Drew- My soil is clayish, and is heavy but I get good run off (when it does rain) from the trenches that I have dug on both sides of trees. Kind of a terrace style so water logging has not been an issue. I will pull mulch back from the trees in our little rainy season. Here we have not gotten any rain in months. I have set up drip systems for all my trees but the older ones (like the tree in question) barely get watered. I have watered maybe 4 times this season (Since them breaking dormancy). They are covered in a 4-6" layer of horse manure and wood chips. Just dug down in the soil a couple of days ago to make sure there was still moisture and there was plenty. Our land was horse property so that is why I was thinking maybe high phosphates maybe the cause but wouldn't the other trees show similar stress? I have also not fertilized except for the horse manure that I put around the trees in the spring but again wouldn't this also affect the others as well? I would also figure that this tree would be on Nemaguard or Lovell rootstock coming from HD. I have many other trees on those rootstocks closely planted that received the same level of care. I should also mention that I see no signs of pests, canker or wood disease on the tree. There is some discoloration on the branches shown in the pics (Yellowing and spots similar to the leaves). I am stumped as to why this is happening again. I thought last years problem was over when it leafed out this year and looked great (I even had to summer prune). Could the pruning have anything to do with it? I didn't prune harshly just cleaned up the middle and cut back size by about 2 feet. Would a soil test be worth it? Fertilize like Gator mentioned and see what happens? This pic is a tree 15' from it on Nemaguard in its 2nd summer.

Hman, You're right, I do thin more than commercial guidelines. I think perhaps the difference may be related to vigor. A lot of my shoots are 3' long as the norm (although not this season with the drought). Someone with just 18" of shoot extension would leave two fruit on that shoot (by commercial guidelines). However with my shoots being much longer, I'd leave five fruit on a 3' shoot (by commercial guidelines). Multiplied by lots of shoots, it becomes too much weight for the tree to bear. So I have to thin a bit more aggressively to compensate for the increased vigor, I think. I believe it's also a little windier here so that it takes less weight to break branches than in most parts of the county. I noticed I had a large broken branch yesterday on one of the trees, but I've been catching a lot of possums lately, so it could have been a possum that broke it down. I do think I sometimes over thin on some trees, but I still try to follow the 12" rule because I have a somewhat laissez-faire attitude about yield. I know I have some mature trees that produce two bushel of fruit when they should really be producing three, or younger trees producing 25 lbs. of fruit when they should be producing 50 lbs., but at this point I don't get too excited about the lost opportunity. Maybe I'll go broke with that attitude. I'm sure I've still got a lot to learn about growing peaches commercially. I recommend thinning to 12" on this forum not only because I do so, but also because the tendency for most people harvesting their first fruit is to under thin. Even if they over thin a bit, as I sometimes do, I think a lot of people will be happier with their first harvest of nice large fruits vs. making a mistake the other way and have a tree full of peaches that are little bitty. But you're right, I think a lot of trees can tolerate one fruit for every 8" of branch space or so, under lower wind and vigor conditions.

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

Thanks. I'll forward the comments and my copper and neem oil the next time they visit. I doubt I can convince them to squish the abundance of those red "balls". Really, they are scale? Some are the size of grapes, the majority are large pea sized. Anyone got any technical links to the type of scale this is? The UCDavis IPM site doesn't have anything like it that I could find. The closest by picture (in egg form) is European fruit lecanium I guess I'm lucky to only have encountered smaller soft brown scale.