I planted a small plum tree last summer. It made it through the winter fine but this summer the leaves are curling up as if it gets no water. In other words, they are dry and crispy and shot thru with holes. We are in a semi drought here in south Georgis so I water every few days. I see no insects other than a friendly yellow spider. I am to the point of digging it up and potting for a year. Now the leaves are starting to go limp and drop off. Help!

Hi casnavy, Welcome to Garden Web. I'd suggest you try asking at the link below. If they can't help, you might also try The Fruit and Orchards Forum. Sue Here is a link that might be useful: Trees Forum

It looks like bacteria spot. If it is bacteria spot, the spots will turn to holes. Not much you can do but get disease resistant varieties. Some of mine get it every year but usually it is in the late summer. I doubt the spray had anything to do with it. The tree looks healthy. When you sprayed for ants you probably also had aphids. The ants like to protect the aphids so they can eat the honey dew that the aphids secrete. With stone fruit the biggest problems are brown rot, worms (oriental tip moth and plum curculio) and scale. The brown rot can be controlled with fungicides. Tip moth and plum curculio can be controlled by insecticides sprayed when you see the fruits bitten by the beetles. Scale can be controlled by a dormant oil spray in the winter, and some add copper to the last dormant oil spray to help control brown rot and bacteria canker. It is easier to have 4 separate trees than a multigraft, but since it was a gift not much you could have done about that. You will have to prune to keep all the four branches about the same size so one does not dominate the others.

Where do you live? What are temps like? Is it getting enough water?