Peach
Prunus persica
Self-fertile and quick to bear, but the flowers open early enough to be caught by a late frost.
Late frost is the defining risk
Peaches bloom early - often the earliest tree fruit - and a hard frost at bloom costs the entire year's crop. Plant on a slope where cold air drains away, or on a north-facing aspect where the tree warms up later and blooms after the worst frost risk has passed. Never plant in a frost pocket at the bottom of a hill.
Self-fertile and fast
Unlike apples and pears, most peaches need no pollination partner, and they fruit in two to four years. That makes a single tree a realistic proposition. They are also comparatively short-lived - expect twelve to twenty productive years, not fifty.
Prune hard every single year
Peaches fruit only on wood grown the previous season. If you do not prune, the fruiting zone marches outward and upward and the interior goes bare. Remove roughly 40% of last season's growth each late winter, maintaining an open-centre vase shape with three or four main scaffolds and nothing in the middle. This is far more aggressive pruning than an apple needs and it is not optional.
Thin to a hand-width
Thin fruit to six to eight inches apart in late spring after natural drop. Unthinned peaches are small and mediocre, and the weight regularly snaps branches. This is the second most important job after pruning.
Peach leaf curl
Distorted, thickened, red-puckered leaves in spring, caused by a fungus that infects buds during cool wet weather before they open. Once you see it, it is too late for that season. Control is a single dormant copper or lime-sulfur spray in late winter before buds swell - one well-timed application is highly effective.
Borers
Peachtree borer is the most common killer of backyard peaches. Look for gummy sawdust-flecked ooze at the base of the trunk. Keep the trunk base clear of mulch and weeds, avoid mower and trimmer damage, and check the collar every few weeks in summer; the larvae can be dug out with a wire.
Brown rot and other diseases
Brown rot turns ripening fruit into fuzzy grey mummies almost overnight in humid weather. Remove and destroy every mummified fruit from tree and ground - they are the source of next year's infection. Thin for airflow, and choose resistant varieties. Bacterial spot causes shot-holes in leaves and pitted fruit.
Harvest
Ripe when the background colour shifts from green to yellow or cream, the flesh gives slightly to gentle pressure at the shoulder, and the fruit smells like a peach. Colour blush is variety-dependent and not a ripeness indicator. They ripen over a couple of weeks, so pick over the tree repeatedly.
Storage
Peaches keep only days once ripe. Slightly firm fruit finishes on the counter. They freeze well sliced with a little lemon and sugar, and can well - which is the traditional answer to a tree that ripens all at once.
- Hardiness
- Zone 5-8
- First fruit
- Year 2-4
- Spacing
- 15-20 ft
- Sun
- Full
- pH
- 6.0-6.5
- Pollination
- Self-fertile
- Chill hours
- 600-900
- Life
- 12-20 yrs