Question

dwaft peach   My dwarf peach tree seems to have died over the last year, but it had started growing small branches off the very bottom and off of the root possibly. The main trunk/plants older branches have a green mold on the and look dry. Do you know what's happening to it?

Answer
Hi Kee, what happened to the main tree is open to all kinds of speculation, I would need to have a lot more info to even attempt to unravel why it has declined, that said, the growth you see from the bottom is from what is called the rootstock, when they grow desirable fruit trees, they graft the desirable variety onto a hardy, problem free variety, that is not the best fruit, but is very durable,,,,so grafting the desirable one onto the hardy one , gives you the best of both worlds, again, in this case the desirable one succomed to something, but the rootstock is trying to grow from the ground. My advice is to allow the rootstock to establish itself, cut back the crown of the dead "desirable one" and see what transpires from the "hardy" one. Nick