peach bears lots of fruit, but it never gets ripe

Question

I have several fruit trees in my backyard – cherry, Myers lemon and peach. The peach tree has produced lots of delicious fruit for two years. On the 3rd year, there were lots of peaches, but the fruit did not ripen. It stayed small, green and hard. Eventually it all fell off the tree. What are possible causes? If treatment is available, at what time of year should it occur?

Answer 1

It could be either lack of pollination or buttoning, which is insufficient chilling.

In regards to buttoning, the winter prior to the poor season, did you have an unusually warm winter? Without proper chilling, peaches cannot bring fruit to maturity. Different varieties need different amounts of chilling hours, so your may just not have gotten enough the year prior. The only fix for this is to hope that your winter was cold enough this year.

A lack of pollination will also cause this issue. When the flowers were on the tree, did you use a pesticide or was it very windy so that to keep the bees from getting to the tree? There may also have been a pollinator crisis in your area which greatly reduced the number of honey bees or other pollinators, which would have resulted in poor pollination. These articles will help with attracting and keeping pollinators in your garden:
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/beneficial/insect-pollination-process.htm
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/beneficial/creating-a-pollinator-garden.htm