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Bumparoo

Nice guy:

I watched your video. Nice but being filmed after dark, it did not show as much of the peach tree as I wanted to see. The grapes (except the runt) and the peach look healthy!

On the grapes, you ask if you should prune off the lower branches near the base of the plant? Yes I would. But how you prune your grape depends on the variety and the growing method you are using. I grow grapes using the 4 arm kniffen system so I can only speak from my experience. I would prune the low growth off. You don't need it.

The wimpy grapevine shown last on the video? You mention it was from a potted plant? I wonder if it was in the pot too long before it was bought and planted? The leaves on it look healthy but just trying to find out why it does not grow nor produce any fruit. I have to wonder if too rootbound in the pot before it got planted? Just a thought/possibility. After 3 years of it not doing anything, I think I would dig it out and try another vine.

The peach appears to be grown with a central leader? Most peaches are commercially grown in a open vase pruning system to keep the tree smaller, shorter and to allow more light into the center of the tree. Do you have to grow them that way? No. I have one peach as a central leader and 2 as vase pruned. All produce fruit. It does look like your peach is consuming more space than you allowed for it. Nice looking leaves (no peach curl) and nice looking peaches too.

You are in Japan? My wife lived there years ago before we got married. She was a missionary teacher and was there during the Kobe earthquake.

Hi Spartan apples, thanks for the interest.

Sorry for any gaps in the narrative, I posted previous bits and pieces on another site. However, the people in the know are either busy in their gardens or not very friendly, as I'm getting the silent treatment.

The runty grapevine was actually bought and planted at the same time as the big one. They were both transferred into the ground last spring. The small one had to be emergency re-transplanted mid summer, to its current location. I believe that's what caused the stunting, although I thought it would return to normal vigor this spring, which it did not. This may be a permanent phenomenon?

Summer pruning of the vigorous grapevine, it sounds like people just cut it wherever to improve airflow and get the shape thereafter. Leaf to vine to location on the vine ratios, in order to maximize production - I get the impression these are not clear for most people, so there isnt any clear guide online at least. Let alone transposing those to an actual living vine.

I bought and planted the peachtree last spring. The central trunk had been cut quite short and it had a few small branches coming off. I believe it was the vase style you describe. It was about 3 feet tall and sparse. It grew very well, filled out, and was about 6 feet tall by the end of the season. I did no pruning until the spring, and only removed partial branches that had been damaged from OFM the previous year.

This year it flowered and fruited profusely, and is growing much larger already. I have bagged many peaches on it. I think they'll ripen up in August.

Not sure if I have to prune the tree in order for the fruit to ripen better? I know it might be a good idea to prune branches interfering with the grape trellis. However, the grapes could be repositioned in the future, while the Peachtree cannot. I just want to maximize production.

At this point, I'm thinking to chop out a few of the center branches and a couple of the interfering branches on the trellis, just to get a bit more air circulation. Can't see the point of getting sun on the peaches, as they are bagged. Is the correct procedure to cut the entire branch off at the node where it springs from the parent branch?

By the way, that's nice your wife was in Japan before, I hope she had a good experience. I originally came a bit after that, in 1999. I'm not too far from Kobe.

Nice guy:

Are your peaches bagged in the cloth or paper bags the Japanese are fond of? If so, do you have to uncover them before fully ripe so they get some skin color? Or just letting them ripen without sunlight so the skin is yellow only? Just curious. I do bag some of my apples (young trees that only have a few fruits so not economical to spray the entire tree all season). I use ziplock plastic sandwich bags on apple but have never bagged peaches.

I find my peaches push a lot of growth late in the season (unlike apples). Since my peaches ripen in August, I will sometimes go thru my vase pruned peach trees in Mid July and remove any tender upright shoots (they can be numerous) that I know I would prune off anyway in winter. Otherwise my peach tree can get real dense in summer. Not sure how much this helps but more sunlight on my peaches in August means more skin color. Besides, then I have less to prune in winter.

To answer your peach pruning question, yes I would cut the branch entirely off if it is in the way of the grapes or not needed. Since your peach is only 6' tall and still young, you want to prune it to maintain that vase or open center shape.

I also do a little summer pruning on the grapes too. My vines can get 8'-12' long each season and really overload the trellis. It can get so dense that it is hard for me to spray later in the season for grape berry moth control. I just went thru and clipped off some of the new growth on canes already 8' or more. All the fruit is back on the thicker older part of the cane anyway so I don't need them growing longer.

I also sometimes remove some of the leaves later in the season around grape clusters to allow more sunlight to reach the fruit. Amazing how many leaves a grapevine can produce.

Thanks Spartan. I'm useing the popular waxy paper bags on both. They worked wonderfully on the 2 grape bunches I had last year. This year after thinning I have 35 bunches. and the peaches first blooming has left me about 50 peaches after thinner by most of the fruit.

the peach tree was about 6' at start of this season, it's about double that now. The rapid growth of both is phenomenal.

I'll try some rough pruning as soon as I can get up there. So cutting a branch off say in half is no good? It's all or nothing? Is there a point where the fruit cannot be supported by the remaining canopy, or do peaches and grapes not work like that mid season?

by the way, i'm growing the grapes in a canopy set up as that's the way it's done locally. I think this has to do with aeration and typhoons.

Did a bunch of hacking a few days ago. I was conservative, so I don't think we'll have any over pruning related problems. The Peachtree appears to be in good health, but it has the largest and most variety of insects I've ever seen on any of my plants, totally filled!