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Is this a peach tree?

I have a peach tree in my yard that must be at least 15 years old. I have since forgotten the variety. It has the most incredibly delicious fruit, though some years the squirrels beat me to most of it.

A few years back, someone on these forums suggested I plant a few seeds, since I don't know what it is, and get a successor tree going. I buried a few (but so did the squirrels, probably), but lost track of where, exactly. Last spring, a seedling emerged that looked like a peach. I transplanted it to my vegetable garden. It has grown like crazy, and is now about 3 feet tall. Before it gets any bigger, while it is still possible to dig it out, I'd like to know for sure if this is, indeed, a peach tree.

Please take a look, and let me know. If it is, I will move it to a sunny spot next spring. Thanks!

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Note: behind the second shot, are some 3-4" tall phlox plants, which you can see emerging directly from the soil. So look only at the foreground.

Comments (7)

  • 15 years ago

    Those look like the leaves on my 2 yr old Contender peach tree.

  • 15 years ago

    It's probably a seedling peach. I've raised hundreds over the past couple of decades. Got about 50 first and second year seedlings right now.

    The reason I say probably, every once in a while, some kind of wild willow tree (white willow, I think) pops up in my yard that looks suspiciously like a peach at first glance during that first summer seedling stage. It takes a really close look to tell them apart, have to examine the buds, petioles, and other fine details that I can't see in your photo. But probably a peach, it seems peachy to me.

  • 15 years ago

    This is probably it's third year. It's been in the vegetable garden at least a year, and I let it get to a foot or so tall in the spot where I found it, before digging it up. The vegetable garden is a raised bed, with very loose soil: I put it there, hoping that if it WERE a peach, I would be transplanting it soon. Maybe the loose soil caused it to take off with growth like it has. I took these shots at the end of May, I just didn't get around to posting them. It is already MUCH bigger. But I have no idea how fast seedling fruit trees grow.

    The leaves look much wider than willow leaves to me, and are an even green. Most willows, at least the ones that I've seen, have a grey-ish underside to the leaf. But maybe I've just never seen a wild willow before.

  • 15 years ago

    A 3 year old peach seedling can be huge. Out of all my seed grown trees, peaches are by far the fastest growing. You can have a good sized TRUNK in year 4/5. Peaches actually make very good screens if one would need that. If not pruned very much, they stay very thick. Not the nicest looking trees, but they work. Fall color is even decent on some of them (Reliance seems to have a nice color right now).

  • 15 years ago

    Concur with the growth rates. I saw a 4 foot growth the first year on my peach tree.

  • 15 years ago

    The only seedling fruit tree that grows faster than peach where I am is apricot. I've got one in it's third year that's well over my head with a nice trunk, and will hopefully flower next spring. It probably would have this year, but the extreme cold last February killed the flower buds and small twigs.

    A nearby peach seedling was almost as big, but ended up being killed outright by the same cold weather (-23F on night). All my other peach and nectarine trees (5 total) were unharmed but did not flower.

  • 15 years ago

    Wow! So it looks like maybe I got lucky, planting a few seeds? There are no other peach trees in this neighborhood, so I am hoping this has bred true.