Are These Three Different Types of Peach Trees?

11 years ago

last modified: 11 years ago

This picture shows what's growing in the middle of my planter box. The three regions I've outlined seem to be completely different trees.

1. The upper left area of the tree (area 1) has maroon and green colored leaves and it shares the same trunk with area 3.

2. This area of the tree, grows from it's own separate trunk and all the leaves are light yellow.

3. This area of the tree has dark green leaves. The only edible fruit grows from the branches on this area of the tree.

Below is a picture of the fruit that grows in the above picture. Please forgive me. I've mislabeled the fruit in the picture below. The big fruit in the middle comes from area 3 and the little green one on the right comes from area 2:

These trees came with the house. Gardening is a huge gap in my knowledge and background. I want to learn how to prune and care for these trees properly but I don't know where to start. I'm not quite sure if what I've got is normal. It seems really weird to me that there would be so much variety growing out of two trunks.

Please help me! Thank you! :)

PS:

Fuzzy object in the bottom of the picture did not come from the tree. I found it abandoned in the parking lot at work. After months of food bribery, I managed to make him a mildy trusting acquaintance. Then one night after work, he jumped in my truck and came home with me. My wife and I have enjoyed his company ever since.

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Comments (3)

aniajs
11 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
Yes, in a way you have different trees. A common practice with fruit
trees is that they are grafted - i.e. the rootstock and the upper
sections are from totally different trees. It's a way to get the same
fruit as the "parent". Sometimes you can buy or DIY trees where two or
more varieties of fruit are growing from the same trunk, or even each
branch is it's own variety. There's a good
explanation of the technique below. Often the rootstock will send up
suckers, and if they aren't cut back they can become branches or even trunks, so that
could be going on as well. You could track which part of the tree has
the fruit you like the best so that you know what branches to save when
you prune (from your comments it looks like area 3). For a start to pruning, see links below (sorry they're all so squashed together). You can also find much more info at the Cooperative Extension's website (unce.unr.edu) in the search publications link. Don't know where you're located, but you can also call the Master Gardeners extension and they might be able to tell you more specifically.

Grafting - http://www.unce.unr.edu/publications/files/ho/other/fs8747.pdf

Getting started with fruit trees - http://www.unce.unr.edu/publications/files/ho/2014/fs1414.pdf

Pruning - http://www.unce.unr.edu/publications/files/ho/2013/sp1313.pdf

*Edited to fix links
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Original Author
11 years ago
Thank you for your helpful comments! I appreciate the direction and I'll follow up with the Cooperative Extension website and Master Gardeners program. This is all a new world for me and I'm surprised to find that I'm actually enjoying it (city man living in the country now). I'll post followup pics and actions taken when I get my plan in order. Could be months from now since I'm told not to prune until January here in Pahrump, NV. Thanks again!!!
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aniajs
11 years ago
Yeah, southern NV is a totally different climate than we have up here in Reno. It's amazing you can grow anything, let alone fruit trees, considering the heat you guys get.
Definitely don't prune until the tree is dormant, and when you do be careful not to take too much wood or you risk stressing or even killing the tree. I've been told a rule of thumb is never to cut more than 20-25% of the tree each year. So it might take you a couple of years to get the tree back into shape.
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