Ursulina, you may have had an infestation of plum curculio. This pest will cause most or all of the peaches to drop when they are quite small. Another possibility is if you pruned off every single small branch you may have cut off all the blossoms since they are on the 2-year wood. The curculio could be the problem if you got blossoms this spring, and the over-pruning could be the problem if you got no blossoms. The fertilizer can be a problem but 2 cups of organic fertilizer is not much since its usually pretty weak. I fertilize my peaches with 1/2 cup of organic fertilizer every spring just in case they are missing something; its probably not needed. Scott

you might get some divergent opinions in the tree forum ... or even the hosta forum... as they deal with trees .... and you didnt answer .. with specificity.. how many hours of sun and when ... e.g. 4 hours of sun at dawn is not equivalent to 4 hours at high noon... its an intensity issue ... and 8 hours of high intensity sunshine is usually the min .... as a hosta grower ... oaks are one of my fave trees to garden under... i am just not thinking.. that is your root issue ... its fall.. leaves should be falling... it would help.. if you could IDs of your trees ... again.. in the tree forum ... if these veg peeps cant ID oaks ... and... are you sure they are all oak??? ... i like to say.. a trees roots system.. and be twice as large as what you see above ground.. usually in the shape of a rather flat pancake... perhaps a generalization ... but it gets the point across.. that you can be 50 feet away from a tree.. and still be dealing with it ... and if you have mature oaks.. what is behind them.. lurking.. doing their evil.. also.. manuring AND fertilizing... could be double dosing on nutrients ... and that would cause some of your observations... and i never heard of looking at a pepper and blaming a tree out back ... have you asked about that in the pepper forum???? i highly suspect... the trees are NOT your problem ... other than not allowing enough sunlight .... BTW ... does grass grow in your yard.... how aggressive is it??? .. if its sparse and struggling.. it could be a tree issue.... if it grows with vigor.. then .. on some level.. it rules out the tree issue .. a bunch of generalities for sure... mostly because.. i want you to focus on alternative reasons... other than the trees .. but for the sun amount issue .. ken

Diane, the toxins are to ward off herbivores, not other plants and therefore are not released into the soil as allelopathic chemicals are. The toxins degrade readily and are unlikely to be taken up by other plants in any case. Most human poisoning occurs when people mistake the roots for parsnips or the tops for anise (the latter error is unfathomable to me as the foliage has a fairly strong odor - I have never grown parsnips or troubled myself to dig up any poison hemlock around here so I can't evaluate the odds on the former error). Ryan

"Reasonable" is subjective, but Lula and Homer are both off the beaten path a little bit and might be affordable. Also, Oakwood and Clermont are worth a look.