pruning an untrained peach tree?

9 years ago

I got this dwarf Red Baron this week from a nonprofit raising funds. I'm not sure how old it is but it reaches over 7 feet. They gave no information on root stock or height at maturity. From my reading about pruning vase shape (I'm a beginner), it's obvious this has not been pruned well; the scaffold branches are growing almost vertically. Three of the scaffold branches come off at about 45 degrees, though, but the fourth (with pink tie) is at a smaller angle.

I'm wondering how to prune this to get it moving towards vase shape. Specifically, do I cut off the branch with the pink tie and at what point? And for the other three branches do I top them and at what point? Is this an acceptable time to prune? I'm in the Portland, Oregon area, zone 8b and temperature in 50's/60's during the day and 40's at night. The tree is bare root and has no fully emerged leaves but has had some flowers, as you can see. I don't see any fruit that has set.

Thanks so much.

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Comments (3)

speedster1
9 years ago
Ideally you would have a little more vertical space between scaffolds but it looks to me like you could bend those limbs down and tie them off and you'd be close to the open center vase shape you are looking for.
Lydia Brannon thanked speedster1
yovan mcgregor
9 years ago
I would love to have peach tree like that, excellent, except i would spread limbs a bit more downward and cut those limbs maybe almost on half. i love that peach tree when it has limbs starting so low from graft. you are lucky just train those limbs downward, prune them, water the tree, and keep your eyes on diseases, Best of luck
Lydia Brannon thanked yovan mcgregor
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Lydia Brannon
Original Author
9 years ago
Thank you so much!!! I did not think about bending them and I'm excited to try this! I can keep all four scaffolds and prune them and look for secondary branches. Thanks so much, both of you, for the encouragement. :)