I've also been reading in the Organic Forum. Just wondering if anyone is able to grow peaches without spraying.

The exhaust of cars passing by on a road deters many pests that attack peaches. What it doesn't usually stop is brown rot which is a fungal disease. The very best smelling peaches I ever met were on a tree growing on the side of the road. They smelled so good that I dug up the tree and planted it in my orchard.

DarJones

If it is a volunteer from a seed, it may just be that it's the nature of the plant to produce small peaches. We have a couple of volunteers in our garden and both produce very small but very tasty peaches.

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Freak in Istanbul

Volunteer peaches often seem to be these small white/green peaches, I don't know why. I have grown several of them in my orchard and the three different sources of seed I grew out were not bug-resistant at all. I have seen wild trees free of bugs and ascribe it to isolation from other trees the bugs like, not the variety itself.

I grow peaches organically but its a great deal of work, not recommended really. Surround early followed by spinosad later in the spring and summer and lots of regular tip pruning to control the bugs, plus varieties resistant to brown rot and Serenade and Saf-T-Side oil to also help on that front. Don't be lulled by how easy the first few years are, it takes awhile for the bugs and diseases to find your new patch of trees. And dig in.

Scott

I grow most of my peaches from seed and do not spray them. They produce more than enough. The ones that get leaf curl, after some time the leaves fall off and they look healthy again. I don't know why people make a big deal out of leaf curl.