I inherited a peach tree and it is only growing/blooming on one branch. It produced fruit on the whole tree 2 years ago but it didn’t produce fruit at all last year. Any tips or advice?
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Welcome
It would be helpful to post some pics of your tree so members can see the situation. Could be dieback depending on your location
Dennis
Kent wa
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I live in TN in zone 7 A/B
I have never seen that. Roots are damaged. Too wet, voles, nematodes, or walnut tree. All I can think of.
Is the wood alive? I guess a deer could have eaten the buds? Strange.
Maybe try scratching the bark,on the part that isn’t flowering,from where the branches meet the trunk,to near the tips.If there is green,that’s alive,brown,then dead or nearly so and can be cut off.
Agree with Brady. There may be too much competition for nutrients and looks like the dominant scaffold is taking all available. But even it looks sick to me. I cannot identify the type of grass growing around the tree but if it’s Bermuda, then that explains a lot. Once you do the scratch test and whatever pruning is necessary, to eliminate dead wood, I suggest covering the grass with cardboard and on top of that mulch out to the drip line with either leaf litter or woodchips to smother out the competition. Perhaps fertilize heavily with 10-10-10 from about 2’ from the trunk out to the drip line before you snuf out the grass.
Dennis
Kent, wa
I would suspect Verticillium Wilt .
It’s planted in a very open part of the yard on the south and gets plenty of direct sun and rain - plus it’s up on a little ridge so I don’t think it would have any issues with getting too much water. I assume based on other things that were planted (tomatoes, jalapeños) that it was planted straight into the ground, and we are sitting on a bunch of heavy clay.
My guess is that it hasn’t been given any nutrients, it doesn’t have proper soil, and it hasn’t had mulch to protect it and keep the moisture in.
I’ll try scraping some of the bark to see if it has any life in it like you suggested. Is it possible to take a cutting from the branch that is flowering and do a full reboot with proper nutrients and soil? And would it be smart to do that, considering it might have some type of disease?
So I scraped the bark and the only part that has green underneath is the part that is blooming…should i prune all of the other limbs?
I’d do that.If Hillbillyhort is correct though,the tree may have a shorter than normal lifespan.From reading,there isn’t a cure for Verticillium Wilt and nothing should be planted in the spot for at least 15 years,because the disease,stays in the soil.
I can’t totally rule that out, but I don’t think it’s that. The tree looked fine last year as far as leaves and blooms but it didn’t fruit at all.
Pruned it back as good as I can for now. Everything was dried up. Don’t see any evidence of disease but I’m sure there is something going on with the roots.
Are those pruned scaffolds still alive ?
Couldn’t tell what might be the problem, beside the tree was not well maintained in the past. Prune off all the dead wood and give the tree a good spray( fungicide and pesticide) after the bloom, and fertilize it to see what happens. It might bear peaches for you this year if late frost won’t hit in your area.
no all of the other scaffolds were dead except the one. I just pruned them. Gonna try to see if I can nurse it back to health
If that left side winds up being dead, just go ahead and prune it off in a month or two. Tree will be fine. We had one do that and it produced another decade or so.
I mentioned a few problems it might be in my first post. I thought of more. The tree could have been planted in good soil amended in and this caused the roots to circle and girdle. This can also happen if in pot and roots were not spread. I have seen this happen a few times. One really needs to spread the roots. And don’t plant in a bathtub ( replace native soil with good soil.).
Read this thread before you amend soil.
The grass all around the trunk is cut so evenly - any chance the bark was knicked on the one side during cutting? Hence the scratch test…
Bark has to be damaged on all sides to kill a branch. One nick from a mower shouldn’t harm branch at all. Bark will easily heal as long as it’s not girdled.
Thanks Drew51