First we need more information. Pictures would help. Were these trees planted correctly? Where do you live? What do the leaf problems look like? Some fruit tree problems are nation wide but some are specific to region.
If you are in the North East where it rained all spring and summer then you are not alone, even the treated trees had leaf problems.

Here are a few pointers, then I suggest you go to your local extension service and get specifics for your area.

The leaf diseases all start when the leaves are very small so Fungicides if you need them have to start just as the buds are fully swollen, through the time the leaves are about half grown.
Don't grow anything from the Juniperus family anywhere near apples.
BT can control the true caterpillar pests if used when the pest is young. Conserve (which is considered organic by most but not all organic gardeners) can control a wide variety of pests.
Kaolin clay is another organic, it makes the trees look terrible but is fairly effective for some fungi and insects.
Fall clean up of leaves is important for disease control.
Proper pruning is also important both for production and disease control.
You are a long time from fruit but you will have to decide how nice you want your fruit to be. You are unlikely to get perfect fruit if you go strictly organic. But very edible fruit is well within reach. As kids we ate apples from our orchard that was never sprayed, scab, worms and all and they were delicious.

new, you cannot hope to resolve your tree's problems without accurate diagnosis of what might be the root(s) of the problems. Insect and disease issue are of primary concern for tree fruit growers, that is certain. You've got some homework to do.

I'd make friends with your local extension office. Who knows, there might be someone who majored in Pomology on staff! At the very least, they should be able to turn you on to some good LOCAL information regarding the culture of these plants. Local information is pretty important when it comes to the timing of spray treatments, that's for sure. I wouldn't be surprised if they had some pictorial guides to help you ID common insect and disease problems of fruit trees.

There's been LOTS of new research regarding bio-control, mechanical control, and other organic means of tree fruit production. I have that same book and now consider it almost useless (though mine might be older than yours).

What is the soil these trees are planted in like? Strong and healthy plants start with a good healthy soil. What is the soils pH? What did a good, reliable soil test say about the nutrients in that soil? How well does that soil drain? How well does that soil retain moisture? What kind of life is in that soil? Maybe these simple soil tests can help,
1) Soil test for organic matter. From that soil sample put enough of the rest to make a 4 inch level in a clear 1 quart jar, with a tight fitting lid. Fill that jar with water and replace the lid, tightly. Shake the jar vigorously and then let it stand for 24 hours. Your soil will settle out according to soil particle size and weight. For example, a good loam will have about 1-3/4 inch (about 45%) of sand on the bottom. about 1 inch (about 25%) of silt next, about 1 inch (25%) of clay above that, and about 1/4 inch (about 5%) of organic matter on the top.

2) Drainage. Dig a hole 1 foot square and 1 foot deep and fill that with water. After that water drains away refill the hole with more water and time how long it takes that to drain away. Anything less than 2 hours and your soil drains� too quickly and needs more organic matter to slow that drainage down. Anything over 6 hours and the soil drains too slowly and needs lots of organic matter to speed it up.

3) Tilth. Take a handful of your slightly damp soil and squeeze it tightly. When the pressure is released the soil should hold together in that clump, but when poked with a finger that clump should fall apart.

4) Smell. What does your soil smell like? A pleasant, rich earthy odor? Putrid, offensive, repugnant odor? The more organic matter in your soil the more active the soil bacteria will be and the nicer your soil will smell.

5) Life. How many earthworms per shovel full were there? 5 or more indicates a pretty healthy soil. Fewer than 5, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, indicates a soil that is not healthy.

A good, reliable soil test from a good soil test lab might also be of some help if htat has not been done yet.

I live in NJ and located the cooperative extension for our county. So what should I do? Call the office and ask questions?

I am charging my camera and will post photos. Though I think my apple tree has cedar-apple rust.

It seems like all of my trees (except maybe my pear) have fungal diseases. The leaves all have brown spots. However, it looks like someone has been munching on them, too, since there are holes and some have chunks eaten off.

I also forgot to mention that we planted 5 blueberry bushes. One dried up completely after blooming and we destroyed it in order to prevent the spread of the disease. We had blueberries on the other four but now another one is drying up. Going by the book, I think it has fusicoccum canker. It has red spots all over the stems... I am afraid it's beyond being saved but want to prevent other bushes from dying.

We try to eat mostly organic foods and I thought what better way to go about than to plant our own fruit trees... Maybe it was a mistake since I don't know much about gardening. Yet I grew up in eastern Europe and we had about 10-12 apple trees there. We never sprayed for anything and though we had what we called worms (the kind that eat to the center), most apples were fine.

I wonder why it's so different here. I tested my soil with a store-bought kit. The soil was a bit alkaline but everywhere I read, it said to plant trees anyway. That their roots go so deep that the little modification that one does accomplish is not enough. For that same reason I thought I was not supposed to fertilize either. Is this wrong info? We have sandy soil and it drains well. I don't know about organic matter, though.

Thanks a lot for all the help. I am looking forward to learning more.

Ah, sandy soil and no nutrients. Now we're getting somewhere.

No I don't think you made a mistake. Nothing like fresh fruit.
As Rhizo says there is lots of new research and Identifying the problem is always the first step. Sometimes we seem to overcomplicate things in this forum trying to give lots of advice. But your trees are probably OK. There was a lot of disease this year and with luck most years will not be as bad. Cedar apple rust will not kill Apple trees. Yes call the extension service and chat with them if they are anything like they are in NH they are great people, up on the newest research and will go out of their way to help.

Another question: is now a good time to send a soil sample for a test or should I wait till spring?

Here are some photos:

cherry tree
{{gwi:158283}}October 14, 2011

peach tree
{{gwi:158285}}October 14, 2011

blueberry bush
{{gwi:158287}}Garden

The photos are not as large as I have hoped and I don't know how to make them bigger. Hopefully the problems are visible from these. Thanks!

Some of the varieties you mentioned are appropriate for organic growing, and some are not: Liberty apple trees are fairly good for organic under the proper conditions. If you are going to grow organic you must be very careful about which varieties you grow. ATTRA has some organic spraying program information. But unless you grow the more disease resistant verieties, you will need to go conventional.

Here is a link that might be useful: Self Sufficient Crops

Now is a very good time to have a good, reliable done by the people at Rutgers because you will still have time to make any corrections to your soil before winter slows things down a lot. The people at Rutgers Cooperative Extension Service offices will also be able to help you with learning about growing fruits in New Jersey. The ATTRA information is good but is very general because it is meant to cover all the states while Rutgers will be more aimed at New Jersey.

If you've got alkaline soil, you are going to have real problems keeping your blueberries happy. I'm in north-central NJ (by Newark), and I finally gave up on blueberries, as there was no way that I could amend the soil enough to keep these acid-loving plants alive, much less happy.

lisanti07028

Kind of curious as to why you don't put your blueberries in a 15 gal pot instead of giving up. You can then have all the acid soil you need for the plants to thrive.

How long can the blueberries stay in 15 gallon pots? All their lives?

Would Actinovate work for my problems? The thing is, our blueberries grow in a little section of land near the house. It's about 5'x10' and I thought I would be able to amend the soil there enough, since it's a closed off section. I use tons of pine needles for mulch to help acidity... Don't know if it's working.

Yes they can stay in the 15 gal pot their entire lives although they may have to be repotted to alleviate root issues, trimming excess roots, every few years.

Did you try to ammend your soil with peat or pine bark fines? You can grow blueberries in pine bark fines alone which is an acid medium.

Research done by Dr. Abigail Maynhard at the UCONN Ag Research station in New Haven, CN showed that adding large amounts of Oak leaves or pine needles to soils did not significantly change the soils pH.
My experience is that adding large amounts of Oak leaves and pine needles to the compost I make that is then added to my soil has changed my soils pH from 5.7 to 7.2 over the years.

So pine needles make the soil more alkaline? I use pine needles as a mulch for my blueberries.

Well... if these bushes die, I might try planting more in large pots. Would they be still susceptible to diseases? Would they be healthier than now?

Try this. Remove all the mulch from around the blueberries. Get some peat and work it into the soil around the plants, maybe as much as 2' - 3' diameter around each plant and as deep as you can without disturbing the roots too much. Then water.

Apples definitely do not like sandy soil. I have been trying to produce them in my very well-drained soil for years with poor results. When you see a big thriving tree loaded with decent fruit that isn't getting sprayed and fussed with you can be sure it is in heavy soil.

If you have a good number of cedar trees within a mile of your trees, it will be difficult to deal with Cedar Apple Rust (CAR) on apple trees. Speaking only from my experience in a cesspool of cedars, the young trees will be attacked yearly, causing severe damage to the leaves each year, not good for a young tree with no reserves to draw from year after year.

I watched my 2 supposedly CAR resistant trees (Freedom and Jonafree) get ravaged for their first 3 years causing very mature leaf fall each year before trying to spray for control. The praying has worked and the trees have been growing nicely since. Liberty is supposed to handle CAR pretty well as are some others whose names escape me at the moment. Keep in mind that my location experiences extreme CAR disease pressure every year, if your area only has light pressure, you may be able to get by with no controls.

As to peach, it is highly likely your trees will be susceptible to Peach Leaf Curl, it can be very hard on trees especially over years as it too will defoliate the trees. One remedy under mild to low pressure is a single application of copper in the fall to all of the trunk and branches. If in subsequent years that doesn't get the job done, a fall application followed by an early Spring application just before bud break should do the trick.

Fruit trees are tough, start while you are young.... wish I did :)

You mention you have sandy soil. I live in WI and the center of our state is quite flat and sandy. I have family
there and yes apples can grow in sand. A few issues are:

rootstock.....Avoid using M7 in sand
water.........irrigation will be required
nutrients.....since sandy soils have little organic
matter, fertilize often but lightly. Any
Nitrogen not taken up quickly by the tree
will leach out in short order. Ditto for
growing vegetables in sandy soil. I would
not fertilize too late in year. Stop by
August 1st?
micronutrients: sandy soils can have micronutrient
issues.
Yes I do agree easier to grow apples on a heavier soil
but it can and is being done on sandy sites.

Sorry, I know this is pretty far off the original topic. I have tried to grow blueberries in a pot as well. Some things I've learned are:
1) Go to www.davewilson.com. They have a bunch of good information on how to grow blueberries in a pot.
2)If your water is alkaline - good luck. No amount of acidic amendment will be able to counter it. Softened water is too salty. About the only thing that you can do is add vinegar to the water you give it. That is a lot of work.
3) Nitrate based nitrogen will kill blueberries.

Good luck.

Michael,
praying is always a good idea, and effective as you noted : )

According to Rutgers University the soils in New Jersey are naturally acidic and New Jersey is a major blueberry growing state.
Since organic growing is about the soil start there. Get a soil test and look at the soil as I described above so you have some idea what you need to do to make your soil into a good healthy soil that can ghrow strong and healthy plants.

Here is a link that might be useful: About blueberries in NJ

This is partly off topic, but cedar trees around apple trees were mentioned up in a previous post. I noticed out in southeast Iowa recently that the hilly hills and dales that were not in cultivation were being populated heavily by young cedar bush/trees. These are almost all young and obviously something new. These were along the highway road sides and some were in Illinois but not so many there yet. Here in Indiana where I recently cleared a fencerow, there were about 5 of them.
Look out, the cedars are a coming!