Don't jump! I understand your problem. I had an Identical thread I started about three weeks ago. There is some drop of leaves at times during the late spring. Mine was due to old Captan in a tank, burning the leaves. The day before the tree was perfect. The day after it looked as if there was a skirt of leaves around the base of the tree. My other peache trees lost leaves as well, but not like my un-named white peach. I was horrified as the tree had over one hundred peaches on it. It is now thinned back to 50 peaches, it is netted and the leaves are growing back. The leaves that did stay on the tree are still there. Mrs. G

Thanks for talking me back off the ledge, Mrs. G! It is hopeful to me that your peaches didn't drop along with your leaves and that you even have some leaves growing back. I suspect that my aggressive concentration and mixture of 2 insecticides may have burned my leaves just as your captan burned yours (or the fertilize, or the drought). I know as summer heat comes that trees often have some leaves turn yellow and fall, but as you said, mine were literally overnight! And in very, very extreme amounts. Many limbs now are just completely bare except for the peaches. Oh well.....I know its not really the end of the world if I don't produce any peaches on my little trees this year and I should have calmed down before I ran in and posted, but I'm sure you and others understand. But even if I loose the crop (heaven forbid, not the trees!) I really do at least want to learn from this, so I look forward to other suggestions about whether it was the strong, 2 product spray applied the day before leaf drop, the fertilize applied a week before, or the on-going drought.

You're finding out the hard way that sometimes we can be our own worst enemy. Bonide is not going to kill Japanese Beetles, but spectricide should. But you can't decide, on your own, how to mix the product. You have to follow the lable instructions. Also you've learned that you never feed fruit trees during a drought. You've learned a very stressful lesson.

Water kill peach tree USDA says 1/2 Peach trees planted die wet winters kills roots when warms up dry off top tree sufferer Leafs fall, peaches fall off, limbs die. Trunk damage same Leaves, peaches fall off limbs die, hold graft can die. For wet problem new tree new location that dry in wet cycle winter are summer.

Gator,

We had 6-7" of rain last week and two of my peach trees dropped 1/2 of their large fruits. Even American persimmon fruits turned brown and dropped 1/2 of their fruits also Too much water in the soils is bad for any fruit trees.

Tony

City, I have since netted my peach trees as two of them (the one that lost leaves still has 50 peaches on it) the other a yellow peach lost maybe thirty leaves and that was it, but also has many peaches. It was shocking but I reviewed a post of mine from last year and the exact thing happened within the same week to the month of June. The leaves on all of the rest of my trees are healthy and all are doing well. It does look strange to see these peaches hanging and growing on empty 'leaf' branches, but they are hangin' in there! Mrs. G

You all are all right and make good points, though somewhat depressing ones in some cases (1/2 peach trees die!!!). I suspect I have learned a hard lesson about fertilizing during a dry period. I also know that many people say not to fertilize at all, but as an avid gardener who sees the benefits of fertilize to most veggies, its just so hard to convince myself that a little fertilize won't help my trees also! And yes, its also crazy as #$%* for me to be trying to mix my own pesticide concoctions and strengths. But the Japanese beetles that showed up about 2 weeks ago here are absolutely destroying everything and seem almost unstoppable so I was desperate. All in all, I think this little experience just reminds me one more time that I really have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to fruit trees and what little success I've had is mostly just good luck and following advice from the good people here. Finally, again, its somewhat hopeful hearing that MrsG has had similar situations more than once and managed to hold on to the fruit and the tree, so maybe I'll survive my own stupidity. Thanks all.

City, I do measure my chemicals according to the label. There is little room for improv. Mrs. G