Young peach tree dropped all buds

General Fruit Growing
1

Hi,

We have a young Elberta peach tree. We got it last May when it was 4-5ft. We kept it in a large pot and planted it in the ground this March.

It dropped all its buds a few months ago, although leafed out nicely since.

I live in the greater Boston area, zone 6a. It didn’t seem that cold during the winter, so I’m not sure why it dropped all its buds.

We do have a minor leaf curl problem because I didn’t apply a fungicide.

I would really appreciate any insight to prevent this from happening again!

Thank you so much!

Screenshot 2023-05-27 at 11.03.28 AM
Screenshot 2023-05-27 at 11.03.28 AM1190×1612 531 KB

1 Like
2

Hello @peach10, welcome.

Maybe the buds died due to winter. Many in east coast have claimed to have dead wood in peach from this winter. It was a peculiar winter in many places with polar vortex preceding Christmas, and then generally too warm in the latter half of winter.

Your tree looks normal to me. There may not be much you can do against weather unless you decide to protect the tree with insulation.

3

Tree could be too young to hold the fruit. I see this on my younger trees. Last year i had a great bloom on a pluot and it said zero fruit. This year my apricot had a nice bloom, look to have had a good fruit set but dropped about 90% of its fruit. Winter damage is also a possibility but i’d give it a few years.

2 Likes
4

The tree looks good. If it was damaged, the vegetative growth would also be affected

5

I appreciate all the help! It’s good to know the tree is healthy!

@sockworth, what do you mean by insulation? What would that consist of?

Thanks!

6

I’m not sure about your peach, but we did have that cold shot to start February that affected a lot of fruit trees in the northeast. Most of my forsythia didn’t even flower. NW of Boston it got into the -10Fs with wind chills near -40. The winter as a whole wasn’t bad, but sometimes all it takes is one extreme cold shot.

7

There is no need to winter protect/insulate an Elberta peach where you are.

I am not sure what you meant by the tree dropped all the buds. Do you mean the flower buds were dried up and fell off. If so, the flower buds were killed by Feb freeze.

1 Like
8

@peach10, Some people may build an enclosure for a tree, or otherwise protect it with some sort of thermal blanket. But not many do this unless there’s risk to the life of the tree. It’s also completely infeasible once your tree gets sufficiently big. I think most accept the existence of damage risk to flower or flower bud each year and live with it.

9

Happened this year to my nectarines. Lots of bare stems with bud scars where the flower buds dropped off in the early freeze. The weather will do what it will

10

Amen to that!

11

At least you have a nice tree still. After this last winter All I have left is a rootstock. Better luck next year. I haven’t studied the critical temps well enough to offer much insight. Perhaps research what can be done to increase brix in the buds so they don’t freeze as easily.

12

Thanks for all the advice, everyone!