Hello, my name is Rob and I live in St. Paul. I recently purchased a home in April and there are several fruit trees on the property including peach, apricot and cherry. Shortly after leaves emerged in April I learn that the peach and apricot are diseased/damaged. I lost one small apricot tree that was girdled at the base by a large canker. I dug out borer larva from the base of my second apricot tree with a paperclip. But the biggest surprise is the peach tree; after leaves full emerged I learned that the whole center of the tree is dead this year. I have waited until August now just to make sure, but as you can see in the picture, it's dead. It appears to be caused by multiple issues: there are tiny shot holes with gumming coming out on the dead branch itself (shot hole borer?), and there are various canker sites on further up branches and one larger site near the base where a large scaffold branch was allowed to growth at a shallow angle. So, my main question is when should I prune out the large dead center? My apple trees I prune in late March while the tree is still dormant but the hard frost is over. This was my plan for the peach tree, but I am concerned about spreading Cytospora and fungi in the wet spring weather. Should I trim this large branch out now? What about cutting out the canker formations...do it now or wait until March or next Spring? Please find the attached pictures for reference. Thank you!!!! -Rob