Peach Tree - yellowing leaves, brown tips

[spacedefector]

Hi, new here and was wondering if anyone is familiar with the problem we're experiencing with our young peach tree.

The tree has been in the ground for about 18 months now. We're in Austin Tx where the weather has become very hot and humid this past month. We had a ton of rainfall back in late May through June. The leaves are turning yellow and appear to be burning at the tips - not sure if that's an accurate assessment - pic below shows progression from left to right.

There does not appear to be any reddish tint to indicate a typical nitrogen deficiency and we are seeing some brown spots on the younger green stems. We are also seeing the same issue on a small cherry tree nearby.

We haven't done much in the way of fertilizing, just some basic lawn fertilizer (Milorganite). Not sure if this is a deficiency or bacterial disease, any help/clues would be most appreciated.

[CharlieBear]

Question, once it became very hot did you give each of the trees a minimum of 5 gallons of water a week? If not, that may be the problem. From the pictures, I don't see any obvious pest problems. Young trees and dwarf trees, need a minimum of 5 gallons of water a week (counting rain of course). That is an average across all soil types and assumes less than 95 degree weather, so in some soil types it will be more, like sand.

[spacedefector]

Probably not 5 gallons, more closer to 3, and that would have been about every 7 days. Our soil has a decent amount of clay in it so we were afraid to water too much considering the heavy rains just last month.
Do you think it's just a heat thing and we should just step up the watering?

[CharlieBear]

I would step up watering since the tree is indicating to me it needs more. My soil has a very high clay content and I am having to give my trees more than 5 gallons a week during these heat waves we are having. Note pick up all dropped leaves and destroy them, don't leave them on the ground. If there are only a few leaves involved hand pick them off the tree just to be safe. (with peach trees this will keep most things from spreading if caught early enough) Nitrogen deficiency would result in stunted growth patterns, if the trees are growing well then probably not nitrogen. In the future if you are going to fertilize those trees don't use lawn fertilizer, use something formulated or fruit trees, they need more than nitrogen. In fact if there is too much nitrogen when they are young they will end up much taller than you expect. If you don't have the ground mulched around those trees, but not touching the trunks, I would strongly consider it. That is another way of saying it is best not to have grass up around those trees to compete for nutrients and water. Those trees are young and they are now stressed so by all means make sure you dormant spray them this fall. In the spring when the buds swell use a copper based fungicide and again when the leaf buds swell to hit off any fungal problems.

[spacedefector]

Thanks again - We'll make sure we have all those bases covered and are ready to dormant spray in the fall, fungal spray in the spring.