Possible Disease Issue

Hey there, I’m in East TN, 7a w/ a food forest style garden and it’s been a rough year! I haven’t tended much to the garden at all this year so it’s gotten a little out of hand and one thing I’ve noticed is a lot of plants look like the ones in these photos, dried or covered in black sections. A lot of things seem to completely defoliate afterwards also, like our honeyberries,  currants and some of the fruit trees also. I’m not sure if it was just because of a period of drought or if I have some kinda disease spreading all over, which is potentially everywhere because I’m a big chop and dropper. I hope if it’s a disease there’s some sort of non spray remedy. Maybe starting to think our area might not be great for fruit trees. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Looks to me like a typical end of the growing season. Lots of nearly spent leaves, just about done with their duties and ready for retirement. Given the tough summer you had, this isn't surprising. It's all part of the cycle...we don't look as fresh toward the end of a journey as we did setting out, either.

I'm not sure, but is it possible you have an infection of spider mite? A web search indicates they may have been an issue on some industrial crops this year in Tennessee.
Spider mites are little sap sucking creatures (related to spiders and ticks I believe) They like hot dry weather. In the UK they are most likely to be a problem in a greenhouse or polytunnel, but if your weather has been a bit hot and dry, then maybe they have multiplied with you. They burst the cells on leaves leaving them looking yellow and sick. Sometimes you can see fine webbing on the plants, particularly around the growing tiips.
Hopefully their natural predators (a sort of parasitic wasp amongst others) will increase to match and next year you will have fewer issues with them. Spraying around the plants to increase humidity (which is recommended in greenhouses) won't have much effect in the great outdoors I suspect, but next year they may not be so much of a problem depending on the weather (and predator population). I wouldn't worry too much about it for this year now.

Unless you are growing fruits that grow well here you will probably have to be on a pet and desease spray schedule. I removed my apple trees years ago because I hate spraying.  Honey berries are barely hanging on.  They prefer cooler weather.  It has taken over 10 years of me thinking I can grow anything here to realize I can't.   Now I grow 9 varieties of figs,  3 varieties of jujube, 2 pawpaw, etc.  I did enjoying all the years of figuring it out.  

Diane Colboch wrote:Unless you are growing fruits that grow well here you will probably have to be on a pet and desease spray schedule. I removed my apple trees years ago because I hate spraying.  Honey berries are barely hanging on.  They prefer cooler weather.  It has taken over 10 years of me thinking I can grow anything here to realize I can't.   Now I grow 9 varieties of figs,  3 varieties of jujube, 2 pawpaw, etc.  I did enjoying all the years of figuring it out.  

Yeah I think I’m still in that process now. Unfortunately I’ve some five year old fruit trees like peach, plum and cherry that I don’t think I’ll ever see fruit because of our late frosts. Do you have any cultivars of fig or jujube that you recommend?? Or really any other fruit trees that do well in our area. Currently I have a brown turkey fig, few pawpaws, and a Russian pomegranate that seems to do pretty well here.

These figs grow well for me:  Negronne, Kadota and Alma.  I  think any variety of Pawpaw will do well.  I have two of the Peterson's varieties of Pawpaw.  I  have three varieties of jujube and they grow well here.   If I had known that I would like jujube fruit so well. I would have got varieties that produce larger fruit than the ones I chose.  What fruit trees grow well for me other than the ones listed above:  Mulbery, Che, ...lots of berry fruit and vine fruit.  I really love the hardy kiwi.  Lately I'm growing seedless mucadines.  I could go on and on.