Getting peaches to fruit

Hi folks I know something about ornamental and native and landscape trees, but NOTHING about fruit trees. My partner Jim loves peaches, so do I, and so today I bought him a very nice 1/2 price dwarf redhaven peach. Looked healthy and covered with buds (and excellent orange red fall color too, which is what attracted me to it).

Nursey sign says that 2 plants needed for best fruiting. Does that mean 2 different strains? How can I be sure whether flowering will overlap? They had a few other dwarf peach varieities too, though don't recall them. Is spraying required to get fruit? Any advice would be appreciated.

Of course, I expect that deer would like peaches come August every bit as much as people do..........

Zone 5b and peaches don't often coincide. Temps below -10F wreck most of the buds, and a -15F snap will usually kill most of them, but there is a tree called Compact redhaven that is pretty tough.

Generally with stone fruit that aren't self-fertile it means planting another cultivar. For Redhaven, a good tough pollinator could be Reliance, another old tough peach (the trees, not the fruit.) Reliance and Redhaven are both great tasting freestones.

Thanks for the advice Pete. Sounds like I need a genetically different tree to fruit.

We are technically zone 5b, maybe some places here zone 6a, right on the border. We have had 2 winters in the past 10-12 that have gone to -15F but many do not have temps below zero or not more than -5. Last winter the coldest was 7F. Peaches are a very consistent crop in SE Michigan, at least 8 -10 varieities are here that are produced every year right where I live, including redhavens. I think I only remember one winter that was cold enough to kill out the peach bud crop, that of 1992-93 which was the coldest ever on record, officially -22. I think in that following summer there were no local peaches.

I think what I bought was actually "compact Redhaven", so perhaps it is the toughie you mention.

My neighbor grows peaches on the parkway, which can get very messy. Once they had to stake one of the trees to keep it from laying down, not sure why. The fruit is small and not something I would eat. My husband is picking and eating them all the time, which I tell him is not healthy because of all the dust from the quarry. I'm pretty sure they're not sprayed with anything. Are they okay to eat?

I live in zone 5a and get excellent peaches. They are on the small side, but that is because I need to work on my soil more. They taste fabulous. Peaches and nectarines and apricots are self fertile. That means you don't need another tree for fertilization. Mine doesn't have a pollinator and it bears nicely. The tree will need to be planted in nice soil with, hopefully, lots of compost. They need a mulch over the top -- a couple of inches of compost, leaves, straw, manure, or whatever you can get. They will need a balanced fertilizer after they have set fruit -- not too much nitrogen and regular water. In the early spring, before flowering, the tree should be pruned because that makes it grow new wood and the peaches are borne on the previous year's growth. This first year you may not need to prune. That depends on what was done at the nursery. It isn't so important the first year. After that you should get a book on pruning of fruit trees and look up peach trees.
Peaches can get nipped in the spring, and the fruit killed. That depends more on the way your weather comes in. In your zone peaches are fine but if you are down in the bottom of a valley, the trees will start to bloom and then a late winter freeze will hit them. I live up on a high mesa and don't have that problem, but the valley near me does. Still, they get peaches fairly frequently.
I think your chances of getting peaches are excellent.

PrairieGirl Z5, I don't know much about what they are mining in that quarry but if it is not toxic your husband could just wash them off and they should be fine. If they are sprayed, well, so are the ones at the store. When the tree is so heavy with peaches that they start to bend down, the tree often can't make them all large. If that seems to be the case, it is a good idea to knock some fruit off so the rest can grow large.



This message was edited Oct 22, 2006 4:49 PM

They're mining limestone here. The EPA has determined that the air quality may be hazardous, so we have street sweepers to keep the dust levels lower. I guess the peaches themselves are okay. The last time I looked, the trees were both upright, must've been young trees heavy with fruit, as you indicated. I'll make sure he washes them before he eats them. Thanks for all the info.

Limestone shouldn't be a problem unless you breathe it. How nice of your neighbors to plant a fruit tree on the parkway! It is important to prop them if they have a really heavy crop -- so they won't split or break. But early on, it is best to remove small fruit so the rest can grow large. Even with early removal of excess peaches, the tree may still need propping.

David5311,
My tree is Reliance, but I think Red Haven is also good. It isn't the winter lows that ruin your crop generally, it is the cold snaps that ocurr once the tree has started to bloom. Hopefully your tree will bloom and set fruit before a cold snap gets it. Always a gamble with fruit trees.

Not all stone fruit are self-fertile, it very much depends on the variety. Cold snaps in the spring will freeze the fruit, winter lows will kill the buds. This is from a UColorado website:

"The common varieties of nectarines and most peaches grown in Colorado are self-fruitful. Self-unfruitful varieties of peaches are J.H. Hale, Earlihale, Hal-Berta, Candoka and Mikado (June Elberta). Most other varieties of peaches will pollinate these self-unfruitful varieties. However, Elberta is not a good pollinizer for J.H. Hale. Self-fruitful varieties of apricots are Tilton, Wenatchee, Royal and Moorpark. These will set commercial Crops without cross-pollination. Self-unfruitful varieties of apricots are Riland, Perfection and Rival. Any self-unfruitful varieties can be pollinized by any other variety."

This area is one of the more northern areas for commercial peach orchards, and crops can be spotty following cold winters, but the varieties of peaches grown are not usually chosen for winter toughness. Peaches should be treated like weeds, sort of. They fruit better with applications of nitrogen, make larger fruit if thinned (it takes about 7 leaves to feed a peach), and will bear for about 10-15 years before they need to be replaced. For a home orchard, they might last 20. The wood is brittle and large crops do break down the limbs. For this reason, props are used or replacement branches are grown. You folks in the more arid West may not need to spray, but around here if fungicides are not regularly applied, brown rot sets in just about the time the peach ripens.

Well, I knew I could count on a forum like this for good info. I think we may buy another dwarf peach, because we have the space and it might help make fruit, (besides, they are 1/2 price now....), even though it now sounds like we might not need to. I guess I am not too worried about the cold issue. We are not in the commercial peach business, so our livlihoods would npt depend on getting a crop from a tree or two. Michigan produces plenty of peaches, all over SE MI where I live and all up the Lake Michigan shore much farther north. So I doubt the cold issue or late freeze issue is so much of a problem -- I sure see plenty of peaches being produced locally. Thanks for the info.

Oh, how I love fresh peaches. You know, the kind where the juice dribbles down your chin when you bite into it. I was traveling through western Illinois a few years back and came upon a mother lode of peach production in Calhoun County. Orchard after orchard, with little fruit stands dotting the roads. For some reason I had always thought of peaches and the SE part of the country--NOT west-central Illinois. The peaches they grow there are superb, and because of them I'll never forget Calhoun County.

I do think the amount of sunlight and heat is a factor, in my experience. The peaches my neighbor grows on their parkway are horrible! Give me a juicy peach any day, southern Illinois gets pretty hot, so that makes sense to me.

I have a little orchard here. I'm having great success with Peaches however it took me a while to select which ones I believed would do the best based on suggestions from other gardeners. I ultimately chose Reliance, Contender, and Condor. They're all doing just fine. Redhaven Peach was one I considered purchasing but didn't. I don't recall why I opted to forgo that one.

I don't spray my peaches. They taste great. Although Reliance and Contender are self-fertile, fruit set is allegedly considerably greater in the presence of other Peaches. Probably true as I have to protect my trees by alternately removing fruit lately.

Oooh, peach cobbler is soo good, with heavy whipping cream. And hot cocoa. LOL

Uh oh, now I'm hungry!

Me too!

That's my girl! I think you and me and a few others from northern Illinois should get together and go to a local all we can gorge Golden Coral or Old Country Buffet. We can hang out, talk plants, and eat to our hearts content.

Well I'm all for a meal with friends, but I'm a little squeamish about buffets. Is anyone interested in trying to get together this winter?

For me it's quantity not so much quality or else when I go to a regular restaurant I have to order a few sides to get by but that's ok with me.

I'd be for getting together over the winter. There isn't much going on at that time of year other than browsing seed and plant catalogs so I'm game. I can invite Kelly and Marie to come down from WI and they can stay at my house and then there's Stacy, April, Lisa, and quite a few others from all within about an hour to an hour and a half so it would be a nice little get together. No spouses or children allowed but male gardeners who want to join would be fine. Kevin's local but I don't think he'd want to brave that many women.

Right now, that counts me out. I was thinking day trip, LOL. My husband has been working 6-7 days a week, but if that slows down I'll be looking for any excuse, LOL. Where is Elburn, Kneevin's home? You know, there are still the windows at, cough, Macy's, in downtown Chicago. And the Lurie Gardens in Millenium Park, surely they have something planned for the holidays.

Elburn is out west from you. About an hour or so.

What exactly do you mean by a day trip? A day trip would probably be fine by me but Millenium Park isn't my idea of a place to wander around in winter and it would be about the equivalent of spending the entire day outside in Central Park. It would be sort of sloppy or way too cold for me for a whole day. I'd like to be somewhere indoors as in by forced air or radiant heat with a food supply. We do a few hours of downtown Chicago and all the holiday decorations followed up with dinner somewhere as a family right around Thanksgiving but that's usually cold by then and can be sloppy if we get snow like we did last year. Any chance you'd be interested in a day trip to somewhere indoors at the time of year we'd be meeting up?

So I guess a Bears game is out? LOL I'm joking. Well, I thought of Brookfield Zoo, their Holiday Lights Festival is pretty cool, but maybe too cool for some of us, LOL.

Or maybe Garfield Conservatory's holiday flower show (I've never been there) or Winter Wonder Fest at Navy Pier (it's indoors, I think, not sure what all there is to see).

OR~How about a meal with a ghost hunter at a haunted restaurant? If we can get six people to commit, it would cost $25 per person, plus dinner and drinks.

http://www.ghosttours.com/gourmet/ghostlygourmet.htm

I'd be up for the Garfield Conservatory's Holiday Flower Show followed by dinner at that Red Lion Pub. You did good PGZ5!

Did you mean the ghost hunter dinner, or just the pub? LOL I don't know the city that well.

The Ghost Hunter Dinner sounds fun. I've never been to one of those before. Now mind you... if a ghost does manifest itself, I certainly hope you don't mind me crawling underneath your chair or running from the building at the speed of light. Let's do it. Pick a few days and then we'll contact the others.

Oh, I'm not good at organizing things, I'm the most disorganized person there is! But I guess we should call soon, since his website says NOT available in Oct/November and usually not on a Friday or Saturday night. Hope that doesn't put the kibosh on it. And I would love for the guys here to join us as well, Bob and Bill and Kevin this means you!!

That will put the kabosh on it because all of us are working. Try another restaurant and go for a Saturday if at all possible or maybe a Sunday. Sheesh, I just looked up and me and you didn't start this thread. Poor david5311. Sorry David. We'll go start another thread over in the Upper Midwest Gardening Forum. PG, please do the honors of starting a new thread over there. The last time we all got together it was a lot of fun.

Think big! What is DG anyway, if it doesn't inspire to go above/beyond....

Mid-AMTrade Show. January 2007. Navy Pier, Chicago, IL.

E-mail contact: mail@midam.org

url: http://www.midam.org

Now, that would be a blast to see some heads spinning at all the nursery (and associated business) displays, usually around 1500 booths.

Attractions at Mid-Am . . .
► Expanded Educational Programs – now includes Irrigation Association classes in addition to the Pre-show Management Workshop and Midwinter Conference
►NEW! Innovation Showcase – displays the newest of new items for 2007 from cutting-edge plant varieties to the latest products and services.
►Daily Educational Demonstrations – offer short instructive presentations on proper pruning techniques, mixed container designing, retaining wall installation, among others.
►Themed Garden Lounges—provide attendees with a relaxing spot to rest and discuss business.
►Keynote Speaker--hear award-winning Dr. John Powers present Passion: Do What You Love; Love What You Do.

Online features . . .
►Interactive Exhibitor Floor Plan—pinpoints exhibitors by name, product, or booth number.

Looks interesting. Thanks for suggesting it.

Sorry I didn't read the fine print of that ghost hunter deal until after I sent it. That guy is famous for his tours of the Chicago area "haunts", but I don't know anyone who has ever been on one.

Scott~That's super cause I was prob going to go there anyway. It's not at McCormick Place, but Navy Pier this year? That's great food wise, many more choices. I'm pretty open to whatever is suggested.

I'm not Scott, but I play in a county by that name on DG...

I'm not a Party Girl, but I play one on DG. LOL

Sorry 'bout that, I mixed you guys up, that's another great reason to meet ya, then that'll never happen again. Unless you and Scott are vegetative clones, then I'm in BIG trouble.

This message was edited Oct 29, 2006 10:31 AM

No clones of me (thankfully), but I think Scott may just be an unstable adventitious mutation.

ROFL! Were you going to Mid Am anyway?

This message was edited Oct 29, 2006 11:07 AM

Thou hast dmail.

Sorry about the mis-type. It looks like (from the weblink) that the MidAm is indeed at McCormick Place. Navy Pier was its old haunt.