Peach Tree Fungus issue.

[Soilsample]

Hello all new to this whole gardening thing. I’m located in East Tennessee and have a tree that the previous owner said was a Fruitless plum. It was covered in what looks like Lichen so I really didn’t bother with it until this summer it sprouted Peaches!! So now I am interested in saving this tree and would love some insight into what I need to do. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Chuck]

Good news and bad news. It is lichen and lichen is harmless to the tree. But lichen is also a sign that the tree is in decline. Peaches are fairly short-lived trees to begin with. A 15 year old peach tree is OLD. It looks like most of the tree is already dead. Get a sharp knife and scrape away the lichen and the first layer of bark on different parts of the tree. If it does NOT show a greenish color it is dead. You can remove the lichen with copper sulfate but ONLY during hot weather. The first thing I would do to help the tree is remove all those rocks and weeds and everything else from around the base of the tree and expose the root flare. Then fertilize it and apply SuperThrive per directions.

 

[Soilsample]

Thanks for the help I will give it a try.