[John]

I much prefer white peaches to yellow and about 20 years ago I sowed a couple of seeds from a bought nice tasting cultivar without a name. One of the resultant seedling I planted behind our greenhouse and meant to train it on the fence. I failed to do this and it became a tree. In the UK peaches struggle with peach leaf curl and frost damage to the early flowers so there is always going to be years when fruiting fails. We have however had some good years and fruiting started after about 5 or so. The tree 2 years ago reached the same height as the house and produced it's bumper crop of over 700 fruits in August. We drank quite a few Bellinis that year but also lost the top of the tree as it broke under the weight of the fruit. The flavour is as good as any from a shop and some were as big or a few even larger than you normally buy.
This year the much reduced tree is again covered in fruit.
So if you eat a really tasty peach or nectarine you could try cracking open the stone and sowing the seed. It may be a gamble in which case you are probably better off buying a named cultivar.
The first picture with me for scale is of some of the 700 peaches in our kitchen. The second is of a seedling that I started from a freshly sown seed last year which germinated this spring.

[John]

Sadly I have to report that our tree is no more. Once again burdened with too much fruit the whole tree apart from one branch succumbed with the weight of the fruit and a torrential downpour. Also sadly the fruit was about three weeks off ripening. The last small branch has produced about 150 fruits of which we have eaten a few poached and are now making jam with the rest.

[MikeHardman]

Oh - nice tale, with sad ending

[Janet Ibbotson]

Never had anywhere near that many fruit from my fan trained peaches in Norfolk, such a shame you lost it. 

I should know the answer to this but thought I'd ask the experts.  I have a new South facing wall near the house and the rest of the garden is too exposed and lacking in water for peach trees.  Would you recommend fan training a peach in the mediterranean?    If so, and you bought a maiden/whip when would you carry out the formative pruning?

[David Bracey]

Fan trained peaches will be very susceptible to red spider mites infestations which are very difficult to control.  Therefore I would propose growing a standard peach...........you will still have to control peach leaf curl, another major, difficult to control disease.

Most stone fruit suffer various diseases including gummosis which is prevalent in wet weather. Pruning in dry weather is recommended for example late spring or summer.  Peaches produce fruit on two year old wood.  New wood should be encouraged.  Pruning in 2012 will produce wood which will cary fruit in 2013.  Prune any existing laterals to 2-3 buds, this will encourage new growth in 2012 which should fruit in 2013.

In 2013 all of last years laterals should be pruned back to 2-3 buds to encourage new growth which will produce flowers and fruit in 2014.  If lateral growth is too strong during the gowing season simply prune back to the desired length - there will be plenty of flower buds left on the lateral.

Try to buy a whip with some sideshoots (feathers) as they will form the framework of your tree.  Let me know the shape of the tree you buy and perhaps I can help with the formative pruning.

[MikeHardman]

Very useful info, thanks David

[Janet Ibbotson]

Thank you very much David, that's very helpful.  I will most certainly get back to you once I have my maiden.  Now I need to decide whether I take pot luck from the nursery near Volos here in Greece or bring a choice variety back in the early spring from Reads Nursery near my UK home in Norfolk.  In the meantime I will do something about improving the soil where I intend to plant.

[Sandra]

Last spring my peach and nectarine trees were infected with something that caused the leaves to curl around what looked liked lots of eggs embedded in the leaf tissue. I meticulously removed all the infected leaves (the trees are young and relatively small), the trees survived and new growth soon followed but had very little fruit. Does anyone know what caused the problem and how to prevent it this coming spring?
 

[MikeHardman]

have a look at peach leaf curl, Sandra -
http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/profile.aspx?PID=232

[Sandra]

Mike

Thank you for the link - the photo of peach leaf curl is exactly what happened to my trees only they were much worse and it appeared almost overnight. I clearly did the right thing by removing the affected leaves immediately before the spores were able to develop and spread. Let's hope I'm in the right place at the right time this year to remove any leaves that become infected. The information on appropriate fungicides is useful but it doesn't give the down side of using them. Do you know how long the chemicals remain in the plants and will the fruit be affected?

[John]

I believe that the spores are spread by rain and traditionally a cover would be placed over wall trained peaches until the growths were well developed and then could be removed. In the best years of cropping our large tree wasn't sprayed and peach leaf curl wasn't a problem because we had a dry, frost free spring.

[David Bracey]

Sandra, peach leaf curl, if that is what you have is a real headache.  peaches are virtually not grown commercially in the Gard probably because of this disease.

It is a good idea to read up about the life-cycle of the disease.  I attach one web site but there are many  . http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7426.html

As you will read, the disease overwinters between budscales and are released in the spring with the onset of warm weather and rain as the buds open and develop.  The disease spreads by asexual spores during the summer and eventually overwinters again between budscales as they close-up for winter.

The best time to control the disease is a the budscales open in the spring.  Always tricky. When is open and when is not open and again in the autumn as budscales begin to close.  The website gives good timing advice.


Copper based sprays are the good old standby but they have been superseded by many new and better products.  If you follow thw label instructions, especially the time between the last application and harvets ie the minimum interval there is no need to worry about residues. In the case of peach épeaf curl it is not relevant because a) you spray before the fruits are formed and b) an autumn spray is made after the fruit have been picked.


If you need more advice please let me know. david

[MikeHardman]

John & David,
Thanks for stepping in and answering Sandra's question, and providing some useful extra info.

[Sandra]

John,

This is really helpful, thank you. I'm going out to Greece at the beginning of February. Would you recommend I spray the trees then as a late winter treatment or wait until the leaves start to appear a few weeks later, although there is a chance I could miss the moment if I'm not actually there?

Sandra

[John]

Personally if you are going to spray I would suggest do it before the leaves are out otherwise they will already have peach leaf curl if they are going to get it!