Abundant Peach Harvest - Four Year Old Trees

Peaches are the most delicious fruit I grow in my food forest. The amazing flavor of sun ripened peaches is so delectable and juicy. Once you start to devour them, their sweet juice will drip from your chin and there is nothing you can do to stop it. This is how my husband and I celebrate the arrival of Summer. Peaches purchased in stores are picked too early. Of course this has to be the case as they are shipped from distant places and need time for their customers to show up. However, harvesting early means the fruit is extra firm and on the sour side. So basically, the majority of store bought peaces are not as flavorful as they could be. This means they will never have the flavor of a fully mature, tree ripened peach. The only way to experience this is to grow your own peach trees, or know someone that does.

Tips for Growing Peach Trees at Home

Peaches get a bad reputation for being difficult to grow, but with a few tips, you can grow wonderful peaches at home as well. Out of all the fruit trees in my home orchard, peach trees are perhaps the most demanding in their pruning needs. They are also more susceptible to pests and diseases, so don't plant more trees than what you can care for or your harvest can be disappointing. Take it slow. Grow two at first, then add another the following year. Get familiar with a tree or two before even thinking about an orchard. And don't worry, a few years goes by rapidly when you are building and filling in your food forest. Nothing worse than turning something fun and beneficial into a disappointing and overwhelming chore. Keep in mind peach trees are not as long lived as say apple trees. They typically only live 10 to 20 years. But (in my opinion) the tree ripened peaches are so amazingly incredible that it is absolutely worth the trouble and risk to grow your own.

• There are many varieties of peaches with all sorts of varying tastes and textures. The most important part of growing peach trees successfully is to pick the right cultivar for your geographic region. Most peach cultivars are self fertile and suited for zone 5 to 8. However, they will grow better in the warmer zones (7-8). Peach trees' flower buds and blooms are very susceptible to late frost. If late frost damages the blossoms, you run the risk of not having peaches that year.
• Peaches require early Summer heat to fully ripen. Select a low-chill variety the further South you are.
• Peach trees are fussy about the soil they eat from. They should be planted in well drained soil. They will not tolerate cold or heavy/clay soil. So, don't plant peach trees in low areas that hold water or might be more prone to a late Spring freeze .
• Peach trees require more nitrogen than most other fruit trees to produce well. Don't go overboard though, or you will be growing peach tree leaves and not peaches. Peach trees are naturally very vigorous and grow faster than you can keep up with, at least until you become familiar with their needs. I don't use any store bought fertilizer on my peach trees. I only give them my own comfrey fertilizer in early Spring and a layer of worm casting in the Fall. I also chop and drop comfrey leaves to use as mulch. Don't fertilize a peach tree too often or you will get a weak tree that grows too fast. The limbs will break easily with the weight of the maturing fruit and will be more susceptible to insect damages.
• Prune heavily once peach trees start to bear fruit. It's best to prune them to have an open center. This allows the fruit to get a more equal dose of sunlight and airflow.
• Peach trees will set excessive fruit. It is the responsibility of the growers to thin fruit about 6 weeks after bloom.
• Check peach trees for pests and diseases throughout the entire growing season.

My Story

I am going to tell you what I have observed with my own peach trees. This post is also for my own record, so it includes dates that are only relevant to my food forest.

Abundant Peach Harvest

This is the second year that my two, four-year old peach trees have produce abundant fruit for me. The two producing varieties in my food forest are Redhaven & Early Elberta. Knowing peach trees are not long lived (10 - 20 years), my strategy is to plant a new peach tree every few years. I planted the "Loring " variety this year, but this tree is still too young to produce. With more varieties of peach trees planted, hopefully I can extend the peach harvest time since each variety matures at different times.

Delayed Harvest

Last year, we harvested the majority of our peaches on June 2nd and most of them were fully ripened. This year the story is very different. By the first week of June, both trees started to put off that wonderful peach smell. Every time when I walked under them, I just wanted to take a big bite out of the peaches ripe or not. We started a small first harvest on June 12th. We just couldn't wait any longer, lol, and it was still too early. So we put them inside a paper bag to ripen some more.

Birds and other insects discovered the peaches in early June when the aroma of peaches started to blow in the wind. We found the first, bird pecked peach, on June 6th. At that point we decided to put up some scare tape as shown in pictures below. The tape has been very effective against birds. Sunlight is sharply reflected from the tape. As the tape spins in the wind, it creates dancing points of bright and distracting light that disco ball your entire growing area. The constant reflection on a bright, sunny day has definitely kept the birds away. the tape will be removed and used only as trees or plants become affected by birds. I am thinking the birds will get accustomed to the tape and simply ignore it. That's why it will only be used as needed. We continue to harvest every couple of days as more peaches ripen by the Summer heat.

As of June 22nd, most of the Redhaven peaches are ripe and have been harvested. More than half of the Early Elberta peaches are still on the tree. They are gaining size and getting softer. We harvested the rest of the peaches on June 25th. Don't go on a vacation during peach harvest time. If you blink, you might miss the peak harvest time. This year, I am harvesting peaches two, to almost four weeks later than last year. A note to self, clear my schedule for the entire month of June. Apparently, peach harvest time in my food forest is anytime between early June to late June.

Notes

Here are some observations of mine this year:

• Leave the insect or bird damaged peaches where they are. Insects seem to continue to eat the damaged fruit until they are all gone. Insects damage more fruit when I remove the damaged fruit from the tree or on the ground.
• We had a severe drought this Spring. I think I made the mistake of not watering the fruit trees at all until three weeks ago. I don't like to water my established fruit trees, but this year, the drought has been quite bad. I think if I would have given them a good watering a couple of times, the peaches would have been larger, even though I am not complaining about the harvest.
• Need to thin A LOT MORE fruit next year. Thin more fruit. Thin more fruit. I am hoping to drive that point in my head. I can really see why thinning peaches is so important. These trees can literally crack the whole limb under the weight of all the fruit. Peaches gain a lot of size at the end just prior to harvest. Even though I already witnessed this fact last year, I clearly still did not thin enough. I have limbs touching the ground from the weight of maturing peaches this year as well. Properly thinned tree will also produce larger fruit.

Solstice Prune Fruit Trees

Regular pruning is the best way to control the size of fruit trees. Now that most of my peaches are harvested from the trees. I will be doing a Summer pruning to keep the size of my peach trees small. This will hopefully put all peaches within my reach as I am standing on the ground. I practice the same pruning technique for all my fruit trees to keep the size of my trees manageable. Last year I did this on June 21st. This year I will be doing the pruning on June 30th.

All photos come from my food forest
Photo copyright: @thelaundrylady

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