That’s the thing about gardening: it’s art. And like all art, the best measure of quality is how well it fulfills the artist’s desires and goals.
I think you’re absolutely right, Erin. 
Wax philosophical all you want!
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I have discovered that my soil (pretty as it might be!) is very low in phosphorus. All the baby trees are turning red or purple.
Still, I have one almond that is thriving, lots of peaches, and a handful of apricots that are hanging in there. Surprisingly, so far the cherries don’t seem to care.
I have two more cherries to go in the ground, two more peaches, another apricot, two more plums and two more almonds.
Is turning red or purple a sign of phosphorus deficiency? I’ve noticed that with some of my plants, too. Especially young plants in the Rosaceae family.
Sometimes there can be plenty of phosphorous in the soil, but the soil is cold and the plants can’t uptake it (P microbes are sleeping?). I don’t know about trees, but that happens most obviously in legumes.
P deficiency looks a little different than cold stress-- purpling on the leaf tips, but cold stress is more uniform purple, as far as I understand it.
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Can purpling all over also be a sign of other stress? Such as drought stress or being too crowded? I ask because my sweet potato and oca slips got pretty purple indoors before I planted them out. They definitely weren’t cold, but they were very crowded.
I’m sure a human answer is what you’re looking for, but I got a chat gpt answer for you, and crowding could cause all the things like water + nutrient stress 
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Water Stress: When plants experience water stress, they may develop purple or reddish leaves. This is because water stress can cause the plant to produce more anthocyanin pigments, which can help protect the plant’s leaves from excess light.
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Nutrient Imbalances: Other nutrient imbalances besides phosphorus deficiency can also cause purple coloration in plants. For example, an excess of potassium or a deficiency of nitrogen can lead to purpling in some plant species.
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Light Stress: Excess light can also cause purpling in plants, particularly in the leaves that are exposed to direct sunlight. This is because the anthocyanin pigments can help protect the plant from damage caused by excess light and UV radiation.
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Insect or Disease Damage: In some cases, purpling in veggie plants can be a sign of insect or disease damage. For example, aphids or other sap-sucking insects can cause purple or reddish discoloration on the leaves of plants.
There we go! So it probably is the water stress, and/or nutrient imbalances, and/or light stress. Good to narrow it down! 
And then there are the naturally purple pigmented plants that are just fine and happy! For example purple stems on potato seedlings are a sign of purple tubers
Generally, yes. The oldest leaves will show it first. A deficiency of nitrogen can also lead to phosphorus deficiency. If the new leaves show it first, it’s probably not phosphorus.
Okay, cool! So if the older leaves are turning purple, and the new ones are green, that’s a possible indication that they need more fertilizer? Sounds like a great thing to watch for.
What are natural, easy-to-source phosphorus sources? Potassium too, for that matter? Nitrogen’s easy, since that’s mostly what urine is, and calcium’s easy because I just grind up eggshells, but phosphorus and potassium stymie me. I don’t want to buy things. I want to do long-term sustainable things.
For phosphorus I use an almond shell ferment. That stuff is STRONG. I ended up using just the tip of a dropper in a 5 gallon bucket, and it was enough to see immediate results.
For potassium and calcium I use ash, but be careful of the PH.
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That’s right, wood ash is alkalyzing, right? I seem to recall it has been traditionally used as a source of lye for soap-making. What about leftover charcoal after a campfire? Is that alkalyzing, as well?
Almond shells would be a great source if I bought (or grew) still-in-the-shell almonds to eat! More’s the pity, I’m allergic to tree nuts. Is hard woody material in general a good source for phosphorus? If so, dead branches and wood chips may be good phosphorus sources already.
Come to think of it . . . (checks Google). Hey, Google says autumn leaves are a good source of phosphorus! Cool! So most of the mulch I collect is a good phosphorus source. That’s great!
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When I use ash I soak in a vinegar solution until it stops foaming. I am also using only a tiny amount.
For anyone in the southwest here’s something I found interesting:
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@rylan i think this story is incredible! Are there ways that this community can amplify efforts like this? Does anyone know of similar stories like this, of protecting and expanding older regional foods, in partnership with supporting the efforts of indigenous people in these capacities? Just this weekend i came across the sioux chef indigenous foods, in the dakotas and minnesota. I also know the native seed search has done massive amounts of work with native crops in the southwest as well. Personally i am in the northeast, and would be very eager to learn of any similar efforts in my region. Maybe this topic is worth its own thread, but im curious about all projects like this.
I’m not sure. I thought when I posted that someone might tell me it had already been posted and everyone here already knew about it except me. I thought it was great though so I did it anyway.
I think experimental farm network has some stuff from the northeast. I don’t know about fruit trees though.
I think great fruit trees are probably harder to find because they outlast peoples memories so you have to go searching on your own to find a gem in somebody’s yard or an old homeplace or something.
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I did some research and found the self pollinating fruit trees like peaches don’t have much genetic diversity between them in commercial varieties. This is of particular interest to me because here in the Southeast the pests and diseases push many fruits into the LSU described “high maintenance” category and make it impossible to grow stone fruits like peaches without chemical sprays.
And the modern breeding approach is to turn self infertile trees into self fertile varieties. There’s a push with self fertile almonds for example. Of course, this will make it much easier for the modern breeders to do their single gene selection and whatever, but for the long term survival of the species in America it could be a death nail by losing a majority of the gene pool.
Floyd Zaiger of Zaiger genetics performed a bunch of interesting stone fruit crosses that could potentially allow the adaptability of stone fruits to survive better. He crossed plums, apricots, cherries, peaches, nectarines and who knows what else, to each other. Labeled “interspecific crosses”.
Anyone wanting to add genetic diversity to your fruit trees could pick up one of these crosses and probably gain more genetic variability than crossing a bunch of commercial varieties. Some of you apricot growers could pick up one of the plum/apricot crosses he made.
I believe that an ambitious man could piggy back off the work of Zaiger and breed new American adapted stone fruit that will last 1000 years from now. I envision a peach type species containing genes from each of the crossable stone fruits and ideally (is it possible?) recovering self infertility through almond genetics (inspiration Joseph Lofthouse).
A second stone fruit species, plum-like, containing however many of the species. Maybe just plum cherry and apricot. Of course with maintained self infertility like plum already has.
Or alternatively, maybe a single stone fruit species with as much genetic variability available is better, and still self-infertile. I’m not sure, there’s lots of details that would have to be discovered with experience and time, but there is lot here to consider. For many of you, this project might seem ridiculous but from my perspective where I live peaches look like they are on the verge of extinction. There is a nearby town that used to be a large peach producer but now is on the verge of producing nothing at all due to disease wiping out orchards, even with chemicals applied the trees die.
Someone please poke holes in this wild theory. It is such a wild dream I think I might have lost my mind. I just want to grow peaches without chemicals.
Here’s an interesting article about peaches in the United States:
You may consider asking the indigenous people in your area if they have a traditional peach landrace. If so, you could ask if they’d be willing to share some of their seeds with you. They may be willing to do so.
If you pay attention to the local ecosystem, you might find feral peaches growing in odd places. Along a roadway, near a ditch, in the woods.
Those would definitely be a great idea to harvest seeds from. Or, if you don’t like the taste, pollen – you could always pollinate a domesticated peach variety you love with that pollen and see what the seeds give you.