Greetings folks. I'm new to gardening. Just bought a house and put in a garden this year. I planted four fruit trees -- two sweet cherry, one plum, and one peach. When I planted each tree, I made sure to break up the bottom to free the roots from the confined area it had been in the pot. Both my cherry trees still have leaves on them, but they're dramatically drooping. No amount of watering seems to help. The soil they're put in is a hard clay, but when I dug the hole and put them in I made sure I surrounded it with miracle grow moisture control soil to help with the excess water. My backyard is a bit of a water trap in areas, so I was careful to plant where there was best drainage. The leaves are still on the trees, but sagging dramatically. I'm worried they're going to die. The plum tree is resilient it appears and doing well, but my peach tree! I could cry. All the leaves have fallen off the tree but the fruit on it remains and appears to be solidly attached. The leaves on the ground are all green with no bugs or colouring issues. The branches are still bendy and not dead. What on earth could be happening? And is the tree dying? The peach and plum were both bought from a reputable nursery. The cherry trees from Home Depot (I know, cheapo, but hoping they'll be ok). Thank you for any information you could share.
Yep, all your watering is making it worse. I would dig them up and plant them higher in mounded soil. Home depot actually has very good plants by the way...
Thank you kindly guys for the response. I will remound my cherry trees .. but should I be worried about the peach tree with about three leaves left on it? The fruit is still firmly attached.
I'm not sure whether peaches are similar to cherries in requiiring well drained soil. However, they don't like wet/warm and humid spring weather. What's your weather been like?
We've had a very very wet spring, but I didn't plant them until after that was over. I think in my efforts to "nuture" the trees, I've been a bit overzealous, lol. Ugh. Will back off and see if leaving them alone for a while helps. On a positive note, my dog decided to be Puppy Washington and uprooted one of my cherry trees! The roots were not mouldy or soft, so that's a good sign, and the tree is replanted with a stern scolding from me to my dog.
Well a couple weeks later and one cherry tree, the leaves turned all brown and are hanging (but oddly not yet fallen off). The tree's not dead yet because there's new growth near the base. So that gave me hope. The peach tree looks pathetic, all the leaves are gone and the fruit on the tree is starting to shrivel up. Have been periodically watering it, but mostly backing off for fear of over-tending it. The branches on both trees are still flexible, so just hoping this has been a bad wet season and next year they'll both spring to life.
