Above-ground borers don’t leave traces in soil
Question: I removed a peach tree that had borers. How soon can I plant another peach tree in the same hole?
If this is from borers, then you can plant immediately. There isn’t a problem with borers and replanting. The entire lifecycle of the borers in our fruit trees is in the above-ground portion of the trees, not the roots or soil.
There is a problem potentially with something called replant disease, but it is minor in this case and should not be a problem for you. Remove as much of the root system as possible before planting.
Bob Morris is a professor emeritus in horticulture with the University of Nevada and can be reached at extremehort@aol.com. Visit his blog at
xtremehorticulture.blogspot.com. For more, check the Home section of Thursday’s Las Vegas Review-Journal.