A real peach

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Backwoods Savage

Minister of Fire
Feb 14, 2007
27,811
Michigan
These are some of our peach trees. It was getting late so some blossoms were closing but I snapped pictures anyway. I was surprised to see the blossoms this morning. It is about a week to 10 days early for these. In one picture there is a small cherry in the background and it is already dropping its blossoms. Usually we find the cherry just starting to blossom after April 20. I just hope we don't have any hard freezes right now. The apples will blossom usually early May and they are always a worry because we tend to get freezing when the blossoms are out, but they are a fairly hardy tree so we always hope for the best. Usually about every 7 years or so we'll have a year with barely any fruit. Last year was a winner but the year before was a wipe out.

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Notice the difference in the blossoms on these 2 dwarf peach trees.
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There is a small cherry tree in the back but it doesn't show up well. That tree is already dropping the blossoms. They usually blossom after 4/20
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We had frost the last couple days hope they are fine.
 
We had frost here too the last couple nights. No fruit trees blossoming yet though.
 
When my dad still had hes orchard we would spray them with water late in the night to help protect them.
 
Wow, what a difference. Our fruit trees have mostly leafed out by now, though there are apples still blooming. L

We lost our peach tree this year to the southern peach borer. It is not supposed to be this far north, but it is and they kill a tree pretty quickly. Sad to see the peach tree go, it produced some wonderful fruit. Here's a couple shots of part of a harvest a few years ago. Makes my mouth water just looking at them again.
 

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Dennis, nice looking trees. How long did it take to get them producing?
We've planted a couple apple trees in the side yard the last 2 years.
BeGreen, I can't help this, but, that's a "peach" of a picture. Sorry. :roll:
 
Cool Dennis

Do you do anything to keep the mice from eating the bark? My Uncles and Dad have been planting apple trees UP north since I was a little kid. But have never had one make it more than 2-3 years. They even built big cages around them to keep the deer out. Although all ours were planted in a field not a garden. I am going to make a place to put in a orchard this year and plant next year. And am thinking of either painting the bark with anti cribbing painting or taring them and coating them with cyanne pepper.

Billy
 
The full size peach trees took 3 years to start producing. The dwarfs have yet to produce anything other than a few but it appears they should have some peaches this year. We also have some new apple trees that are now 6 years old and they just started giving us a few apples last year so we are hoping for more this year.

I have lots of mulch around the full sized trees but keep it back about 6" from the trunk of the tree. We did have the trunks covered the first few years though. For sure the trees have to be fenced in else the deer and rabbits would ruin them fast.

We also have to cover the peaches with netting to keep some of the birds out and it is amazing how many chipmunks get caught in the netting! For birds, the hummingbirds can do lots of damage to peaches along with other birds. It is a battle, but when those peaches ripen it is like Heaven itself! We really like the Elberta peach the best.
 
I am jealous! I would love to have peach trees in the yard but we are a bit too far north (Zone 4). Our apricot and nanking cherries were in full bloom over the weekend. I too hope we do not get a late hard frost that would nip this year's crop.
 
Blossoms are a bit early here, too.
Haven't seen many honey bees, either.

Have never seen white peach blossoms.
 
I put a couple of Red Havens in up here two years ago. The first winter bit them hard. I cut 'em back to about a foot off the ground. One was dead, the other grew last summer to about 5 feet and is still alive, but the buds haven't broken yet. They were only an experiment with a lot of hoping. Down in the Garden Peninsula they are able to grow some peaches, but I'll be pleasantly shocked if I get anything out of these trees. I had a backyard of 27 peach trees while I lived in Pennsylvania, and you pretty much nailed it. It is a little bit of heaven when the fruit comes in. There's a whole lotta' work in between, but the rewards are hard to describe. BTW, the Japanese Beetle was my main problem there. They just overwhelmed some of the fruit with their numbers!
 
I have a peach tree in my front yard, has been there since we moved in about 10 yrs ago. Get a real nice bunch of of peaches about every other year. I have been piling up horse manure about 8" deep at teh base avbout in a 10' diameter circle every year for the last 6-7 yrs. I am clueless on how to get this tree to thrive again. it is about 30% dead and it is down to about 3 main stalks with branches off of each (kids broke camera, will post a pic in a day or two) It has budded here already. Sorry to hijack this thread with my own questions.

also will post pics of the apple and pear tree i planted about 3 yrs ago - hoping ofr a couple of pieces of fruit this year off of those.
 
Peach trees usually only last for about twenty years. I've heard of some going for 25 years, but that was with extremely personal care. It sounds to me like yours is just experiencing a natural decline. It may be time for a replacement.
 
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