Peach trees

About four years ago I bought two peach trees about six feet tall each. They grew fine but until this year I didn't get any fruit on either one. This spring I put into the ground around the trees some Miracle Gro spikes for fruit trees. I have loads of peaches on both trees and because of that the branches hung close to the ground. I bought some pressure treated 2 x 4's to prop up the branches even though I lost two of them that broke before I propped them up. My problem is that the leaves on the two trees have become different, meaning the leaves on the one tree look like they've begun to wilt while the other tree looks healthy. We have a lot of rain recently so I don't believe lack of moisture could be a problem. Up until about a week or two before the leaves looked fine. Any suggestions? Thanks, Rich

This is the good tree

This the tree with the wilted leaves

 

Look over the tree for signs of disease. There are several diseases that can be a problem. I've tried peaches and pears in my area but the disease pressure was very high. If I didn't spray to control the diseases the trees looked pretty bad by mid-summer and the harvest suffered badly. In the end they required too much work and too many chemicals so I removed them. Here is a link to Clemson University that has some information. You can also search online and many sites have pictures of the diseases.

You can also, about a month after flowering and you have visible fruit, remove the smaller fruits. Only leave the larger, more healthy looking fruit on the tree. This will minimize the weight and help save the branches while still saving the best fruit for you.

 

Thanks Pilot Dane. It puzzles me that one tree seems fine and the other has a problem and they're only about 30 feet apart. There almost HAS to be something that hurt it like, as you said, some disease. This winter I'm planning to cut them back a lot and not let them grow so high. I also read online that you should remove the fruit and leave them about every six inches. It was exciting to see all those peaches come out after about four years of nothing. But I am not against removing the trees if they don't produce next year. Thanks.

 

I assume you planted different varieties for better production. That means one may be more susceptible to a certain disease than the other.

You might also want to do some pruning. This site has a lot of useful information.

 

I plan to be very busy pruning those trees this winter! Thanks again. But on the brighter side my wife loves the peaches we have already picked and is busy freezing them in containers.

 

Hold a sheet of white paper under the leafs and shake to see if anything drops off. Both trees. Your pics show up on my screen...as tho a piece of gauze was covering about half of each tree. ???

 

For heavens sake, get rid of the supports and prune the trees properly, that will cure a host of problems including air flow. Find a good tutorial on basic pruning. In a nutshell: cut dead or diseased first, then any touching limbs, limbs growing into the center, waterspouts, then limbs extending out too far for shaping, in that order. Best time to trim is early spring, to avoid disease. Also, fruit trees do not like a lot of water, it can actually kill them.