Hello,
Novice peach grower here, Zone 5A. Three years ago, I planted two tree – a Contender and an Intrepid. They are on the same rootstock. The Contender tress has been amazing–it is large, vigorous, and almost blemish free in terms of obvious disease. The Intrepid has been spindly and sickly from the start. I would guess that the Contender has 25-50 times more biomass than the Intrepid at this point.
I’m thinking of giving up on the Intrepid, but I thought I’d post some pictures here to see if anyone has thoughts about what might be plaguing this tree. I’m pretty confident that water and nutrients are not the issue. Both trees occasionally drop bright yellow leaves, but the Intrepid has lost a lot of leaves. This year it also has red coloration to the leaves (almost like burning), which you can see in the photo. (The Japanese beetles have also attacked it this week.) I also have a Redhaven tree, which has some of this red coloration, but looks much more vigorous than the Intrepid.
I’d love to hear what people think might be the issue here. And if there anyone has suggestions on peach varieties that are likely to perform as well as Contender here in Zone 5A, I’m all ears!
~ Tim
