It could be salt but I'm wondering if you are holding back important information. Like is your soil or water salty? Did you apply fertilizer this spring and if so what?

How about some helpful information in your header. We all get too hot and too cold at times. We could be more effective helping if you do your part. For instance salt damage is nearly unheard of in the humid east absent big fertilizer applications but can be common in drier areas of the west.

Other questions --
How long has it been in the ground?
Why do you list herbicide as a possibility?

ok, ok... I guess I could have done a better job of laying out the situation. Location is the high desert of southern California, town of Apple Valley, zone 8b/9a. It is definitely not humid here...
The tree was planted in the ground last season from a pot, in the same location that once held a pear tree that was pulled out of the ground.
On more than one occasion my wife treated the ground under the tree with a herbicide in an attempt to help me with weeding duties when I wasn't looking.
The tree, in fact all of our trees are watered occasionally with captured rainwater mixed with grey water. The grey water is a mix of the washing machine water and the flush water from the water softener. We have used potassium chloride for a long time but switched to regular salt briefly last winter. The thought was that the salts in the flush water would be diluted so much that it wouldn't be a problem... this may have been a miscalculation.
The reason I was asking if this salt damage is that I may be able to flush the salts out of the root area but if it is herbicide damage I may have to abandon the tree's location and replant a new tree in a new location
Hope the additional information helps...
Hal

Don't discharge your water softener onto the trees!

I cured a salt issue left in horse pens by flushing with 12 inches clean water in winter. No problems since. You can do the same perhaps even now if your soil drains well.

@ lifespeed... not while using salt anymore, went back to the potassium chloride, costs a lot more but should be able to utilize the waste water... the solution is heavily diluted before we use it.

@ fruitnut... That is what I am trying to do... heavily flushed early in the season. At this point I am just trying to save the tree... not sure if I can, but I am going to try!

This post was edited by halh on Tue, May 14, 13 at 17:03