Okay, another year and now what? We took off a lot of the tree, but I was afraid to actually top the tree. It put out a lot of sprouts low on the south side of the trunk and of course a lot at the top. The four grafts that I tried with the Plugger grafting drill bit did not take. They are painted with grafting wax. I was able to do three successful chip bud grafts on a few of the lower sprouts so I'll leave those no matter what, just for pollination. We had a near catastrophe as the wind almost broke off the lowest large branch (facing right on the top picture). Fortunately there was someone who used to work at the Forestry Dept. just waiting for my husband to arrive at The Big Box. He knew exactly what size bolts and washers to use and we were able to re-attach the limb before it completely broke off. It was swaying back and forth when we arrived! What do we do this year?

I can say that my cherry tree is suffering from a fungus because of the cool, damp temps we've been having. Perhaps your tree will come back fine next year under more favorable growing conditions than we've had this year. I wouldn't necessarily blame the soil, mine are planted in clay too and one of them is doing fine....the other was a year end purchase at Lowe's and it has yet to do anything although it has been in for 4 years (it gets taller, no fruit or flowers). Leaf curl is something I've experience on other trees and you can spray for that with dormant oil in the spring. Your best bet IS to take in a branch with the fruit and the leaves still on it, and with leaves from the ground and to take it to your extension agency. They will be able to tell you what it is and what to do about it far better than we can guessing at the problems (temps, moisture, etc.) without a picture and without knowing the conditions your area has had. I hope this helps.

This question would be better asked on the Fruit forum. Rodney Here is a link that might be useful: Fruit & Orchards Forum

I am North of Beaumont and my peach trees are losing the majority of their leaves. Due to stress from hurricane they are also starting to bloom, which is bad. Trees start losing their leaves this time of year due to shorter day length, even if weather is not cold. With that amount of disease in the leaves they are going to fall even if it was earlier in the year. I would not worry too much. The tree may even try to put on fresh leaves before we get our first frost. Peach trees lose leaves. If the stem starts drying out, that is when to worry. Probably best to just make sure you water correctly and it should leave out next spring.