TValenti: The next time you post photos, stand back a little with the camera and give us an overall view of the tree. Closeups are fine for diseased sections, but there is no substitute for seeing the entire tree and its surroundings. From what I can see of your cherry tree, with its apparently crossing branches, it is definately suffering from bacterial canker, which is the most likely cause of your branch dieback. It also appears that it may be in at least partial shade, and is apparently planted close to a fence. Cherry trees grow best as stand-alone specimens, in full sunlight. They should not be allowed to become "leggy", as yours apparently is, but should be pruned to a low, open vase shape if possible. Cherry trees are not like decorative specimens that can be tucked into a partially shaded corned and expected to do well. Your cherry tree will not die quickly, as bacterial disease may take years to finish off a tree, but it will be unhealthy and not very productive during the process. For now, I would prune that tree down and try to shape it for maximum exposure to sunlight. The newly-planted peach tree also appears to be suffering from bacterial canker, which it may have brought with it from wherever you bought it. What was the source of this tree, a local nursery or bigbox store, and was it potted or rootballed when you planted it? If you want to really grow peaches, you should plant a bareroot tree in spring from one of the better mailorder/online nurseries such as Adams County in Pennsylvania. Larger, tall potted trees are to be avoided if at all possible. Peach trees, like cherry trees, require a full-sun situation, and pruning and branch spreading are essential to shape the tree for fruiting. If you can give a peach trees these conditions, you will also have to learn to spray early against the common enemies of young peaches; the plum curculio and the oriental fruit moth. You will also have to learn to properly thin the peaches, since a healthy tree will set many more peaches than the tree can handle. Growing peaches is not easy even for the accomplished amateur, and growing them "organically" in the Eastern U.S. is a practical impossibility. Even if you bag your peaches in ziplock sandwich bags or try-on nylon "footies" as I am doing now, you must spray before bagging or the insects will damage nearly every young peach. It would be helpful if you would disclose your location when asking these kinds of questions to that we can get an idea of the kinds of climate and insect pressures you might be facing. Zone 7a tells us something, but could be many different places across these fruited plains. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

cough: 1. If you have already planted 8 peach trees, and are still looking for more, I invite you to consider the following sincerely offered suggestions: a) Make sure you know what is involved in growing 1-3 peach trees before you plant a lot more. Growing peaches is difficult even for experienced backyard growers. Peaches can have a lot of insect and disease problems, and usually do. Do not believe anyone who tells you they are easy to grow "organically". b) Before planting a lot of any one thing, have a plan for the use of the fruit in the event you actually get some production. 2. I have a pretty good-size backyard orchard here, and currently have 5 peach trees. I could actually get by with three good varieties, one early, one late-midseason, and one good peento (flat) type. This year, 3 of the trees produced heavily, a mature Golden Jubilee, a young Contender, and a young (white) Sugar Giant. The Contender ripened extremely early -- July 7, and, since early peaches are not much good for freezing, we had to hustle to eat or give away the more than 50 peaches this tree produced. They are all ripe within a period of a week. The average person, weighing less than 300 lbs., can eat a maximum of 2 large peaches per day. Next to ripen was Sugar Giant, a sweet peach without a lot of flavor. It suffered badly from bacterial spot, and at least half the peaches were thrown out. This peach, a modern variety from the Zaiger program in California, was a mistake to plant here. 3. Because of the 4-day Easter freeze, the Flat Wonderful peento type had only a dozen peaches, but they were truly fine eating, and early to ripen. They have a firm flesh, but wonderful flavor. Because of their odd shape, peento peaches are difficult to cut up and prepare for freezing. The little pit resides right in the middle of the doughnut, and the peach does not split apart like a large freestone. If this tree produces a full crop next season, we will again be shoveling them in shortly after Contender is gone. I would be cautious about planting any of the white peento varieties, which are likely to be far more sensitive to brown rot and other maladies. 4. Golden Jubilee is a late-midseason peach, and this mature (12 year) tree was an abundant producer this year, with about 125 peaches, of which at least 3 dozen weighed one pound or more. My spouse froze 16 quarts of these peaches, which are firm, easy to prepare, and fine for freezing. But we still have a dozen of these peaches in the refrigerator. They ripened the last few days of August and early September. 5. The bottom line here is: I really don't know what we would do with any more peaches. Once you have figured out how to grow them, and protect them against all their enemies, they can be very abundant. After two early sprays with Imidan against plum curculio, and careful thinning, all my peaches were bagged in try-on "footies", which protected them against insects (mainly oriental fruit moth) for the balance of the season. And very effectively - without any further spraying. Footie installation is, however, tedious, and calls for some acquired skill. 6. If you are going to grow peaches, you should become familiar as soon as possible with diseases such as bacterial spot (on the fruit), bacterial canker (on the limbs), and insects like the plum curculio (early) and oriental fruit moth (all season long). After that, you can get some advice here on how to deal with those problems. You should select the varieties to plant very carefully, based on such factors as their ripening times, and resistance to diseases like bacterial spot. Planting what Home Depot happens to have on hand is not the best way to choose your peach varieties. 7. Without considerable effort to learn the essentials of peach growing, you can plant 100 trees and still not get any decent, usable peaches. On the other hand, two or three carefully chosen peach varieties, with the right care, can produce enough peaches to make your family tired of eating peaches, and the neighbors too. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

i would not expect.. nor allow fruit for 2 to 3 years ... it simply does NOT have a root system to support it.. and that is why it is aborting them .. there is a fruit forum.. and many of the experts there.. NEVER visit the tree forum ... otherwise.. i dont care where you post ... and it is probably sacrificing the leaves.. the yellowing.. in a vain attempt to save the fruit ... [vain??? ... lol] water deeply.. and thoroughly.. and let it near dry in between the next deep watering.. and as jean said.. the only way to tell how that all works in your soil.. is to dig a hole and find out.. no guessing ...... it needs to be damp thru the entire root mass you planted.. not just the top it is stressed.. and no.. we dont feed stressed plants ... ken

I grow some peaches in Ohio and not many of mine get much bigger than a racquetball. Mine seem to plump up in the last week or so before ripening. Before that, they are just a little bigger than a ping pong ball. Lots of water may make them bigger, but they will be watered down flavor wise. Mine have been excellent so far this year. Got some Redhavens a week or so ago and should have a bunch of Veterans in about 10 days.