I'm sure you don't want to hear this, but it looks WAY too close to your house. From the bricks it looks about 4 feet from the wall, and peach branches can extend 6 to 10 feet when mature. Is there any way you can move it to another spot?

Carla in Sac

Hi sautesmom Sacramento thanks for your comment. It's actually about 7 feet from the structure. The camera angle is a bit deceiving as it makes it look a lot closer than it is. Unfortunately, there isn't any other place for it to go in the yard.

In an area like that, I would have went with an upright peach tree such as the "crimson rocket". It grows up and not out. Getting only to about 6ft wide in maturity.

fruitnut Z7 4500ft SW TX, thanks for the thorough advice. It sounds like I have some options, which is great! Now we just have to get it to stop raining so that they can finish laying the brick so that I can get out there to prune. ;)

tlbean2004, being in San Diego, which does not receive a lot of chill hours, we are a little more limited in our stone fruit tree options. It looks like "crimson rocket" requires around 800 chill hours (we usually can't expect more than about 300). It does look like a great tree, though!

I am with Fruitnut, you have a few options on how you prune it. Citation can restrict growth on peaches pretty severely. But Tropic Snow is a vigorous grower. The flavor is very good. I would leave it for a year, except to prune crossing branches and any branch just under another one. If it has low vigor, leave like it is and make it a tall slender tree. Some people do not do heavy pruning until the second year anyway.

I like the open center, low branches but in that location I might go with a more central leader like it it currently growing.

Thank you, garybeaumont_gw. We got some fruit this year, which was delicious, so I would love to keep it growing strong. I appreciate your insight.

We used to prune peach trees in central texas in January. Today I'm reading online to push back pruning.

Has that changed due to climate change? And if I already pruned a peach today...is that a serious goof?

@jaceymae probably not a serious goof, unless you pruned excessively or have disease in your yard. I am in north Texas (north of Ft Worth) and peaches here seem to break dormancy around mid to late march, so i try to do my pruning early March or as soon as i notice buds forming. That way the tree is "awake" sooner to heal the pruning cuts.

@Natalie if you can, i strongly recommend the open center for fruit production. Peaches are short lived trees, an open center helps with the health of the tree and can help to keep the fruit lower and easier to pick. To prune this way, you will want to keep about the 4 bottom branches (ideally they are in kind of a + shape if you look from the top), then cut it down to the top of the 4 bottom branches. This will then reduce the fruit you get for next year, but in the long run, it will be better. If you buy locally, try to pick peaches and nectarines that lend themselves to the open center. Personally, i prune them immediately when i plant them to start the structure.

It was an old, neglected tree and had sent up internal leaders and suckers. I decided to leave two 1.5" diameter leaders in the middle as they seemed pretty healthy. Do you know if these will produce? Peach was probably 18' tall. I've never seen one so in NEED of pruning and I really thought I was in the correct window being January. so yeah, it was more excessive due to that. But other than that, I didn't take it back more than to open it up and tip prune it and take out the crossing limbs and tiny stuff. I used to work in a nursery and we always pruned all our trees after sales. And that was in early January. I was just surprised to look up and see I may have jumped the gun. The buds were beginning to swell and I was thinking it might be getting ready to bloom! When is the proper time in Central Texas..specifically Horseshoe Bay, outside Marble Falls, on the water. Has a huge fruiting Meyer's lemon next to it. So maybe a microclimate like further south texas?

@jaceymae you definitely have a micro climate there, since the lemon tree is doing well there are other citrus fruits you could also grow, and sub-tropicals. With this being the case, i would say that you likely do not have to worry that you pruned too early. If you weren't on the water, you were probably a month or two too early. But with swelling buds, you are probably good.

Depending on what you left (if there is some of last years growth left) you should get some fruit, though may not be a lot. with proper shape now, next year will deliver a much better harvest.

Thank you, Jason..that's a relief to hear! It def needed work with all those suckers. I didn't cut back much, and there's lots of last years growth. It was totally abandoned for who knows how many years. I'll try to remember to update in case those several year old central leader/suckers actually produce fruit.