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Pruning Peach Tree

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mbvirtue Joined: 3/01/2006 Location: McFarland (Madison), Wisconsin Posts: 4582	Posted: Mar/17/2007 4:43 PM PST Can anyone give me some tips as to how I prune my peach tree? I believe it was originally pruned to an open center, as there are three main branches held together with a piece of twine. It's approx. 6 years old, two years of it with us. Two years ago we had over 100lbs fruit (all ripe around Labor Day), and as a result one of the lower branches broke and was removed after the season was finished. This past summer, we had two hail storms as well a a hummingbird, so the fruit was salvageable but not at all pretty like it was two years ago. Our neighbor said it's an every other year thing, so this year promises to be another bumper crop. I want to do what I can to help this tree out, just don't know what to do? With apple trees, you just prune what's vertical back to it's origin, without taking more than 1/3 of the total tree at a time. Does that work with peaches? Everyone I ask around here just tells me that peaches won't grow here (South Central WI), and there it ends. As you can see from my picture (with the name, forgot what those are), no one told our peach tree it shouldn't be doing this... Also is the timing of the pruning similar to apples? I am planning that for the end of March. We have two apple trees that are going to need some major pruning, they're over 20' tall and really hard to harvest! (Imagine a 40 year old 5'6" Mom on an 8' ladder with a 4' reacher, I'm sure the neighbors are all dialing EMS) Thanks for the advice, Margaret Quote \| Reply \| Report

zuzuspetals Joined: 8/31/2006 Location: Coastal N.Carolina Posts: 346	Posted: Mar/17/2007 7:30 PM PST I hope someone can give you some great advice on this topic, I'll be interested to learn, too. I have a young peach tree, I've only pruned it to remove winter-killed or crossing branches. I do, however, cull the fruit several times during the season, so that fewer but bigger peaches can develop without overloading the still slender branches. Quote \| Reply \| Report

RKayne Joined: 11/09/2006 Location: Posts: 4090 Moderator	Posted: Mar/17/2007 8:03 PM PST Here you go, [URL="http://www.ext.vt.edu/pubs/treefruit/422-020 /422-020.html"]Peach Tree Pruning[/URL] . Quote \| Reply \| Report

zuzuspetals Joined: 8/31/2006 Location: Coastal N.Carolina Posts: 346	Posted: Mar/17/2007 8:29 PM PST Wow, that's extremely comprehensive, Thanks, RKayne. Quote \| Reply \| Report

mbvirtue Joined: 3/01/2006 Location: McFarland (Madison), Wisconsin Posts: 4582	Posted: Mar/18/2007 2:54 PM PST Wow, I've got some reading ahead of me...That is the most comprehensive, easy to understand description of what I'm trying to do. Thank you, and here's to a bumper crop this season. (Tell that hummingbird I'm on to him, and the hail can't come to visit this year, either) Margaret Quote \| Reply \| Report

treeman Joined: 3/29/2002 Location: Posts: 2874	Posted: Mar/18/2007 6:14 PM PST Thats my Alma Mater.... proud to be a Hokie Quote \| Reply \| Report

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