My Loring peach tree (4 yrs old) has peaches on it now. Is there anything I need to do to ensure they stay on until ripe? It seems each year something different happens to spoil the crop (birds, bugs, or early fall off).
Need peach tree help
Peach trees produce more fruit than they can handle. Some may fall off, but you generally end up with small fruit and encourages fruit production on alternate years. Thinning the fruit to one peach every 4" or 5" gives you larger fruit and encourages yearly fruit production. The only thing I can think of to keep both bugs and birds off the fruit is to cover the whole tree with a fine mesh cover. My peach tree was too tall last year. I ended having to share my peaches with wasps, bees, cardinals and squirrels. They got more fruit than I did. I pruned rather hard this winter. I'm sacrificing lots of fruit this year, but will have a much shorter tree. One that I hope will be short enough to cover or I may end up sharing again.
squirrles love to get them..
Pray we don't have any hail!
Ever since we moved to Texas I've had to develop a different outlook on edible gardening. Fruit trees are one area where I don't push the zone, but I still lose an entire year's crop to a late frost. That has happened for the last 5 years — 3 times. So I'm happy having some fruit even if I have to share. 8-)
Do you guys spray with anything at any particular time?
Definitely thin your peaches to one every 4-5 inches as mentioned before. Keeping moisture in the soil is important but you're practically a neighbor in Burleson so you have probably gotten lots of rain lately too. Last year our peaches were wiped out by that lovely hail storm in May along with our roof (the tornado was only a couple of miles from my house!) but so far this year they are looking good. Good luck!
Stacey
Do you mean for peach leaf curl or brown rot? I haven't had a problem with either diseases. Or are you asking if we spray to keep insects off the peaches? I haven't done it because bees were also visiting the peaches. Bees are dying in large numbers already and I didn't want to add to that kill.
I don't spray either. I don't seem to have any problems with insect damage and I try not to use chemicals unless I really need them because of the bees and beneficials.
Thanks all. I wasn't asking about spraying for anything specific--just wondered if that could be my missing link to good peaches that stay on the tree until they're ripe.
Here's a thread that talks about using pantyhose to keep the birds and such out of your tomatoes and peaches.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/981764/