Peaches are too small. How do I get good peaches?
- Thread starter BBBTree
- Start date
What investigation have you done?
What cultivar of peach?
What is your climate? Is it considered conducive to growing peaches?
Are the peaches bad every year?
What are the soils like?
What is the water content of the soils?
What cultural regimes are in place?
Provide a little info to go on. We know peaches are great some years and not others but that is not much of an answer.
What cultivar of peach?
What is your climate? Is it considered conducive to growing peaches?
Are the peaches bad every year?
What are the soils like?
What is the water content of the soils?
What cultural regimes are in place?
Provide a little info to go on. We know peaches are great some years and not others but that is not much of an answer.
Well, it looks like peaches are growing in 6-8 zones. We are in a 9-10 zone here. I'm not finding many testimonials online about successful peach growing in the San Diego region except for citrus growing. I've eaten a lot of good citrus around here. It sounds like the common practice is to remove the top layer, and replace it with fertile soil. Otherwise people are growing in raised garden boxes or just dumping a few feet of soil on the top of the native soil.
No evidence of peach cultivation for around here yet. If ya heard of it, post watchya know. Thanks.
No evidence of peach cultivation for around here yet. If ya heard of it, post watchya know. Thanks.
LOL, ya that's what I'm thinking right now. I'm still checking around online and so forth. Not sure if I'm going to go for the book though.
I did see some fruit trees in a pic growing in a little shed size green house as I'm studying people's Peach growing experiences. Small green houses? I might have a good seller there if folks can be sold on the idea of having ample Peaches and so forth immediately available in their back yard.
I did see some fruit trees in a pic growing in a little shed size green house as I'm studying people's Peach growing experiences. Small green houses? I might have a good seller there if folks can be sold on the idea of having ample Peaches and so forth immediately available in their back yard.
- Location
- Central MD
Do they remove fruit periodically during the season. I don't know the details, but if you don't remove some of the fruit while it is small you will get many tiny fruits rather then fewer large ones. I know this is the case for apples. I imagine it is similar with all fruit trees.
I was just reading something about thinning the fruit out while they are 1 inch wide in order to make the fruit sweeter. It may also have something to do with the size, but don't know of any evidence of that. They need to be thinned, and this tree's fruit is not thinned, so that's in the plans.
TreeCo
Carpal tunnel level member
[ QUOTE ]
I have a client with a Peach Tree that produces little, yellow, nasty peaches. Is anybody familiar with this problem and some way to remedy the problem?
[/ QUOTE ]
It's probably a seedling, not a cultivar.
Peaches are thinned chemically in most orchards.
Burbank July Alberta is a great peach!
I have a client with a Peach Tree that produces little, yellow, nasty peaches. Is anybody familiar with this problem and some way to remedy the problem?
[/ QUOTE ]
It's probably a seedling, not a cultivar.
Peaches are thinned chemically in most orchards.
Burbank July Alberta is a great peach!
I think you are missing out on the big clue, peaches are not grown in the San Diego for a reason. Find out why. I am willing to bet that tender fruits such as apricots, peaches etc. do not like the heat and dryness.
I doubt that the tree is a "seedling", find out if it was planted as a nursery pruchased tree or as a seed or perhaps it has sprouted from the root stock.
Thinning is not the problem, you would have got some nice fruit even without thinning of fruit.
If you intend to prune the tree learn the techniques. Fruit trees are pruned very specifically based on species, cultivar, and root stock.
Recently I was in the Igauzu Falls area (Argentina/Brazil/Paraguay) and the peaches were terrible. Small and hard. Too much heat and not enough moisture.
I doubt that the tree is a "seedling", find out if it was planted as a nursery pruchased tree or as a seed or perhaps it has sprouted from the root stock.
Thinning is not the problem, you would have got some nice fruit even without thinning of fruit.
If you intend to prune the tree learn the techniques. Fruit trees are pruned very specifically based on species, cultivar, and root stock.
Recently I was in the Igauzu Falls area (Argentina/Brazil/Paraguay) and the peaches were terrible. Small and hard. Too much heat and not enough moisture.
TreeCo
Carpal tunnel level member
[ QUOTE ]
I think you are missing out on the big clue, peaches are not grown in the San Diego for a reason. Find out why. I am willing to bet that tender fruits such as apricots, peaches etc. do not like the heat and dryness.
[/ QUOTE ]
Lots of people plant peach pits.
It likely has more to do with winter time chilling degree days than it does the heat. Lots of plants need winter chilling for instance the hosta I grow need at least 30 days below 40F to break bud in the spring. I fool them in the fridge for winter propagation under lights.
http://www.aces.edu/pubs/docs/A/ANR-0053-D/ANR-0053-D.pdf
I think you are missing out on the big clue, peaches are not grown in the San Diego for a reason. Find out why. I am willing to bet that tender fruits such as apricots, peaches etc. do not like the heat and dryness.
[/ QUOTE ]
Lots of people plant peach pits.
It likely has more to do with winter time chilling degree days than it does the heat. Lots of plants need winter chilling for instance the hosta I grow need at least 30 days below 40F to break bud in the spring. I fool them in the fridge for winter propagation under lights.
http://www.aces.edu/pubs/docs/A/ANR-0053-D/ANR-0053-D.pdf
We know that these San Diego peaches are setting flower buds, flowering, being pollinated and fertilized and producing fruit. As such chilling may not explain the issue, unless chilling controls not only the setting of buds but future develoipment of the fruit and that is not indicated in the attached paper.
I found out that there's a few varieties that don't require the cold weather like most of them do. Otherwise most of the peach cultivars are just like cherry trees needing hundreds of hours of chilling weather.
Nobody knows what cultivar this tree is. I found a few more peach trees yesterday infested with bugs, but they had a strew of one inch peaches. The better of the two trees had one 2.5 inch, dark red peach on it.
I need to find out if the chill factor has anything to do with fully developed fruit or not. Maybe these aren't low chill cultivars, and they just produce immature fruit unless they are froze. Maybe they are low chill cultivars, and they aren't producing full size fruit for some other reason. Perhaps the poor, alkaline soil around here doesn't do the trick without any fertilizer and amendments.
I've seen local photos of peach trees producing fully developed peaches around here, so there is some way to do it.
Nobody knows what cultivar this tree is. I found a few more peach trees yesterday infested with bugs, but they had a strew of one inch peaches. The better of the two trees had one 2.5 inch, dark red peach on it.
I need to find out if the chill factor has anything to do with fully developed fruit or not. Maybe these aren't low chill cultivars, and they just produce immature fruit unless they are froze. Maybe they are low chill cultivars, and they aren't producing full size fruit for some other reason. Perhaps the poor, alkaline soil around here doesn't do the trick without any fertilizer and amendments.
I've seen local photos of peach trees producing fully developed peaches around here, so there is some way to do it.
NickfromWI
Participating member
- Location
- Los Angeles, CA
[ QUOTE ]
I am willing to bet that you can never grow a decent peach in San Diego.
[/ QUOTE ]
How much do you wanna bet?
I am willing to bet that you can never grow a decent peach in San Diego.
[/ QUOTE ]
How much do you wanna bet?
NickfromWI
Participating member
- Location
- Los Angeles, CA
Since we don't know details yet, I can only speak in vagary, but we have had good luck in Los Angeles doing the following things:
0- I put this one ahead of number one, because it is the MOST important. Find out the variety. There are MANY varieties that will do will in our mild climates. However, most don't. MrTree was way off when he said you can't grow a peach here. You can. I know LA zones are very similar to SD, so my experiences will be similar to what you're dealing with. Now if you CAN find out the variety then we can look up how many chill hours it needs and you can find out if that type of peach is matched to a good zone for it. If it isn't in an area that gives enough chill hours for that variety, then the rest is all a gamble.
1- Get them on a good fertilizing regimen. Practically no home owners in SoCal fert their fruit trees and many of them SHOULD be. Find out how long they've lived on the property/had the tree, then follow up with the fert question
2- Proper watering schedule. Ask them what they do. I bet it's all wrong for the tree.
3- IS there lawn around the tree? Get it the F away from it! Add lots of mulch, too.
4- Prune? Yes. It is not THE answer, but it is part of the solution.
5- Thin the fruit. scubadude is right about this one. For some of our clients we will remove as much as 90% of all the fruit on the tree. I don't want them there when we do the work because they try to get less removed. The client has to be on board. It's usually an easy sell because I tell them, "you can have one thousand useless fruit or 100 good fruit...what's it gonna be."
There likely isn't a quick one step solution that you can apply. You don't know the history and my guess is that the clients don't either. I take the approach of "we don't know exactly what one factor we need to tweak, so lets tweak EVERYTHING and work from there."
love
nick
0- I put this one ahead of number one, because it is the MOST important. Find out the variety. There are MANY varieties that will do will in our mild climates. However, most don't. MrTree was way off when he said you can't grow a peach here. You can. I know LA zones are very similar to SD, so my experiences will be similar to what you're dealing with. Now if you CAN find out the variety then we can look up how many chill hours it needs and you can find out if that type of peach is matched to a good zone for it. If it isn't in an area that gives enough chill hours for that variety, then the rest is all a gamble.
1- Get them on a good fertilizing regimen. Practically no home owners in SoCal fert their fruit trees and many of them SHOULD be. Find out how long they've lived on the property/had the tree, then follow up with the fert question
2- Proper watering schedule. Ask them what they do. I bet it's all wrong for the tree.
3- IS there lawn around the tree? Get it the F away from it! Add lots of mulch, too.
4- Prune? Yes. It is not THE answer, but it is part of the solution.
5- Thin the fruit. scubadude is right about this one. For some of our clients we will remove as much as 90% of all the fruit on the tree. I don't want them there when we do the work because they try to get less removed. The client has to be on board. It's usually an easy sell because I tell them, "you can have one thousand useless fruit or 100 good fruit...what's it gonna be."
There likely isn't a quick one step solution that you can apply. You don't know the history and my guess is that the clients don't either. I take the approach of "we don't know exactly what one factor we need to tweak, so lets tweak EVERYTHING and work from there."
love
nick
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