Hey guys and gals…so this is year 2 of building our food forest here in zone 6 in CT. I have a couple apple trees, a pear and finally just bought an Elberta peach from HD. I transplanted it a couple weeks ago, if had blossomed nicely and I thought all was well until I looked yesterday. I trimmed off about 15 spurs that had died, most of the blossoms now look dead and more branches appear dead or dying. I have pretty moist soil so I dug the hole a lot bigger and used a LOT of compost mixed in with some of my clay like soil, same as I had done with my other fruit trees. I had leaf mulch (touching the trunk unfortunately) but I just pulled it back. Is there any saving this tree or is it a done deal? Please help! Thank you!
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It doesn’t look to me like it’s dying. It’s normal that some spurs on peach just die even on a well established tree. No matter the prognosis, it would be best to stop changing things and see what it does.
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The blossoms are not dead. They’s how peach blossom develop into fruit. They wilt and dried up while the tiny fruit develop in the center of the drying flowers.
Look up the word peach’s “shuck split”.
Also, peach trees do not like wet feet (wet soil) or too much moisture on their roots.
Yeah I know they don’t like wet soil which is why I am worried. Wondering if its too damp for it. Here is a closer pic. I was only able to post one initially.
The little green things in the middle of the wilting flowers are peachlets.
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So is it normal that the branches with leaves amd blossoms are different color than the rest of the tree? Sorry for the noob questions. Thanks!
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Not sure I understand the question!
Your tree is completely normal.
Look closly at your blossoms… the green things in the middle are tiny peaches… that is how they start.
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Okay thank you all for the help. I just assumed with all of the Dead branches I had to trim off that the tree was dying.
I don’t recall having a bunch of dead branches on a young peach tree.
Could be something up there… may be a little wet… perhaps some drainage, a ditch… not sure… but you do have some lil peaches forming. Good Luck … hope you get to enjoy them.
If the wood was brittle and dry, and the cross section of the branch showed no green, then it was dead. Some branches will die off naturally, it’s okay.
BTW, I would remove all the peaches since you just planted 2 weeks ago. You want your tree to spend energy growing bigger the first year. Also, I would put some wood chip mulch that will not blow away easily like leaf mulch.
Congrats, looks like a nice tree.
The tree looks normal. I have dead branches in my nectarine trees so I know. If you cut one branch off, there’s no green inside.
Yes
Of yeah, I did the bend test on these branches. Very brittle and no green at all inside. Thanks!
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