Help saving this dying peach tree that was attacked by ants?

[Christina]

Hello,

 

Any ideas how to save this 4 year old peach tree? It’s about 10-12’ tall and 5-6’ wide. Never a problem before this.

 

Right when the tiniest buds began to appear 4-5 weeks ago, ants attacked it and the blooms stopped in their tracks. We got rid of the ants and used some fertilizer to try and rescue it.

 

Now, it looks like this (pic). It’s barely hanging on by a thread. I would really love to save this tree. We’re in zone 7a/b in the US.

 

Thank you for any help.

[Peasgood]

In UK if ants are on the tree it means there are aphids/greenfly. The ants feed off them rather than harm the tree.

Some insecticides can cause harm at certain times of year, sounds to me like the insecticide did the damage not the ants.

Not much you can do other than make sure it has enough water and hope for the best.

[Stubby]

I can see you have started pruning the heart out already ( as they do on orchard trees ) . Maybe that and killing the ants did it no favors ?  

[Christina]

 

5 hours ago, Stubby said:

I can see you have started pruning the heart out already ( as they do on orchard trees ) . Maybe that and killing the ants did it no favors ?  

We have not pruned it all at all. I don’t know what the “heart” is. Maybe it looks pruned because it’s dying?