GardenGap.com » Trees » How to Grow Peach Trees

How to Grow Peach Trees

The trees are about 12 feet high, like single-stemmed cordons, from which grow out one- and two-year-old lateral shoots.
In the case of the bush trees, it is probably better to leave the branches alone for the first year after planting, and then in the middle of April, i.e. seventeen months after planting, the bush should be cut back quite hard to just above four strong growing shoots.
When the main stem is growing well, the laterals are cut back, starting with those over 2 feet long. In later years, the two-year laterals are cut back to within an inch of the main stem or at their point of origin.
Having removed the strong one-year-old laterals, and all the twoyear-olds, the remaining short one-year-old laterals are thinned out so as to give even distribution of peaches over the whole length of the main stem. This usually means leaving, on a 12-feet-high tree, about thirty laterals, 1 feet to 15 inches long.
In the case of the fan-shaped trees against a wall, the pruning is far more complicated. I always tell students that they must bear in mind that the peach tree produces its flowers on last year's shortish wood growths. Thus the pruner must aim, in the first place, at furnishing the tree with equal-sized branches radiating evenly from the main stem. No branch should ever be allowed to grow vertically and no branch should ever be allowed to grow more strongly than another and, so to speak, thus rob the other branches of the sap they need.
Wires are provided, spaced 18 inches apart, trained against the wall or fence 4 inches away. The young growths are tied to these wires in position. A good specimen would be one which has oneyear-old growths about a foot long tied to the wires every 4 or 5 inches, in the space allotted to it. It helps greatly if special attention is paid to the trees in the summer. On the length of fruiting wood one can leave three laterals: one right at the base, one half-way up and one somewhere near the tip. The other side shoots that tend to develop in the axils of the leaves are pinched out with the thumb and forefinger as they appear. Then when the tree is pruned in the winter, the branch can be cut back to just above the lowest lateral, which then takes the place of its 'parent' and is in fact tied up in its place.