Pruning peach trees

[Smiles Jr.]

I'm somewhat familiar with the importance of pruning grapevines as it has a major impact on fruit production but I have no experience with peach trees. I have 12 semi dwarf peach trees in the orchard (planted 6, 7, and 8 years ago) and their production has been very mixed from year to year. This past season several of the trees were so heavily laden with fruit that the branches almost touched the ground and have permanently bent the branches. I need to cut lots of branches this winter but I would like to go into it with some degree of knowledge about the dos and don'ts of peach tree pruning. Any advice would be appreciated. Happy New Year everybody.

 

[journey11]

My experience with peaches is that they don't grow as vigorously as apple trees do. You can chop off an apple limb and it will start a new one from a water sprout, but peaches won't do that. You want to prune peaches into a vase shape, opening up the middle to sunlight and air circulation and remove any branches that touch or overlap much. And prune out dead or diseased branches of course. Most of your pruning is done when the tree is young. After that you shouldn't have to prune much other than the damaged branches. If the scaffold limbs come out at a nice 45 degree angle, they should be good and strong and not break under a load of peaches. I heavily thin out my baby peaches too, leaving them a good fist's width apart.

 

[catjac1975]

I'm somewhat familiar with the importance of pruning grapevines as it has a major impact on fruit production but I have no experience with peach trees. I have 12 semi dwarf peach trees in the orchard (planted 6, 7, and 8 years ago) and their production has been very mixed from year to year. This past season several of the trees were so heavily laden with fruit that the branches almost touched the ground and have permanently bent the branches. I need to cut lots of branches this winter but I would like to go into it with some degree of knowledge about the dos and don'ts of peach tree pruning. Any advice would be appreciated. Happy New Year everybody.

The rule of thumb for overgrown fruit trees is don't cut more than 1/3 of the overgrowth at a time.

 

[Smiles Jr.]

@journey11 - Can you explain what you mean by "vase shape". I've seen many different shaped vases.
@catjac1975 - I usually use the "not more than 1/3" rule too.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I remembered reading when you prune peach trees is important but couldn't remember why. So I went to Google. My memory was that winter pruning opens them to a certain disease but I was wrong. Pruning when it is cold or a cold spell is coming opens then up to freeze damage. If you have a warm spell following pruning, it helps them break dormancy, maybe too early. The best time to prune is a couple of weeks before they are going to break dormancy and bloom anyway. It's better to be a little late as opposed to a little early. Thanks for this question, it made me look up why timing of pruning peach trees is important.

Peaches bear on last year's growth. So you need to prune enough to encourage new growth and open it up for air circulation and maybe sunlight, but leave some of last year's growth to bear fruit this year.

Like Journey, I thin out a lot of the young peaches that set on, apples too, to help stop the branches from being overloaded and breaking. That helps the ones remaining get bigger too. I regularly fill a 4 gallon bucket with those small peaches and apples and put them in my compost.

 

[journey11]

There is no central leader. The scaffold branches all fan out with an open middle. You'll find a diagram here: http://extension.missouri.edu/p/G6030

@Ridgerunner , I never knew that about the timing, good tip! Nothing worse than having all your blooms zapped by a late freeze, especially if it could have been prevented.

 

[Smiles Jr.]

@journey11 - Thanks for the great link. I downloaded the PDF version and read every word in the document. I see what you meant by using the word "vase".

 

[ga.Karen]

The main thing that can impact peach production is "chill hours". Be sure when you buy trees that they match the average chill hours in your area....if I remember correctly...that is number of hours below 45º for the best production.

 

[ducks4you]

I have to prune me (newish) young peach tree this year. I would have gotten a good harvest last year but we had a late frost and the lower blossoms were frosted off. Still, DH spotted 8 peaches in August and they were huge and perfect. They were high enough that I had to use my apple picker to get them from the tree. MY problem is that I planted it 4 years ago and it only has two leaders, so I'll have to go with those. It is about 12 foot tall, so I need to get it shorter. I had also read and been told that you have to be prudent about what you cut bc they don't reproduce limbs. I have been told that apple trees can be hacked and come back vigorously.

 

[thistlebloom]

Actually no tree can be hacked. If large enough branches are cut leaving big wounds you'll see a decline in the tree with rot or death in under 5 years. Trees don't "heal" cuts. They close off and compartmentalize wounds. Some species of trees are just more forgiving than others