[DampPatch]

Hi, I wondered if anybody had any ideas what could be wrong with my nectarine tree.

I have a 2-3 year old nectarine tree in the garden growing against a wooden fence. No fruit from it yet. It has grown to 7-8 ft tall.

In the spring it grew really quickly and healthily, gained lots of height and new branches. In late spring I noticed a few signs of fungal leaf curl on some of the leaves, although most still appeared healthy. I picked off the few unhealthy leaves.

About a month ago nearly all the leaves from the top half of the tree dropped off overnight. These were all healthy, green leaves, not affected by leaf curl. We had a dry spell followed by heavy rain so I wondered if the rain had knocked the leaves off? The top half of the tree is now bare, all that lovely growth from the spring has been destroyed. The bottom half of the tree still has all it's leaves and appears relatively healthy.

does anybody have an idea what could be wrong? Is there anything I can do to ensure it survives. I was wondering if I should cut off the bare top 3-4 feet so it can re-grow from the healthy looking bottom 3-4 feet?

Thanks in anticipation

Tom,

Devon

[sunshineband]

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=79628.msg894556;topicseen#new


If you are going to prune it then you need to do so before September really.

This article has a really useful pruning diagram twoards the end, which might help.

Nectatarines love sun but it seems unlikely rain has knocked all the leaves off. I'm thinking caterpillars 

[DampPatch]

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=79628.msg894556;topicseen#new
This article has a really useful pruning diagram twoards the end, which might help.

Thanks sunshineband, however I couldn't find anything relevant on that link. Is that the right one?

Cheers,

Tom

[gobs]

Check out peach leaf curl, then you can compare against photos.

[sunshineband]

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=79628.msg894556;topicseen#new
This article has a really useful pruning diagram twoards the end, which might help.

Thanks sunshineband, however I couldn't find anything relevant on that link. Is that the right one?

Cheers,

Tom

http://www.pots2plots.com/Fruit/Growing%20Nectarines.htm

Sorry, don't know how that happened!!

Try this one!

[DampPatch]

Thanks for the replies

Sunshineband: Thanks for the very useful and detailed link. I couldn't see any sign of caterpillars.

Gobs: The tree did have a small amount of leaf curl but would that explain all the healthy, non-affected, leaves dropping off the top half of the tree in one go (literally overnight)?

[sunshineband]

Peach leaf curl mainly affects new leaves and shoots.

Did the leaves turn reddish before they fell off - if no, then plc is unlikely. I htink you said they were green)

Your idea of pruning the tree to make it more manageable sounds good --- nectarines like plenty of warmth and the fence offers good protection.

[gobs]

Thanks for the replies

Sunshineband: Thanks for the very useful and detailed link. I couldn't see any sign of caterpillars.

Gobs: The tree did have a small amount of leaf curl but would that explain all the healthy, non-affected, leaves dropping off the top half of the tree in one go (literally overnight)?

Yes, it does come with barrennes. As Sunshine says, if you haven't had any redness with it, you are lucky to think of drought. However, once you have a nectarine, it's worth to be familiar with all details of this disease.

On the other hand, one can lose a young tree to drought too. without leaves, it's getting into trouble. Copious amounts of daily watering I would advise.