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Post by binnylou on Jul 15, 2015 19:46:43 GMT -5
I posted earlier that our peach tree has quite a crop of fruit this year. Hubby has put braces under the limbs to prevent breaking of the limbs. I'm guessing that the peaches will grow by another 30-50%. That is going to put a lot more weight on the limbs. Any suggestions to prevent damage...that doesn't involve sacrificing some of the fruit? I checked my garden notes from 2013...no crop last year...and I had commented that the tree was really loaded on 08/1 and that I had picked 10 lbs of peaches on 08/11. Sometime close to harvest, we had storm warnings, and I picked some of the fruit just to protect the tree from wind damage. The storm didn't hit us, and I had a bunch of fruit that didn't get to grow to it's full potential. And the tree didn't incur any damage. And I'm really anticipating sharing some of these homegrown organically grown peaches with the grandkids. They should be here at the peak of the harvest
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Post by lilolpeapicker on Jul 15, 2015 19:49:18 GMT -5
oh boy...my favorite...organic peaches....yuuuummmy!
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Post by binnylou on Jul 15, 2015 19:50:56 GMT -5
I use that term loosely....they have never had chemical spray.
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Post by desertwoman on Jul 15, 2015 19:56:56 GMT -5
What a wonderful dilemma- so much fruit!!
You're doing what can be done- supporting the branches. When we had the orchard, we called them the peach tree crutches. They were boards that had a notch cut out at the top end. The branches were placed in the notch and the boards were braced at an angle to the ground. It was quite a site this time of year
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Post by binnylou on Jul 15, 2015 19:58:07 GMT -5
When we had the orchard, we called them the peach tree crutches. They were boards that had a notch cut out at the top end. The branches were placed in the notch and the boards were braced at an angle to the ground. That pretty well describes what hubby did.
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Post by restless on Jul 16, 2015 6:15:36 GMT -5
What a great gardening problem to have....too many peaches!
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Jul 16, 2015 7:02:07 GMT -5
If you do not thin your peaches, you will have broken limbs and fruit-drop. Pick 'em or lose 'em.
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camochef
Blooming
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Posts: 171
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Post by camochef on Jul 16, 2015 7:28:01 GMT -5
Having worked at a very large fruit farm in my younger days, and having many fruit trees of my own now. I've noticed a couple things that most home growers do not do. The first is thinning of the fruit. Every spring, the owner would hire a large group of high school kids , give them wiffle ball bats, and put them to work beating on the peach trees to knock off excess fruit. Second is prunning. Late winter and early spring is the time to prune and shape peach trees. Most home-growers do not prune trees heavy enough or properly.
Commercial orchards also have a constant spray program in effect. Most spraying is for fungus's, diseases, and insects, but there are also spray programs to make fruit fall, others to make fruits ripen. There are many books available in bookstores and your local libraries to help direct you in proper procedures. Enjoy!
Remember the less fruit the larger they are.
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Post by ahntjudy on Jul 16, 2015 7:33:13 GMT -5
I have fond memories of as a young girl, picking peaches, with Mom and Dad, at a local orchard... I remember the bees having a picnic on the drops... The peaches were so ready and ripe that some, you barely had to help them...the skins just popped off...leaving the most succulent, juicy, perfectly ripe peaches I have ever eaten... I have never had as good a peach since...
Wish I had the room to try a peach tree...
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Post by brownrexx on Jul 16, 2015 8:55:44 GMT -5
We usually have to remove some fruit from our heavily laden pear trees. I have never grown peaches but if we don't remove some pears, then we are going to have broken branches in the wind that always comes with our storms.
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Post by James on Jul 16, 2015 17:42:43 GMT -5
Too much fruit? Nice problem. Here, that frost came just right to get all the blossoms. Peaches, apricots, pears, no fruit. One apple tree has a few apples. The other apple trees nothing. Plums, nothing. The grapes are doing OK. Grapes are a little different though as they bloom on this years growth.
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Post by binnylou on Jul 16, 2015 18:46:38 GMT -5
The other apple trees nothing. Neighbor D's apple tree..I don't know the variety...has a very heavy crop of apples. She says she has never seen it so loaded.
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Post by desertwoman on Jul 16, 2015 19:30:50 GMT -5
The perfect set up for abundant fruit crops is the timing of spring frosts and blossoms. We get that perfect set up once every few years. Typically we get the "annual death of the fruit crop"- sometimes a lot of loss, (as in all of it) sometimes a little loss.
Here, for instance, we often have a warm spell in late March that gets the fruit trees blossoming and then the inevitable April frosts show up. Death to the fruit crop. Sometimes we lose the entire crop, sometimes quite a lot, sometimes a few and sometimes it is all perfect and the trees remain loaded.
Later blooming fruit trees (my cherries, apples and pears) often have fruit when the earlier blooming stone fruits (peaches, plums, etc) do not.
In abundant years it is always a good idea to thin out the very early fruits when they are tiny (as noted above) so that we get larger fruits and the weight of the limbs is controlled. Even with thinning, however, limbs can get quite heavy, so the "crutches" work well to support the limbs.
This year, I have abundant cherries , a fair amount of pears and 2 apples on the one apple tree. Nary a peach or plum. We had a beautiful March with above normal temps in late March, and then two very heavy frosts in early-mid April. It is always so disappointing to see the blossoms turn to mush.
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Post by James on Jul 17, 2015 9:19:57 GMT -5
Note: For heavily laden branches, you will get larger fruit if you thin them some, even up to 50%. This is standard practice in the orchard industry. Customers want nice large peaches.
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Post by binnylou on Jul 31, 2015 21:03:02 GMT -5
Went down to the "orchard" area to see how the peaches were doing. I figured they should be about two days away from prime. The tree crutches that hubby put up were on the ground and all but about 10 peaches were gone. I was so pi$$ed. I really thought that somebody...a 2 legged somebody...had harvested my peaches. It appears that there is a groundhog on the property again. I thought I saw one by the garden shed and hubby did see one today right up by the house. So that trap is set for tonight. Gotta catch that little ba$tard before he finds the tomatoes and the honeydew. I so wanted to share our peaches with the grandkids We probably won't have a peach crop next year..are they every other year like apples?....but I'll be smarter next year.
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