Nicole: Very good pictures, they really help. Your trees have been long neglected and need a severe pruning. But the thing that bothers me most is that they both have multiple trunks from near the soil line. This means they may be nothing more than rootstock. If so they will likely never have good fruit.

If you want to try to rework these trees and see if the fruit is worth the effort that is fine. You could do some pruning now to open up the canopy. There is way too much small, thick growth. My only caution is that if you get high temp there may be some sunburn. The trees could safely be cut back and opened up during the dormant season.

If you don't get good fruit soon, I'd replant with new trees of proven cultivars.

The Fruitnut

I don't understand why the trees did not flower this year. Maybe the curl last year really set them back. They do need a major pruning. You should get some fruit next year. It could be that some of those stems are the original ones and some are sprouts, so pay attention to what kind of peaches you get from what trunk, and if one is producing inferior peaches just prune that one off. On the bigger tree the leftmost branch has a slightly different colored bark and that may be the original one. Or not.

Scott

Fruitnut & Scott - Thank you!! The older tree w/ the thickest branch curved to the Rt. of the tree, What do you think would happen if when I pruned, in the dormant season for big prune like this, if I cut off that curved, thickest branch? Would that kill the tree? Regarding the younger tree, which one(s) of the trunks should be taken out if that is what you think it needs? I'm going to go into the older one and start my planning on thinning out the top. What % of thinning/pruning do you think this these trees need? 50%? a 1/3?,,how much over growth do you think they have? See my question below about what the ideal tree is supposed to look like. If I do some thinning now, will it harm the tree since in a month or 2, we get out hottest weather but from sunset on, it cools down nightly so it's just the hottest part of day I'd have to worry about for sunburn?

Ideally is a peach tree supposed to have just one main straight up trunk? They flowered but very little compared to how many branches etc. they have. Am I using the correct dormant spray?,,,I read something about 2 diff. kinds, 1 w/copper and 1/ w/out.

Anyone have a picture of what the ideal, mature peach tree is supposed to look like? I will be visiting my Dad in S.Carolina in 2 wks so I hope I see a good example there, but since it close to the beach, it's not likely.

Thank you again for your time and any response to this one.

Nicole:

You could cut off the biggest limb on the old tree during the dormant season. I would second Scott's point that the left trunk on the old tree looks different and may be the original cultivar. The others may be rootstock. On the small tree all sprouts are from very low. They may all be rootstock or all cultivar. Look to see if you can tell any difference.

Secondly, don't get hung up on trying to get a perfectly shaped tree. It is not necessary and would be difficult given where you are now. You just need to do a major pruning and save some young vigorous growth down low on the tree if possible. Probably there will be none. So by pruning this summer and winter you will get some vigorous new growth in 2008. That is what will bear fruit in 2009. If you don't get good fruit then, I'd be planting a new tree. If you have room, why not plant a new tree this winter just in case these never bear.

These trees are so over grown with old twiggy growth they really need 70-80% of that old growth taken out between now and Febr. But I wouldn't take that much off right now. But between now and Febr do that much. Then if they were my trees, I'd probably remove 100% of that old twiggy growth you have now by Febr 2009.

You should get some bloom and fruit on the growth you leave in 2008. With more fruit of better quality in 2009.

As to sunburn. That will only be serious if you expose a major limb to full sun during the hottest part of the day during the next three months. A little leaf burn is of no worry.

Most people here think an ideal peach has a main trunk about 24 inches straight up. Then about four branches off that at a 45 angle to form an open center vase. But peaches will bear fine in all forms. They just need annual pruning and about 12-24 inches of new growth each yr. You will get way more than 24 inches after you prune as suggested. But the tree will settle down after a yr or two. Then down the road when it gets too big or the center shaded out, as is the case now, remove or cut back to keep the tree open and not too big.

Your trees are healthy and unlikely to be killed by even the most severe pruning. So have at it.

The Fruitnut

Thank you Fruitnut - I have a plan now, thanks to you, and will carry it out,,,good suggestion about planting a new one "just in case" the others don't work out. I'll let you know what happens and will get started on some 'light' thinning out to see what I have, when dormant I will take out that big curved branch on the rt. that, like you said, probably wasn't the main branch to begin with.

When I cut it, I'll use that pruning spray that I have that protects the cuts from all sorts of stuff unless you think otherwise.

Thank you again. Nicole

In photo #6 going down,
The trunk that is straight vertical with 2 branches going off in 45 degree angles, (middle one), is that a good one to make "the dominate trunk"? Could I conceivably get rid of all the other 3 I think, and kind of start from scratch? Or is that risky, if it's not the original main trunk from it's conception as a tree? Do you know what I mean? Or am I better off getting rid of rt. branch/trunk that curves to the right and is the thickest of the branches and playing it by ear once that is done? It would be nice to save if I can just because it is established and however long it's been in there, it has survived, then if it does bare good fruit, fine,,if not,,it's out of there. Would you go the slash/burn route of the cautious route?
On smaller/younger tree to the left of main tree: See how it has several straight vertical trunks? Or, which one or two trunks do I leave in place? Sorry to bug you. :)

Nicole,
On the large tree I would cut out the 2 outside tunks.The large one on the right and the one on the far left. once the cuts are done you can cut the top of the tree by 1/2. on the larger cuts paint the whole branch white with water based latex outdoor paint. The smaller peach looks like a sucker. I would take out the 2 weakest fruiting trunks and cut it by 1/2 . I have a cherry sucker that has not born fruit sense we bought our place 5 years ago. it flowers beautifully every year but has all tiny fruit. but my wife loves the way it looks when it blooms so it will stay as long as it flowers.I have added a link to the University of Oregon. it is for apples i have used it for my own over grown apple trees and my son-in-laws old over grown peaches. while there at the site look up "Training and Pruning Your Home Orchard" it has some good information. good luck

Here is a link that might be useful: pruning older fruit trees

Nicole, I would not cut the far left one on the big tree since it is a different color bark - it could be the only original peach. On the smaller tree it could be that one of those three is the original peach tree and the other two are rootstocks. Peaches often sprout from the roots not long after planting, I have had to pull out several sprouts that ended up being taller than the tree iitself. I would leave all three until the tree has fruited and you can see if there is any difference in the fruit; otherwise you could cut the wrong one and end up with mediocre tasting peaches. There is also no problem with leaving multiple trunks, it may look a bit odd but the tree will be perfectly happy and healthy and productive.

Scott

Perfect!!! I'm glad I asked,,,I will start thinning and getting ready to take out that old tree branch/trunk to the far rt. that curves in dormant season and when I do the major pruning will follow all's advice above.

Do you think I'm using the correct dormant spray? I have dormant spray (Lime-sulphur fungicide) from Lilly Miller,,in the attach to hose and spray, has picture of peach tree on front. No copper content that I can see.
If you know of one more suited or better for peaches let me know and I can switch to that one. Sorry to chew this to death,,,you guys are great and so helpful. Thank you!!!

Piper:

Just to add a comment on a specific item: Hose end sprayers. This method is fine for applying lawn fertilizers, or anything that goes on the ground, but is very inefficient for applying fungicides and insecticides. Because of the high volume of water necessary to draw up the chemicals, most of the active ingredients end up on the ground, not the tree.

You would be better off with a 2-gallon pump-up sprayer with a long spray wand, if you can find one.

Don Yellman, Great Falls VA

Piper,

All I can tell you is to listen to Don. I stopped by his place this past weekend and saw his setup and care for his trees. And based on what I saw, I'd do what the Jellyman says because he is experianced and knowledgable!

I don't think I've ever seen a home orchard look and produce as well has his does. In fact, his place looked better then any commerical orchard I've seen in person.

I'm in SoCal also, near Glendale. At 5-6 miles from the ocean, you must be 10degrees F cooler than where I'm at. I have nectarines, but used to have peaches.

I spray lime-sulfur when dormant, once in Jan, no other spraying throughout the year (fertilizer, just barely... some chicken manure that doesn't make it to the avocado tree, where it was intended LOL). I do my dormant pruning in the beginning of Jan, a few weeks before spraying. Around here, we may start getting warm spells in Feb., and may get growth by then. I prune quite hard each year, to get a 6-8 feet tree. Peaches and nectarines are quite vigorous and will add about 5 feet to the height in spring (maybe that's why I lose my trees after 10 years LOL).

Your loss of flowers this year may have been due to frost damage to the flowers, although my nectarines didn't get damaged. We had an unusually cold winter (ie. cold for SoCal).

I'm a bit paranoid about pruning in Spring, since I lost my favorite peach to a borer insect after a sever spring prune. The particular instance was that a large branch of my peach tree was cut off by a beekeeper, to capture a bee swarm. Well, I decided to prune the tree to balance. The poor tree went downhill from there and was severely attacked by borer insects.

Good luck w/ the tree. BTW, my Snow Queen Nectarines are now ripe and are delicious.

Don and others, I hadn't thought about the pitfalls of the attach to the hose method of dormant spray,,,I'll be on the lookout/search for the long wand if I can find one. I guess I better prune hard before before I spray or it'll take a very long time to get it all done and really make sure all of the tree gets sprayed.

See Don, your fan base just grows and grows,,,you better put up one of those motion detector water sprayers to keep more than just unwanted animals out of your yard!! I'm just teasing,,,hey, you can bask in the glory of some really good eating for the next couple of months. Wish I were there!! Thank you.

Hoping for some advice. Fiance and I are new homeowners in Long Island, NY. We are both pretty clueless when it comes to landscaping and gardening. We have a tree in the backyard that I'm pretty sure is a peach tree. It flowered with pink blossoms in the early spring and now has a lot of small fuzzy
fruit on it. The problem is that a huge branch cracked off it at the base. I will try to post some pics soon. There is also another branch that is riding pretty close to the ground. I'm assuming that I have to start pruning fruit from the tree. The fruit is pretty closely bunched. Just looking for somewhere to start. The idea of eating fruit right from my backyard is tantalizing. Would love to make it work.

Disregard that post. Didnt mean to post my problem on another persons post. I'm new to this. I just posted same message, as my own post to the forum. Sorry for the confusion.