1st Year Nectarine Tree - From Bare Root Question

[thebigjoe1]

Hi all,

I am new to planting fruit trees. This past year i decided to get into planting fruit trees. The majority of my fruit trees are doing pretty well. This particular topic is about a bare root nectarine tree i planted about 6 weeks ago. When purchased, the buds were green, and i was very excited about its future. About two weeks after planting, you could see all the buds/shoots curling, shriveling, and later turning brown. This was happening from the top of the tree, slowly working its way down. I honestly thought the tree was dying. I performed the scratch test about 3 weeks ago and there was still green at the bottom of the tree. The very top though, had no green, and felt very dry and stiff. I decided to prune about 3 inches off the top, to hopefully help stimulate it. Eventually i did see new buds/shoots start from the bottom. Now here is the issue. The bottom third of the tree, seems to be alive and well (though its very odd how far down i am seeing growth compared to my other fruit trees). My question is, will the top also eventually come to life at any point? Should i prune more from the top? Is this tree a lost cause at this point? Please review the attached picture and let me know your thoughts.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Meadowlark]

Six weeks ago would be early May here in East Texas...don't know where you are located...but early May we were already experiencing 90 deg day time and above 70 deg night time temps... way too high for transplanting bare root trees.

Bare root trees have a much higher chance of success if planted during dormancy period. It is very stressful for them to survive in warm/hot weather without an established root system. My advise would be to keep it watered and hope for the best, but expectations shouldn't be high.

 

[Chuck]

What @Meadowlark said is correct. If you scratched the bark and see no greenish cambium layer the tree is dead from at least that point upward. If it were me I would try SuperThrive. From what I can see in the pictures you have new growth above the graft. Using SuperThrive will greatly help in growing more roots. And no, when a tree is dead it will not come back to life.

 

[thebigjoe1]

thanks for your replies. i figured as much. Is there any point to cutting it down to where there is green in a scratch test? would it grow normally, will it just die off with time? Im in NJ, so temps are not 90s in May, but generally in the 50-70 degree range. I thought i may have planted too late. I originally planted all my trees in april, but decided to expand a bit in may.

 

[Chuck]

thanks for your replies. i figured as much. Is there any point to cutting it down to where there is green in a scratch test? would it grow normally, will it just die off with time? Im in NJ, so temps are not 90s in May, but generally in the 50-70 degree range. I thought i may have planted to late. I originally planted all my trees in april, but decided to expand a bit in may.

It should grow normally, it just will not be near as tall and probably more of a bush than a tree. Don't forget the SuperThrive