Thanks for the responses. At least this has helped solve what has become a very old mystery. I have been told many times that peaches won't grow here, so it was nice to have a tree even if it never bloomed. It was planted as an apricot to replace an apricot that had winter killed a few years before, although that older apricot root stock continued to sprout forth. After numerous abuses to try to kill the old apricot rootstock, including roundup, I finally left it when it didn't winterkill to the ground for a year or two. Now it is producing magnificent apricots--about 2" in diameter and very sweet, so the peach is the one with the short leash now and growing shorter by the day! I'll keep watching to see if these ever do ripen or if the frost takes them first. On the brighter side, I planted a couple peaches last year in a higher location with better air drainage and both bloomed this year, a Reliance and an Intrepid. The Intrepid retained a peach through the summer which I picked shortly after Labor Day and it was quite good. Both trees have grown nicely through the summer, so hopefully they'll make it.

Thank you! I think I'm going to get the manganese sulfate, though. I called around Louisville this afternoon and was able to find a high-manganese nutrient liquid (guy on the phone said 2.5%) for $8 per 8 oz bottle. He said you dilute it 1-2 oz to the gallon, which would make it last about 4 weeks. On the other hand, for $12, I can get 2 lbs of manganese sulfate (including shipping) which will last me probably the rest of my natural life. If I ever become a vampire I might run out sometime around the point when warp drive is invented. We have a respirator in the garage in case I want to get paranoid about the hazards of the chemical, but this seems like a less expensive and more direct way to address the issue.

These cuttings are growing next to a south-facing window at roughly room temperature. Early on, however -- maybe for the first week -- I did not place them in direct sunlight, since I did not want them to wilt for lack of roots. The soil is light with sufficient drainage. To note, the plants are now well rooted; I can see the roots through the sides of their transparent containers. At the same time, the yellowing seems to have ceased to spread for the most part, so perhaps this means it initially resulted from a nutrient deficiency. However, I still wonder whether the lack of nutrients directly caused chlorosis, or whether the deficiency made the plants more susceptible to a disease which in turn brought about the yellowing. Diane, thank you for enlightening me on the nomenclature.

Mine are doing the same, even worse. I'm growing Oregon Spring tomatoes. It's a bush variety so the bottom leaves don't get as much sunlight. If it's only on the bottom of the plant, it's not disease. No worries.