Peaches are delicious and healthy. Thanks to new breeds, you can even grow a peach tree in our latitudes. It doesn’t always work, but it does happen quite often. The problem is not to cultivate the tree, but rather that you can harvest ripe fruit. It’s not easy to keep a peach tree, but it’s not impossible either, unless you live in the mountains or in a really cold or drafty corner of Germany.
Table of Contents
Selection of the tree
When choosing a tree, it is important to ensure that you choose a very healthy variety, or even better, one that is largely resistant to certain peach diseases. There are a lot of them and the more you can exclude, the better the chances of success. However, there is no such thing as 100 percent protection.
The peach tree is one of the most popular fruit trees. This is surely not only due to the delicious fruits, but also to its great flower arrangement so early in the year. It’s a bit challenging, but well worth the effort. The tree is usually offered as a bush tree with a fairly short trunk and a low crown. This has the advantage that you can get anywhere easily, even without a ladder. The fruits grow on the annual wood, in this case on the shoots that grew last year. Each of the long shoots fruit only once, every now and then in the second year individual, but not noteworthy flowers appear. In the third year nothing happens anymore, there are hardly any leaves growing. That’s why the cut is so important.
The peach is self-fruiting. So there is no need for a second tree.
Recommended varieties
It is important to have varieties that are largely resistant to the fungal diseases that occur quite frequently. For example, the frizz disease to select. Prunus persica
- ‘Benedicte’ – strong-growing tree, sufficiently bearing, quite resistant to curl disease, self-fertile, large fruit in yellow-green, light-colored flesh, juicy, ripe at the end of August
- ‘Kernechter vom Vorgebirge’ (‘Red Eichstädter’) – old variety, low susceptibility to curl disease, also for rougher areas, because it is very robust, self-fruiting, can also be grown from the core, sufficiently bearing, self-fertile, medium-sized fruit in green-yellow with red cheeks, white flesh, tart, ripening in early to mid-September
- ‘Revita’ – resistant variety, even quite good against curl disease, vigorous, self-fertile, large yellow-green fruit, creamy white flesh, juicy, very aromatic, sweet, ripening in mid to late August
The peach tree – care
The care of the peach tree is not that time-consuming. The tree needs an optimal location and a good plant substrate. To do this, it has to be protected a little in winter for the first one to two years. Watering is not laborious, because a lot of water is only required in the first year. Fertilizing is not complicated either. The only thing that takes a little trouble is cutting. But you only have to do that once a year. Since peach trees do not get very big, this is usually possible without any problems. You don’t even need a ladder. Thats all. You don’t have to take action against diseases and pests if you choose a healthy variety of tree or pull your peach from a core and not pamper it. However, you should also choose a resistant variety there.
location
The right location is one of the deciding factors for the tree to thrive. You have to choose carefully right from the start, because the tree probably doesn’t like transplanting. On the other hand, I have read that transplanting is good at a very young age because more roots are formed then. Trees that have been transplanted three times would be the strongest. Somehow that seems a bit logical, because every time you transplant roots are lost and the tree tries to compensate for this and produces roots. Since the crown and root should be about the same size, this is highly recommended. Everyone has to try it out for themselves.
- Sunny
- Sheltered from the wind
- If possible with a southerly orientation
- Protected from late frost, because the peach tree blossoms very early and if the blossoms freeze, there is no harvest.
- A lot of light is important. So there shouldn’t be any other tree or wall nearby that casts shadows
Plant substrate
If the plant substrate is right, plus the location and the peach variety, half the battle is in to harvest healthy and plentiful peaches. A well-drained and nutrient-rich substrate is important. The soil must not be too heavy, otherwise the tree can cope with a lot of garden soil. If necessary, they need to be improved a little.
- Nutrient-rich
- Permeable – moisture must be able to drain off easily
- Locker
- Not too heavy floors
- pH between 5 and 6
plant
It is planted like other fruit trees. The most important thing is the right location. You also have to be careful with the tree. The root should not be damaged.
- Plant in spring
- Young plants are at risk from frost, so planting in autumn is unfavorable. The tree must have grown to survive the winter
- Planting distance to the next tree, a wall or something similar is at least 4 meters
- It is ideal if the tree has 8 to 10 m² of space.
- The planting hole must be deep enough
- Mix in humus in the excavation for better rooting
- Bales must be sufficiently watered.
- Do not plant any deeper than the tree was in the container.
- Also, do not plant bales too deep!
- Fix with a stake
- Water well
A good way to cultivate peach trees is to grow them as an espalier fruit. If you still use a warm, south-facing wall as a background, the chances of success are even higher. The side shoots are arranged in a fan shape. A regular cut is important for the upbringing.
Watering and fertilizing
Watering is especially important in the year of planting. Later, after the trees have grown, they don’t need that much water. More water is needed in spring than in summer. Fertilizing is important, but with caution and not according to the motto, a lot helps a lot You are on the safe side if you have a soil analysis carried out. Then you know which fertilizer the soil is missing and where to add more. I would only use organic fertilizer, because you still want to eat the peaches and there shouldn’t be any chemicals in them.
- Watering in case of prolonged drought
- Freshly planted trees regularly need plenty of water before they can grow, i.e. for about the entire first summer.
- Peaches in planters need significantly more water than planted specimens. Pay attention to waterlogging!
- Otherwise the trees get along quite well without a lot of water.
- Too much water can actually be harmful during the final weeks of ripening. The taste of the fruit watered down.
- Fertilization is important
- Nitrogen is essential for many fruits
- Do not fertilize in the first year
- It is best to fertilize with a potassium fertilizer, but only until the end of July (mature)
- Alternatively, manure, horn shavings or a fruit tree fertilizer can be used.
To cut
Pruning is very important for the peach tree if it is to reliably bear fruit every year. Without a cut, the fruit yield drops rapidly. When pruning, one particular feature of the peach tree must be taken into account, the so-called true and false shoots. True shoots have rounded flower buds that are combined with one or two pointed leaf buds. False fruit shoots, on the other hand, also have round fruit shoots, but no leaf buds. The fruits form but fall off.
The crown of a peach tree must be compact, but not too dense. The fruits need sunshine to ripen and moisture must be able to dry off well.
- Must be cut back
- Must not be cut too early
- Thinning out if there is too much fruit hanging
- It is cut back in spring, shortly before flowering, so very early
- All dried up and diseased shoots are removed to keep the tree healthy.
- The classic taper cut is also essential.
- It is important that a balance is found between old and new urges.
- Therefore, remove at least three quarters of the fruit-bearing shoots from the previous year immediately after the harvest, or better in spring!
- All the rest are shortened to three buds. Only in this way can new fruit shoots develop.
- In all tailoring, care must always be taken to ensure that the crown looks evenly.
- False fruit shoots are removed or shortened to short stubs, each with only one or two leaf buds.
- Wooden shoots must also be cut out if they are not needed for the crown structure. These are shoots that neither blossom nor bear fruit. The best thing to do is to shorten it down to two eyes. So new fruit shoots can form.
A special cut is the so-called plate crown. It allows maximum incidence of sunlight. The cut is pretty simple. After three or four years of building the crown, you simply cut off the central drive above the highest flat side branch. This allows a lot of light and sun to reach the fruits.
Overwinter
Peach trees are usually hardy. The only problem is usually late frosts, which threaten the flowers, which appear very early on the shoots. The flowers must then be protected! Only young peach trees need winter protection.
- The ground should be covered with leaves or sticks.
- Wrap the trunk with fleece.
- Also wrap the crown with fleece or jute.
- Adult trees usually get by without winter protection. It is advisable, however, to protect the flowers with fleece, a blanket or something similar if late frost is announced.
Multiply
Purchased peach trees are grafted. Those who are familiar with the process can also refine a tree. Propagation of cuttings is also possible. Most hobby gardeners, however, pull a plant out of a core. The problem with this is that you never know which variety will emerge and what kind of special features the tree has. Resistance is also unclear or does not exist. The fruits of the wild varieties are usually smaller than those of the noble varieties, but they also taste very good. It is better to buy a small tree. Nonetheless, here is a tutorial on how to pull a tree out of a core. The actual seed is located inside the kernel. It is better to open the core, whereby you can also plant the core as a whole.
- The core has to be stratified, i.e. a cold spell is simulated
- Put the core in a layer of sand and earth in autumn.
- Moisten a little (slightly)
- Store in the basement or garage in a frost-free place, but in a cold and dark place
- The moisture opens the core.
- Plant the core in March or April, preferably outdoors, but as a precaution still in a container that is embedded in the ground.
- Observe and protect.
- If the size is right, sapling can easily be replanted and planted out.
Diseases and pests
Curl disease is the most common disease in peach trees. It is caused by a fungus that causes the leaves to curl. In the young, emerging leaves you can see that they swell up like bubbles. This is followed by curling and a whitish green to dark red discoloration. It’s actually mainly a visual flaw. At some point the leaves fall off and new ones sprout. Unfortunately, once the disease has broken out, it recurs every year without control and weakens the tree. So you should still do something about them. You can only fight it by spraying the entire tree. This has to be done very early in the year as soon as the buds swell, i.e. from late winter (January). Of course, it is also beneficial to remove the infected shoots.
Aphids are common pests. They should be combated because they spread viral diseases and they are much more harmful than lice. Rings of glue around the trunk are helpful as they prevent ants from nursing and tending to the lice. Rinse the lice yourself with targeted puffs of water. I would do without chemistry as long as possible and only use it in an absolute emergency.
Conclusion
Your own peaches from the garden are something completely different than bought ones. They are only picked when they are ripe. The peaches sold in stores are usually harvested well before they are ripe so that they can withstand transport. So they are never as tasty as those eaten fresh from the tree. That is something special. To be able to harvest this delicious fruit in Germany is absolutely possible. Such a fruit tree needs some maintenance, but not excessively. It has to be protected from late frost, which is mostly to blame when there is no harvest. Otherwise, the tree is quite easy to cultivate, especially if the location is right. If you have space, you should definitely give it a try.