Inquiring advice to save peach tree - Ask Extension
My peach leafed out during the warm spell and then when that frost hit lost pretty much all of its leaves. It right now has literally two small tufts ...
Knowledgebase
Inquiring advice to save peach tree #792087
Asked May 22, 2022, 5:19 PM EDT
My peach leafed out during the warm spell and then when that frost hit lost pretty much all of its leaves. It right now has literally two small tufts of green leaves. The scratch test on healthy looking sections of branch and main trunk are still green, but there are also some concerning cankers as well as some areas where some amber goo is coming out. We just sprayed all branches with Monterey complete disease control, but other than that have not been sure what else to do. Any advice to try and save this tree would be greatly appreciated.
Benton County Oregon
Expert Response
This is really two separate questions about your peach tree. First, are you quite sure that the cold spell killed the leaves? This is possible - many plants whose leaves or flowers were in a very tender stage of development were damaged by that freeze. But were there any signs of disease on the leaves beforehand?
You've determined that the cambium is still green, so there is a good chance the peach tree will leaf out again. It may be weakened this year, having already expended some energy on the first set of leaves. The best thing to do is just watch it, and make sure it is well watered and fed this year.
As for the cankers, the ones in the photos look fairly old and it's not possible to say for sure what caused them. If there are active, gummy cankers, look closely at and around them for every detail, and take closeup pictures, or cut a sample and take it to your local Extension office for in-person diagnosis. It could be Cytospora canker, but again, the photos are not sufficient for diagnosis. You can read about it and see photos here https://pnwhandbooks.org/plantdisease/host-disease/peach-prunus-persica-cytospora-canker, and see if it seems to match.
You've determined that the cambium is still green, so there is a good chance the peach tree will leaf out again. It may be weakened this year, having already expended some energy on the first set of leaves. The best thing to do is just watch it, and make sure it is well watered and fed this year.
As for the cankers, the ones in the photos look fairly old and it's not possible to say for sure what caused them. If there are active, gummy cankers, look closely at and around them for every detail, and take closeup pictures, or cut a sample and take it to your local Extension office for in-person diagnosis. It could be Cytospora canker, but again, the photos are not sufficient for diagnosis. You can read about it and see photos here https://pnwhandbooks.org/plantdisease/host-disease/peach-prunus-persica-cytospora-canker, and see if it seems to match.
