Who knows how to prune peach trees?

[ODB]

We’ve inherited a few peach trees. Not exactly sure how to trim them. They gave great peaches but one (for sure) is outta hand. Want to make sure it’s setup for a good harvest next year. Any help helps!

 

[wseidel]

Check out your state University Extension office. Likely there are many on-line resources available as well. You'll discover the differences between young and older trees, best season (usually before they break dormancy in the spring), and recommended tools. Hope this helps.

 

[HankNM]

I use American Hort. Soc. book on pruning & training, for years.Check it at local library.

 

[Apollo117]

Check out your state University Extension office. Likely there are many on-line resources available as well. You'll discover the differences between young and older trees, best season (usually before they break dormancy in the spring), and recommended tools. Hope this helps.

This is good advice. I'll add this. Check out the State of Georgia Extension office. I have a feeling they might know a thing or two about peach trees.

 

[Deerfield]

Growing up and working in orchard country I have spent quite a bit of time pruning fruit trees. Peaches are a pretty easy fruit tree to prune. The stone fruits as a rule are a lot harder to do wrong. It is important to wait until the trees are dormant before doing annual winter pruning. Depending on your location late winter can be better. Check with your local extension on when the recommended time is.

Pruning in peach trees serves several functions.
-It helps maintain the correct structure of the tree
-It helps the tree push new growth and fruiting branches instead of dumping energy into older non fruiting growth.
-It helps make it easier to manage and harvest the fruit during the growing season.

Any of the state extension departments from fruit growing states should put out pretty good diagrams showing what to prune. But here are a few general rules to follow.

-Most fruit is produced on second year growth branches so the goal is to remove some of the older wood that will no longer be productive (not all of it). This will help encourage new growth.
-Prune out branches that cut back into the center of the tree to maintain the open center nature of the tree. Also cut out any branches that cross hard over other branches.
-Prune the previous years new growth to half its length. These are the branches that will produce the fruit. Make your cuts at an angle just above a bud (generally around 1/4 inch above). There are quite a few really good diagrams showing this that a quick google search should pull up. It’s a little hard to explain.

As I said pruning peach trees is really not that difficult and it’s amazing how quick you’ll get the hang of it. A lot of wood gets removed during winter pruning so it may seem like you’re cutting too much but most likely you’re not. I seem to remember some number like 35 or 40% gets pruned out or something like that.


On another note and something that is a little different with peaches is summer pruning. During mid summer the tree will push vigorous upright suckers. It is important to prune a lot of these out as they suck a lot of “juice” out of the tree that needs to be going toward fruit development and filling. These vertical shoots simply get cut off.

 

[ODB]

Great help, thanks! We do have some decent size branches that produced nothing at all. Oddly enough the small of the two trees produced more peaches. They are two varieties, early (cling?) and later (elberta ?). The later peaches were better but we canned a ton of fruit.

I’ll reach out to the extension here (Idaho) and also keep your advice in mind. Thanks!

 

[CJohnson]

SC produces more peaches than Georgia, so you may want to check out the Clemson Extension website before you head over to the UGA folks. Haha.

 

[Opah]

Splice on a plum branch, let it grow, let the plums dry up and there you go a peach tree pruned

 

[JustinNC]

Always surprised how often this is asked. I'm a certified arborist. Worked private side of things for several years before becoming a .gov arborist. That said, during COVID shutdown, I had probably 4-5 calls asking about fruit tree pruning. It's a completely different animal than traditional arboriculture. Always have to pass those calls on to someone else.

 

[MallardSX2]

I use the crown method n my trees. I cut the crap out of them every year. They are good trees. I trim way more branches than you would ever imagine.