at early stages of fruit development (at thinning, when fruit is thumbnail sized), and paper bags protect the fruit during the rest of the season from diseases, insects, and sunburn. We compared bagged and non-bagged fruit in single-tree experiments and we proved that high-quality peaches can be produced using paper bags with a maximum of two spray applications of chemicals (fungicide + insecticide) available at home improvement stores.