First time here so hoping for some help. I am new to peach and nectarines, I have 1 tree of each and both are over 6 feet tall and starting their 2nd years in the ground out of a pot. I had a great first year growing. This year I have tons of fruit, but my leaves are dropping off both the nectarine and peach trees, I mean they are just falling off the tree, but they are growing new branches and like 6 inches of new growth but leaves still falling. I have fertilized, thinned fruit, spray fungacie and captain jacks fruit tree insecticide, watered and still have issues I’m at a loss, I’ve inspected the trees and don’t see anything crazy. I will post the tree leaves as pics starting with peach and then to nectarine any help would be seriously helpful as I’m worried they are dying, leaves towards the bottom of the tree are still nice a dark,
Any help would be great. I’m in Virginia Zone 8A, seem to be fine until the past week.
HAD TO POST PICS IN THE REPLIES, new user can only post 1 pic per post/reply, please see replies for additional photos thanks everyone.
@JesusisLordandChrist, @evilpaul, Maybe I did overwater, watered a few days ago, base is still damp today. If that’s the case if I stop the watering will it come back? Trying too, but won’t let me reply, may have overwatered I guess I haven’t water in several days due to that. But I did accidently leave the water on long term. I’m new so won’t let me reply so until tomorrow, because I uploaded too many pics. If I stop watering for a while will the tree die or survive? Any ideas to prevent it from dying?
What are the active ingredients in the fungicide you sprayed? Copper?
Copper is toxic to leaves, and can cause them to fall.
Are you in a location where bacterial spot disease occur? If yes, it can cause leaves to drop too.
It would help if you share photos of some freshly dropped leaves. You can also contact your local Agricultural Extension office, they give consultations on such matters.
I second this - looks to me like there are signs of shot hole disease which is likely bacterial if you are spraying fungicide. This will cause them to drop a lot of leaves but they will be ok. During dormancy spray copper at max strength with sticker. It may take a couple years to fully clear up. I stopped spraying copper during the growing season for it as the leaves couldn’t handle much copper without damage
So to explain I watered heavy about 6 days ago, the spots on the leaves were already there, I treated with captain jacks fruit oil which I think is just neem for bugs about 1-2 weeks ago, this started fairly recently. I put fungicide(Chlorothalonil) on it 3 days ago to try to help but it still looks the same, the base was still moist from watering, haven’t watered since. I feel like it did this last year some but that was the first year I had the trees and just planted them last spring so new to all this. If bacterial can I treat with something since it had fruit on it or should I wait. Thanks all, it’s currently like 88 degrees today so no water should help dry out the roots.
I would hold back on watering and see what happens. It should send up new growth, see if the new growth shows shothole. If so then spray accordingly. The real treatment is in dormant sprays though.
I have a mild case of shot hole on my reliance peach tree currently. It’s been so wet i’m surprised it doesn’t have more issues. Hopefully I’ll get a window with no rain and calm winds in the next few days to spray it. I did a copper spray last fall, during dormancy and also delayed dormancy. But it still showed up a little, this tells me I need to do a little more like add a sticker this fall after leaf drop.
If it was overwatered briefly just back off on the watering and it should start to look better in a week or two.
If it’s bacterial spot dormant copper sprays are supposed to help (which isn’t immediately helpful). Oxytetracycline (antibiotic) and Bacillus amyloliquefaciens strain D747 (biofungicide) are supposed to work to some extent, but I’ve never used either personally. The latter is considered Organic.