Question
I have a peach tree (I don't recall the variety) that is in it's fourth season. I'm in the Austin, tx area. It produced a TON of peaches this year that are just now ripening. I thinned out many of them along the way. The fruit looks great but when you cut them open they don't have pits!  The sees is exposed and a little soft. Surrounding the seed is tougher flesh and a sappy kind of stuff but no pit. What is wrong with them?  I don't see evidence of a worm in the fruit and the tree has been very healthy and seemingly disease and pest free. Please let me know if I can harvest these fruit to eat. Also, this is only it's second year to produce fruit and last year we only got about a dozen weak little peaches but were in the middle of a severe drought.

Answer
Hi Crysta,  This is the information I found for you as I have never heard of this happening...kathy

CAUSAL FACTORS
The causes of pit breakage are poorly understood. Cold or freeze damage during flowering and early fruit development
seems to promote split pits. Shattered pit-gumming problems are much less common in fruits with viable seeds. It is not
known if the pit shatters because of seed death or if a breakage of the pit actually causes the seed death. Internal pit
fracturing and gumming is a consistent problem for varieties that ripen 45 or more days ahead of Elberta. Many of
these varieties struggle to produce a high percentage of fruit with mature, functioning seeds.
Early peach varieties frequently enter their final swell of growth before complete hardening of the pit has occurred.
Rapid fruit enlargement causes, or exacerbates, much of the pit fracturing that occurs. Most early varieties are clings, so
the strong attachment of flesh to pit probably contributes to the problem. In mid- and late season varieties, pits have
more structural integrity because they have properly lignified and hardened before pressure is exerted by the flesh
during the final growth stage.
In general, cultural practices that enhance fruit size (thinning, good nutrition programs, irrigation), increase the level of
split pit and shattered pit damage. However, recent studies suggest that girdling (and possibly scoring) may enhance
fruit size and yield without appreciably aggravating the well-known split pit/shattered pit problem of varieties such as
Camden and Springold.
When freezes excessively reduce fruit loads, pit shattering generally increases. This occurs with some varieties in some
peach-producing regions of the country nearly every year. Excessive rainfall in the latter stages of fruit growth is
another uncontrollable variable that aggravates pit breakage problems.
CONTROL MEASURES
Cultural options to minimize pit breakage problems are limited. Development of varieties less prone to the problem is
the best approach. However, superior varieties are not available to replace early, split pit prone varieties.
With Junegold and Camden, growers have reduced pit breakage problems by leaving heavier crop loads. In so doing,
they settle for smaller fruit. Markets reward large fruit, so growers must balance between larger, more profitable fruit
and losses associated with increased split pit-shattered pit problems.
The following is a brief summary of steps growers should consider to minimize shattered pit-gumming problems.
(1) Leave heavier crops on problem varieties.
(2) Avoid excessive nitrogen applications, especially close to harvest time.
(3) Use stricter packinghouse grading for problem varieties to remove questionable or misshapen fruit. These fruit are
most at-risk for split pits.
(4) Plant superior selections of the same ripening season as they become available, while eliminating plantings of the
more troublesome varieties.