Chris:

What's your annual rainfall down there in Alabama? I am trying to figure out why you need a drip irrigation system and I don't here in Northern Virginia, where the average annual total is about 40 inches. It gets little dry here once in a while, and I am sometimes driven to water, but not very often. I think a good drying out is often good for the trees, since it makes the roots go out and look for water, and in drier summers the peaches are just as juicy and even more flavorful than in wet ones. I do mulch around the trees with stable manure at least once a year.

Splitting can occur in the high humidity following a rainstorm, but there are significant varietal differences in the tendency to split in peaches, apricots, apples, and even plums. For years, I tried to grow the larger, late-ripening California-type apricots like Wilson, Tilton, and Hungarian Rose, but they all split before ripening. Then I found Tomcot, which ripens earlier and never splits, and have been growing apricots ever since. However, I have never seen a peach split here, and have grown over a dozen varieties.

To try to figure out your problem, you would have to be able to tell us what your peach varieties are, and which one is splitting. Maybe you have one variety there that is inappropriate for your humid climate.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA