Peach trees: Peach Trees: Planting, Growing, and Harvesting Peaches

What Makes Our Peach Trees the Best?

• Because they’re grown at home, they stay fresher and tastier – longer – than store-bought varieties.
• Our Peach Trees are proven to resist most insects and diseases, so you’ll get robust, organic peaches without the hard work.
• Our large variety of Peach Trees are grafted and grown from mature rootstock, so you’ll get bigger, better results.
• Fast shipment means that Peach Trees of your own, tailored to your landscape, are just a click away.

How to Plant Peach Trees

Peach Trees are perfect for both beginners and experts, especially because they’re easy to plant and maintain. Because we’ve been growing your Peach Trees (and nurturing them well), long before they arrive at your door, you’ll have fresh, healthful fruit faster.

• When? Spring is the best time to plant your Peach Tree.
• Where? Choose a location with full sun and well-draining soil, in a hole large enough to accommodate the entire root ball of your Peach Tree (typically twice as wide as the root ball and just as deep).
• How? Place your Peach Tree in a hole big enough to accommodate the entire root system, pack the soil tightly and water. It’s that simple.

How to Care for Peach Trees

Because we’ve grafted your tree from a specific mother variety, you can expect consistency and ease for the life of your Peach Tree. You’ll get the same delicious fruit, season after season.

How to Prune Peach Trees and More

It’s simple – we follow the four Ps: Planting, Pruning, Pollination, and Picking.

• Planting: Choose a sunny area to plant (usually the sunniest side of your house or building). After you’ve chosen the location, place your tree in a hole big enough to accommodate its entire root system, pack the soil tightly and water.
• Pruning: Prune your tree during winter or early spring to maintain its open center and encourage production. Remove any dead or broken branches, and to achieve the open center shape, prune so that the center section has only two or three main branches.
• Pollination: Our Peach Trees are self-fertile, but purchasing two or more Peach Trees ensures a larger harvest, longer growing season and more peach variety.
• Picking: Peaches on the top and outside of your tree will likely be ready to pick first. Peaches are fully ripe when there’s no green left on the skin and they come off with a slight twist.

How To Plant A Peach Tree

A peach is often defined as something attractive, exemplary, and delightful. There’s a good reason for this. Peaches (Prunus persica), native to Asia, are juicy, delicious, and uniquely tasty. However, peach tree care requires a commitment to learning how to grow peaches. Peach trees need a regular routine of feeding, pruning, and management of pests and disease.

How to Grow Peaches

Although growing peach trees can’t be taken lightly, it can be highly rewarding. Peaches provide Vitamins A and C as well as potassium and fiber. Fresh, frozen, dried, or canned peaches are one of nature’s true delights.

You need to first decide whether you want freestones (best for eating fresh) or clingstones (work well for canning). Peaches are self-fruitful, meaning that for pollination purposes you don’t need to plant more than one.

It’s a good idea to consult with your local university extension service about the best peach trees for your climate. There are literally hundreds of varieties, some being cold hardy to -10 degrees F. (-23 C.) and a few that are cold hardy to -20 degrees F. (-29 C.).

Select a site for your tree that will get full sun and won’t be shaded by other trees or buildings. Knowing that some peach trees can grow up to 20 feet (6 m. ) wide and 15 feet (5 m.) tall, choosing the best site for your tree is the first step. Most experts recommend planting peach trees in an area that’s a bit elevated, if possible, to ensure good air circulation.

Your peach tree’s soil should be well-drained and loamy. It will need to drain quickly during heavy rains. You may need to do some serious soil amending by digging in a lot of organic matter in advance. Peach trees cannot survive in waterlogged soil, so up to two feet (0.5 m.) of sandy, loamy, fertile topsoil works best, even if the subsoil contains a bit more clay. The best soil for peach trees is ideally in the 6.5 to 7.0 pH range.

How to Plant a Peach Tree

A dormant, bare-root peach tree should be planted in late winter. A container grown tree should go into the ground in spring. For bare root trees, soak the roots for six to twelve hours before planting.

Dig your planting hole a few inches (7.5 cm.) deeper than and twice as wide as the tree’s root ball or root system. If your tree is grafted, make sure the bud union is planted a couple inches (5 cm.) above the soil. If your tree is bare root, leave plenty of room for the roots to spread. Fill the hole half way with soil and water it well. When it drains, check to see if the tree is still positioned correctly, then fill the rest of the hole with soil.

Water again and mulch around the trunk. It’s a good idea to construct a 3- to 6-inch (7.5-15 cm.) berm of soil around the tree’s root zone to help contain water and mulch.

After planting, trim the tree back to 26 to 30 inches (66 to 76 cm.), removing its side branches. This will help your tree produce a better crop.

Care for Growing Peach Trees

Fertilize your peach tree in spring using one pound (0.5 kg.) of 10-10-10 fertilizer for new trees and an additional pound (0.5 kg.) each year until your tree is 10 feet (3 m.) high.

Plan to prune your peach tree each year in spring, making sure the center of the tree has a free flow of air and sunlight.

Pay close attention to your peach tree throughout the year to address any problems that may arise like peach leaf curl and browning, or diseases and pests. It takes some attentiveness and a bit of focus but growing a peach tree can be a gratifying and enjoyable project.

photos and descriptions of peach branches, fruits and flowers. Where do peaches grow? Belongs to the genus Plum, family Pink.

Peach origin: China.

Lighting: photophilous.

Soil: is suitable for all soil types as long as there is good drainage.

Watering: moderate.

Maximum tree height: 8 m.

Average life expectancy: 20-30 years.

Planting: seeds, grafting.

This is a deciduous fruit tree growing up to 8 m in height. The bark of the trunk and old branches is scaly, reddish-brown. Old branches are powerful, drooping, rough, young ones are thin, smooth. The buds are located 2 in the axils of the leaves. Small spikes form on the trunk and bark of wild species.

Leaves are long, narrowed towards the base, lanceolate, alternate, serrate along the edge, up to 18 cm long, glabrous, shiny. The leaf plate is dark green above, light below, sometimes with slight pubescence in places of veins.

How peach branches and flowers look like

Peach branches are prostrate, forming a wide spreading crown about 6 m in diameter. Peach flowers are single or paired, 2.5-3 cm in diameter, have a goblet shape, consist of 5 petals of red, pink and white shades. Ornamental varieties can be bright red, striped, terry. They bloom at the same time as the leaves or before them in early or mid-spring.

Peach flowers are shown in the photo below:

The duration of flowering is 10-12 days, in extreme heat or drought – 2-3 days.

The fruit is a round, flattened, flattened-round, semi-circular, oval, elongate-oval or ovoid drupe with a thin skin covered with down, 3-10 cm in diameter.

The color of the peach (photo above) varies depending on the variety from greenish-white to yellow-orange. The pulp is juicy, fragrant, sweet or sweet-sour taste. Its shade also depends on the variety, it can be white, yellow, orange, reddish. Inside contains a brown large, hard, furrowed, oval bone with a pointed apex. The stone makes up about 6% of the weight of the fetus. It is easily separated from the pulp, contains a bitter, sometimes sweet seed with the smell of almonds. The fruits ripen from July to September, depending on the variety. According to their weight, they are divided into small ones – weighing 60-90 g, medium – 91-150 g, large – 151-190 g, very large – 191-200 g. flowering times. Blooming peach resembles steppe almonds and looks very impressive during this period.

This culture is self-pollinating, therefore it has a high percentage of useful ovaries (20-60% of the total number of flowers).

Peach fruits and their photos

Unlike other fruit crops, a peach tree brings its first harvest 3-4 years after planting. Such precocity is facilitated by the formation of numerous generative buds on annual well-developed shoots. A warm climate, an abundance of sunlight and a sufficient amount of moisture favorably affect the formation of lateral shoots of the second and third order. The full formation of the tree occurs at 2-3 years of age, in subsequent years it begins to bear fruit. Gives good yields within 10-15 years. The yield depends on the size of the tree and general conditions. On average, one adult plant brings up to 50 kg of fruit.

On vigorous rootstocks such as cherry plum and apricot, garden peach reaches a height of 4.5 – 5 m, with a crown diameter of 4 m.

This crop is warm and light-loving, but can withstand short frosts. At a temperature of -20-25 ° C, leaf and flower buds, as well as the root system, are damaged. At a temperature of -30-32 ° C, the aerial part of the tree freezes completely. Sudden changes in temperature cause great harm to the plant. In order for the flower buds to begin to bloom, it needs an average daily temperature of 7-10 ° C.

The tree is undemanding to soil conditions, grows equally well on loamy, clayey, sandy, acidic soils.

Photos of peach can be seen in our gallery:

Photo gallery

Where the peach tree grows

Despite its name, this plant does not come from Persia, but from China, where this culture was known long before it came to and in Europe. Countries where peaches grow have a warm climate. In the wild, it is found in Northern and Central China, India, Afghanistan. Cultivated in Central Asia, the Caucasus, Ukraine, Moldova.

In nature, peach trees grow side by side, forming a dense row that does not let in light.

Peach fruit contains 80-90% water, sugar, pectins, carotene, vitamins, organic acids. The seeds contain fatty oils, essential and bitter almond oil. This fruit is rich in vitamin C, which makes it a valuable tool for the prevention of colds. The pulp contains a large amount of fiber, which improves digestion.

The palatability of the fruit depends on the variety or species. The pulp can fit snugly to the bone, or easily separate from it. It can be soft and juicy, or denser and medium juicy.

The peach is a fruit eaten fresh and processed. Widely used in cooking and confectionery. A valuable oil is obtained from the seeds, which is used for medicinal and cosmetic purposes.

The color of a ripe peach is shown in the photo

The color of ripe peaches is yellow-pink, the skin of the ripe fruit becomes soft and velvety to the touch. Harvested early fruits quickly deteriorate, wrinkle, lose their taste, and overripe quickly rot. For transportation and preservation, unripe hard peaches with a greenish skin are removed, 5-7 days earlier than their ripening.

Is a peach a fruit or a berry?

Not everyone knows whether a peach is a berry or a fruit. The fruit of this plant is rather related to fruits, since fruits are juicy fruits of shrubs and trees, formed from the ovary of flowers and containing one or more seeds inside. The berry, from the point of view of botany, is a small multi-seeded fruit of shrubs, semi-shrubs and herbaceous plants.

In China, the tree symbolizes longevity and immortality. Fruit is often included in the diet here, or is used instead of dessert. The peach flower is associated with eternal youth, spring, marriage, purity, purity. The Chinese god of longevity, Shu Lao, is depicted holding the fruit of this plant in his hands, or being inside it. The peach branch is used to decorate buildings during the Chinese New Year. In Japan, the fruit is a symbol of protection from harm.

The history of the peach tree dates back to China, where the plant has been known for about 3,000 years. The fruits of this tree were considered among the best, and stood on a par with apricots, chestnuts, plums, medlar. In ancient China, peaches were served at the table of emperors. Gradually, the plant spread to Persia, and soon, thanks to the campaigns of Alexander the Great, it came to Ancient Greece, where it was called the “Persian apple”. A few centuries later, Europeans began to cultivate it. In the 17-18 century. France became the leading country in the cultivation of this crop. This is where peaches and nectarines got their first names. In Russia, they began to be grown in the 16th century, but only in the southern regions.

Today peach is the 3rd largest planted area in Europe after apples and pears. In our country, it is less popular compared to such fruit crops as apple, pear, plum, cherry plum, apricot.

For thousands of years this plant has been associated with many legends, myths and superstitions. In ancient times, in the East, water was used to brew tea, which was glass from the petals of a peach flower after the spring snow melted. This water was considered the cleanest and healthiest.

In the Middle Ages, the French and the British began to obtain oil from peach seeds, which was used in medicine and cosmetology. They also made liqueurs.

When shopping for this fruit, you need to know what a good quality ripe peach looks like. Many people think that large fruits are tastier and juicier, but this opinion is not true with respect to peach, because the larger it is, the tougher it is. In order to determine the maturity of a peach, you should lightly squeeze it in the palm of your hand, while it should spring and emit a pleasant aroma. It is worth paying attention to the color of the fruit. The ripe fruit has a bright yellow or pale yellow surface with small areas of red or orange. The sweetest are the fruits with white and pink flesh. Yellow flesh is more fragrant. Green peaches are unripe, and although they are able to ripen once removed from the branch, they will not taste as sweet as when ripe on the tree.

You can also buy slightly bruised fruit, which is usually sweeter and juicier, as long as it does not have dark spots that indicate spoilage.

One of the surest signs of good taste is the delicate aroma of fruit.

Unripe fruits are stored in paper bags on the windowsill for 3 days. It is not recommended to keep them in a cool place and under direct sunlight. The softness and pleasant aroma of the peach will tell about the ripening of the peach. Ripe fruit is stored in the refrigerator for 5-7 days.

Photo gallery

Peach spray

24 Mar 2021

#Overview

In terms of taste, peach is in the top three, second only to orange and mango. However, in order to taste juicy and tender fruits, you will have to work hard. The peach tree is rather capricious in cultivation and requires constant care from gardeners. For normal fruiting, it must be regularly fed, and watered during the dry season. In addition, the peach is extremely sensitive to diseases and pests, so the tree must be processed at least five times per season. This is what we propose to talk about.

After reviewing today’s article, you will learn: when, with what and how to spray a peach in order to get a good harvest.

Optimum spraying times for peach trees

It is generally accepted that peach is successfully grown only in the southern regions of the country. In fact, this is not entirely true, since in recent decades many zoned varieties have appeared that are adapted to the climate of central Russia. Thanks to this, today peach orchards can be seen not only in the Crimea and the Krasnodar Territory, but also in the Moscow region.

It is important to note that the spraying time directly depends on the climate. If in the south the first treatment is carried out in March, then in central Russia the dates are shifted to the end of April or the beginning of May. In order not to be mistaken, you need to remember that spraying cannot be carried out at a temperature of less than +4 ºC.

• Spring. The beginning of the growing season is the main time for caring for a peach tree. In the spring, processing is performed at least three times. The main purpose of spraying is the destruction of fungal spores, as well as insect pests.
  1. The first procedure is carried out before the buds open. At the moment, copper sulphate-based products are used to combat fungi. Please note that at this stage it is highly not recommended to use preparations containing nitrogen, as this leads to premature awakening of the plant, which in turn leads to developmental failures and crop loss.
  2. The second peach treatment is performed on the rose bud. As a rule, by this time, pests come out of winter sleep and begin to actively feed, destroying young leaves. To combat insects, insecticides or complex preparations are used that can simultaneously destroy both pests and fungal diseases.
  3. The third spraying is at the end of flowering. This is the final stage of spring work, the main purpose of which is to consolidate the previously achieved results.
• Summer. Depending on the degree of damage to the trees, summer processing of the peach orchard is carried out once or twice. Spraying is carried out in two stages – first, drugs of one type are used, and then the second. Between the application of insecticides and fungicides should be at least 3-4 days. Attention! Any chemical treatment of the tree must be stopped three weeks before the fruit ripens.
• Autumn. Relatively warm weather and an abundance of moisture favor the reproduction of fungi. If the garden is not cultivated at the moment, peach trees will suffer from diseases in the spring, the fight against which will require serious effort and a considerable amount of time. Autumn spraying is carried out in two stages, using both fungicides and insecticides. Before the last processing of the season in the garden, it is necessary to carry out preparatory work, including collecting fallen leaves, cutting diseased or damaged branches, and covering the cuts with pitch.

Sprays

Peach trees suffer from both fungi and pests. That is why it is optimal to use complex preparations that cope well with two problems. It is also possible to carry out double processing with a difference of several days. The order of spraying in this case is unimportant. You can use fungicides first, and then insecticides, or apply drugs in reverse order.

To protect trees use:

• “Skor”, “Planriz”, “Trichodermin” and other fungicides designed to combat fungi.
• “Engio”, “Aktellik”, “Aktara” and a number of other insecticides that well destroy insect pests.

In addition to ready-made products for spraying peach trees, you can use solutions of urea and copper sulfate, as well as a diesel fuel emulsion. In addition, we must not forget that many insects do not tolerate strong odors. For example, tinctures of tobacco or garlic have long been successfully used to protect plants from aphids.

A few tips for handling peach trees

In order for spraying to be beneficial, it is not enough to choose the right drugs. It is equally important to properly process the trees.

1. Spraying is carried out on a clear, calm day. It is best to do this early in the morning or before sunset.
2. When processing, make sure that the solution gets on all surfaces of the tree, including the trunk, branches and leaves.
3. If it rains within two to three days after spraying, the procedure should be repeated when the weather is clear.
4. During the first treatment of the season, use a large-hole sprayer to get the maximum amount of solution onto the tree.
5. Protect yourself when working with chemicals, such as a respirator and rubber gloves.
6. The same drug should not be used more than two or three times in a row. Both insecticides and fungicides must be changed regularly so that insects and fungi do not have time to develop resistance to one or another agent.

We hope our peach tree care tips have been helpful. If you still have questions, we invite you to use the free consultation of the specialists of the Garden of Collectible Plants online store. To ask a question, fill out the form on the website or contact us by phone: +7(4722) 500-749.