I have a young peach tree (Durzano Eva's Pride variety, Prunus Persica)
that simply produces too much fruit. This causes each piece of fruit to
develop unsatisfactorily, as well as branch breakage. The tree is only
about 8-10' tall at this point, and I can modify fruit production by
pinching off blooms and small fruit, but as the tree grows, this will no
longer be an option.

Is the tree likely to moderate its fruit production as it matures? If not,
what can I do to reduce the number of fruits it wants to carry?

I am based in San Diego, Cal.

TIA

Sigurd
N 32° 48' 19
W 117° 14' 55

It will probably continue to produce that way for its lifetime. Easiest
way to reduce the load is to take peaches off while young. I stick my
fist in between two peaches and take off any in the middle or that or
closer together than that. My closed fist is about 4.5 inches wide so
that can give you a guide. This will also help to make larger fruit but
you would be well advised to talk to your county agent about
fertilizing, pruning, etc. I have a FloraGlo (developed by one of the
land grant universities in Floriday) that is about 15 feet tall at the
moment. It is about six years old and is covered with peaches about the
size of my thumb at the moment. I spent about an hour today on foot and
on a ladder thinning them out. It will be radically pruned again to
about 10 feet after it bears. My other fruit trees are dwarfs and I keep
them at 10 feet tall by pruning. HTH

George

Sigurd Kallhovde wrote:

I have a young peach tree (Durzano Eva's Pride variety, Prunus Persica)
that simply produces too much fruit. This causes each piece of fruit to
develop unsatisfactorily, as well as branch breakage. The tree is only
about 8-10' tall at this point, and I can modify fruit production by
pinching off blooms and small fruit, but as the tree grows, this will no
longer be an option.

Is the tree likely to moderate its fruit production as it matures? If not,
what can I do to reduce the number of fruits it wants to carry?

I am based in San Diego, Cal.

TIA

Sigurd
N 32° 48' 19
W 117° 14' 55

On Tue, 15 Apr 2003 23:19:03 GMT, "Sigurd Kallhovde"
wrote:

I have a young peach tree (Durzano Eva's Pride variety, Prunus Persica)
that simply produces too much fruit. This causes each piece of fruit to
develop unsatisfactorily, as well as branch breakage. The tree is only
about 8-10' tall at this point, and I can modify fruit production by
pinching off blooms and small fruit, but as the tree grows, this will no
longer be an option.

Why not?

Is the tree likely to moderate its fruit production as it matures? If not,
what can I do to reduce the number of fruits it wants to carry?

I am based in San Diego, Cal.

Hah! Memory lane. My late peach tree was the same. Bore so profusely I
had to thin hard. Yes, right through the life of the tree. Got good
at climbing up there and thinning.

You can't reduce fruiting, AFAIK, so get used to thinning, and be glad
the situation isn't the reverse.





--
Polar

"Sigurd Kallhovde" writes:
pinching off blooms and small fruit, but as the tree grows, this will no
longer be an option.

If it gets so high that you can't pick the top fruit, you might as well
cut that part of the tree off, now. You can delay the annual pruning
until the emerging flower buds (*) open, and prune to leave just
one pair on each new stick. Pinch any others off with your snips as you
prune. It is best when you are confident of reliable pollination by bees
of the [fewer] remaining flower buds.

I'd reckon it's better to thin out at the bud stage rather than let
the tree put energy into starting off a lot of fruit before you thin
them out, and it's easier, too, cause the tree is leafless at the
usual pruning stage.

If you are too softhearted to start, stand back and imagine two big
red juicy peaches dangling tantalizingly at every node where I recommend
that you leave just two (or three and then thin one later) flowers. You
may discover that you can count 50 or more fruit. That's stacks--when
they are going to be a good size.

Is the tree likely to moderate its fruit production as it matures? If not,
what can I do to reduce the number of fruits it wants to carry?

Be brave! Have faith! Trust me! :-)


(*) at the real early stage, some of us find it difficult to tell the
difference between buds that will turn into leaves, and those that
are destined to become flowers, so wait until they show their hand!
--
John Savage (newsgroup email invalid; keep news replies in newsgroup)

Speaking of peaches....or rather, typing of peaches.....
I have a dwarf peach tree, about 3 years old. It made fruit last year, but
it was tasteless and mealy.
How do you care for them to make the wonderful juicy peachs I desire?
I have nulched with compost and am giving small feedings of granualr
citrus/avocado food (haven't seen any peah food)
Thanks all,
Roz
az usa

" writes:
Speaking of peaches....or rather, typing of peaches.....
I have a dwarf peach tree, about 3 years old. It made fruit last year, but
it was tasteless and mealy.

The only description I can attach to "mealy" is very dry inside. Can't
say I've ever encountered such in peaches. I have with imported mangoes,
like a dry sponge, not a drop of juice. If it happened in a stonefruit,
I'd say it must have been growing in parched conditions without adequate
watering. You don't have it in a pot, do you? Or maybe the first crop off
a young tree is generally of rubbishy quality anyway? I really don't know,
because all of ours are gnarled old stalwarts!

How do you care for them to make the wonderful juicy peachs I desire?

Mostly neglect here, I confess. :-( I think good watering is important.
I prune them each year, but the soil is quite good and they get a handful
of blood and bone, something like complete citrus food once a year (okay,
we don't even think to do it that often!), and cow/horse manure.

I have nulched with compost and am giving small feedings of granualr
citrus/avocado food (haven't seen any peah food)

Sounds perfect. I think stonefruit do need to experience cold winters,
so do you get at least a few heavy frosts in Winter?

I'm sure the flavour of peaches (and nectarines) is genetic; if the fruit
turns out to be tasteless you can either (1) pick the fruit as it starts
to soften and stew it in sugar + water, or (2) dig the tree out and plant
another, or (3) keep it as a rootstock and get someone to graft sticks of
a better variety of peach onto it. No matter how tasteless a stonefruit
is, it *always* comes up trumps when stewed and served with ice cream or
custard. That's probably your best bet.
--
John Savage (news reply email invalid; keep news replies in newsgroup)