Thanks for the clarification Dave. You folks in zone 4 have issues growing peach trees I can only imagine. As I understand you, it's the timing of water deprivation which makes the difference. That makes sense. Perhaps depriving the trees of water earlier in the season negatively affects the ability of the tree to store carbohydrates for the winter, whereas if the water deprivation occurs later, the tree has already stored most of its reserves. You may be interested there is an experienced grower on this forum who deliberately water-stresses his trees to concentrate the brix of his fruit. He's down in TX though, so winter-kill is never an issue. Where I'm at, winter-kill generally isn't an issue either. But the trees can get canker, which of course can be exacerbated by sub-zero temps. Kokopelli5a, It's generally recognized dwarfing rootstocks dwarf by virtue of some degree of incompatibility with the scion. By definition, incompatibility involves reducing nutrients and/or water to the scion. The claim that Citation produces larger fruit is interesting. This is pure conjecture on my part, but I wonder if it works somewhat on the same principle as girdling. People that hold world records for the largest peaches lightly girdle the shoots so that nutrients flow into the shoots from the tree, but are not allowed to flow from the shoot back down into the tree (sort of a one way carbohydrate valve which super-charges the girdled shoot and any fruit on it). I could envision something similar from a rootstock designed w/ a slight degree of incompatibility. The rootstock would send carbohydrates up in the early development phase of peaches (when cell division occurs), but as the season progresses, some of the carbohydrates are prevented from flowing back down into the rootstock, and instead are utilized by the fruit. This would make the fruit larger, but the rootstock slightly depleted and more prone to winter injury in cold climates. Just a theory. If it's wrong, I'll go with the magic.

Augustina, your rootstock will define the size of your tree. So, pick varieties that do well in your area, then try to find those trees on more dwarfing rootstocks. Pumiselect is very dwarfing rootstock often used for peaches/nectarines/apricots/plums. I have two trees on Pumiselect, a Weeping Santa Rosa plum and a Blenheim apricot. The apricot is going into it's 3rd year in the ground, and it is still quite small. If you can't find trees on Pumiselect, then the next best choice would be Citation rootstock. So, I would find a nursery that has the option of putting their stone fruits on very dwarfing rootstocks, then pick a good variety of peach or necatarine for your area. They can adapt well to container culture, we have one forum member (fruitnut) who has done phenomenal things with container stone fruits. I believe most of his trees are on Citation. Patty S.

Try a foliar application of Miracle-Gro or it's equivalent. Go for the relatively high nitrogen content (first number), but not so high as to enter the lawn fertilizer realm(something 20 or less). Mix it into a watering can 1/2 strength and water liberally over the foliage and then give just a bit to the soil. Finer mist the better, peach tree leaves shed water very well. Do this in early morning before the sun gets hot. If you see no improvement in a few days check back. Make sure it has plenty of water after that...but don't make the soil wet...just moist. To be honest...you're tree doesn't look too bad at all. The quality of the tree from what I can see above ground looks very good. Did it look better when you planted it and if so, how long ago was that? Was it balled and burlapped...has it been brutally hot there? Fruitnut grows awesomely beautiful trees. If he don't see a problem then neither do I. You CERTAINLY have no insect problem there. Looks like a deficiency...most likely N, far less likely Iron...and even less likely magnesium. That doesn't necessarily mean it's not in the soil...just means the plant isn't getting it. Peaches are delicious and they are also a pain in the ass.

For nectarines I would suggest an earlier variety which are less subject to cracking and easier to protect from brown rot, if only because of the shorter growing season. I like Eastern Glow, but it is not available from ACN this season. My rep there suggests Avalon as a sub. Nectarines are tougher to grow than peaches but so worth it. There are advantages to peaches that have a long picking period. A good early mid-season that has about a 3-week season for our area is is Jonboy. In a pot, Redhaven would probably be about as good. Gloria is a low-acid peach, as I recall and I'm not crazy about fruit without ample acid with that sugar. Make sure they don't tout Avalon as a low acid variety if you now what I'm talking about and agree. Earnie's choice has the acid but a short picking window. It even wins taste tests on the west coast. Madison has been a standard later peach in my nursery for a long time because of very good quality and a very long picking season as well as for its frost hardy buds, but in my own orchard I prefer the quality of Messina. I have so many different peaches that a long picking window is not really important to me. Encore is my standard late and I'm in the process of evaluating best early peaches- I'm leaning towards Desiree after being dissatisfied with a couple of others when I needed to replace Harrow Diamond in this category. In the end, there are so many great peaches that it is difficult to choose. New ones come out so quickly that I can't even begin to keep up with them all. If whatever you choose is known as a high quality peach I'm sure you will be more than happy with it.