Alan:

Three years may not be old enough to set and hold peaches, especially if you are counting the current season as year 3. As someone will no doubt point out, trees will occasionally bear that early, but most will not. None of mine ever have, and I figure to wait until year 5 for real peaches, with maybe a sprinkling in year 4. If any of your peaches at all hold on the tree you are doing quite well.

There could be other causes, such as inadequate pollination due to rainy weather at a critical pollination time, but this is not so likely. A bearing peach tree usually must be thinned heavily.

There should be no need to fertilize a peach tree in average soil, whether it is spray or anything else. This is not to say I think the fertilizer spray did any harm; it might have and it might not. The point is there is no need, so why use it?

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Guess I'm surprised that Don didn't mention the possibility of insect damage. Isn't that the most likely cause of fruit drop on a peach? I'm not the expert here, Don is but I'd think about plum curculio or Oriental fruit moth.

For what it's worth, my peaches bear fruit the second leaf in the greenhouse and the third outside.

The Fruitnut

Don,
Thanks so much for the ideas. I think you are quite right about the age. And I had rain almost daily for the entire bloom. So, a little more patience may be the cure here.
Fruitnut, sorry I didn't mention that I had no sign of insects at all and I sprayed insecticide every 10 days.
I think the trees just may be too young and a lot of rain during pollination time may have contributed.
I won't be fertalizing much in the future either. I really want to learn how to grow good peaches.
Thanks again.

I agree that it is probably too soon to tell, but two other factors to consider. Inadequate winter chill sometimes will allow fruit to form but drop before much development. Too much nitrogen in you feeding program may encourage new growth to the expense of aborting fruit.