Marknmt, As one whose sprayed quite a bit of picloram (Tordon) I agree it is quite powerful. I've sprayed it on the bark of thorny locust and killed whole trees. I know its been in the press in America and the UK lately, but in spite of all the press, I think the risks of picloram tainted manure are a bit trumped up. I've been in agriculture all my life in one way or another. For a few years I owned a hay crew (square bales). In this area, people rarely apply fertilizer to hay ground, even less, pesticides. There simply isn't enough margin in hay ground to justify the expense. Even if they did apply a carry over product like picloram (and around here it would be very rare) the carry over and diluted effect probably wouldn't harm the trees. In spite of what the literature says, it only lasts a year (I've seen broad leaf crops germinate a year after it was applied). The same applies to tainted grass clippings. I've heard people warn against chemically laced clippings. However, I have a sign in front of my house requesting clippings, leaves, and chipped wood. For years I've put grass clippings around my garden crops, including tomatoes. I've never noticed anything but excessive vigor from this type of mulch. I'm confident these clippings are from lawns loaded with herbicide residues because so many lawns around here picture perfect. I think the reason they are innocuous to my tomatoes is that most of these herbicides bind to the soil and are rendered ineffective by the time they reach the roots. Mark, I hope I haven't come on too strong here, but my experience simply doesn't mesh with the admonitions. I understand others may have different experiences. Ryan, You bring up some good points. I've also read not to fertilize newly planted trees. However, nurseries and commercial orchards frequently fertigate (even the first year) to get a jump on growth. I think this could be especially relevant to your situation where the soil seems to be poor. In terms of specific Miracle Grow recommendations, I can't give you any. Only that your soil seems to be lacking something, so as an immediate measure, I would add a complete fertilizer (NPK plus trace minerals). Admittedly this is a shotgun approach, but without a soil test, I know of no other way. There is a lady from TN on the Nafex fruit group who complains about how poor her soil is. Maybe her experience has unjustifiably biased me, but I can't help thinking of her experience when I see your pics. But in all candidness, I'm only throwing educated guesses at your problem, as anyone on this list can do. It's a bit early for any serious pest control. Your extension is doing you a disservice to recommend Malathion for any serious pest control. You'll find some university extensions are well tuned to the needs of fruit trees. Others are merely a chapter ahead of you in the most basic cultural fruit practices. It's possible your peach tree could fruit next year. In that case, I would post more specific pest control questions this fall, or winter. Regarding the manure. I would just call around to local stables. There is one about 2 miles from me. They have more manure than they can get rid of and stack it in piles. Although I've not used their manure (because my mulch sign works so well for me) I have used other stable manure. I've also used loads of composted dead pigs. The only problem I've observed is that if the stable waste is extremely hot, it produces a lot of vegetative growth at the expense of fruit.

I've seen similar type damage on my apples but had attributed it to scab either resistant to fungicide or surviving poor spray coverage. What's most noteworthy about the fungus associated with Brooks spot is it's resistance to sterol inhibitors so it would be present despite myclobutanil application. Proper coverage to include Brook's spot would then require multiple fungicides which would help also by preventing selection of resistant strains.

I am in the "confused by the difference between wildflowers and weeds" camp. I grow a lot of things on purpose that other people call weeds, and I call wildflowers. On the other hand, I have so much goldenrod in my yard that I always pull it out of my gardens, and I thus consider it a weed. Technically it is also a wildflower. Anyway, I have a LOT of it that is stunted, because it is a favorite target of whatever it is that goes around to plants and puts a milky colored frothy sticky substance with some kind of baby bug in it. The baby bug then eats at the plant while maturing. I have found this goop on a wide variety of plants but there is more on the goldenrod than anything else put together. Hence I have significant insect damage on a native weed/wildflower. But not knowing if you call that a weed or not, I am not sure if I invalidate your theory or not. I have even seen creeping charlie with some sort of big lumps in the stem that suggested a creature had attacked it and laid eggs. Certainly creeping charlie is a weed. Alas, it did not spread enough to wipe out my creeping charlie. But it was really freaky looking. Marcia

You have a nasty case of scale. You can try insecticidal soap for starters. If it doesn't work you might have to pull out the bigger guns (pesticides). Malathion (make sure it is listed for duranta (gold mound)) or Bayer Tree and Shrub (used as a soil drench) or if you have a service you can have them spray. As a last resort you can yank them out and start over with something else. Whatever you do I think it needs to be done quickly or your only option will be to remove the dead ones.