Peaches Peaches Peaches Peaches Peaches, I love you, oh!

By Beth McMahon Gillespie County AgriLife Extension Horticulturist

Choosing the right peach variety and location to plant it are the top two things to do to correctly grow your own peaches. We get too cold for some types of peaches and not cold enough for others. Choose a peach tree with chill hours that range between 600-800. Avoid any variety that has “Florida”, “Gulf”, “Houston” or “Tropic” in the name.

The best spot to plant your peach tree has easy access to water, full sun and at least eight inches of topsoil, if not a full foot. White hard packed caliche does not count! The deeper the soil the better the tree will grow.

When planting, you can add some compost to the soil you remove from the hole, but you should not replace or add more than 25%. Mulch the tree afterwards with three to four inches of mulch and only water when the top inch of the soil is dry.

Apply either one cup of 21-0-0 fertilizer in a three foot circle around the tree in April, May and June or 9 pounds rabbit or chicken manure split into equal portions during those three months.

Wait a month after planting before applying fertilizer, unless you are mixing compost into the planting soil. For older trees, use one pound of 21-0-0 per inch of trunk diameter split over three months or 35 lbs. rabbit or chicken manure, split over three months.

If you have a lot of vigorous growth after that first fertilization you can skip later ones.

Pruning of peaches should take place in January or February, right before bloom starts.

Your peach tree may have problems with plum curculios. These little insects inject their eggs into the peaches.

The weevil larvae tunnel around inside the fruit before emerging and dropping to the ground, growing up into adult curculios and starting the cycle again. To decrease occurrence of this pest as well as others, remove all dropped fruit from underneath the tree.

If you have had this problem before, use either Gardentech Sevin Insect Killer Concentrate or Bonide 8 Insect Control and spray the fruit twice, two weeks apart, starting when the petals drop and the little peaches form. This should help protect the fruit from early infestations, though later infestations can occur.

Neither of these sprays are organic. Bagging the fruit with peach bags might be an organic solution that would work, but it will be time consuming.

Peach trees can live up to 20 years. If they live past that, you are doing great! Canker is a common problem as the trees age. Cankers are disease infections due to damaged trunks.

You may first notice that your tree has cankers by gummy sap oozing from the trunk. Painting the trunk with half water half latex white paint can help prevent damage. There isn’t much you can do after the tree shows signs of canker, except keep the tree healthy with appropriate watering and fertilizer.

Racoons always know when your peaches are ripe, sometimes before you do. An electric fence around the tree or watchful dog in the yard at night can keep them away so YOU get peaches this year, not them. Slick metal baffles temporarily wrapped around the trunk of the tree may help, but the racoons may outsmart these.

Fredericksburg peaches are widely sought-after because of the elevation and climate of Gillespie County, which helps produce an abundant and flavorful peach crop. – Photo courtesy of ATPI

PEACH RIPENING SCHEDULE (approximate dates)

May 10-25 — Spring Gold, Regal, Flavorich

May 20-June 5 — June Gold, Gold Prince

June 5-15 — Sentinel, Gala, Southern Pearl (white)

June 10-27 — Harvester, Cary Mac

June 20-30 — Majestic

June 25-July 12 — Loring, Bounty

June 27-July 15 — Redglobe

July 10-25 — Dixieland

July 15-30 — Redskin

July 25-Aug. 5 — Jersey Queen, Elberta

Aug. 1-12 — Flame Prince, O’Henry

Aug. 10-25 — Parade, Big Red