My first year, non-bearing PF-25 peach (on Halford) has grown well this year. It looks like at least some of the shoots have begun to set a terminal bud. New wood is still very green, but has slowed/stopped.
Is this normal? I’m obviously well aware of the hardening off process in trees, I’m just not sure what’s normal for peaches. My Goldrush Apple on M9/M111 (interstem) is still shooting for the stars with no sign of stopping yet.
On PEI, there are terminal buds too.
Bryan,
I would say that is not normal in zone 7 at this time of year. My peach trees typically don’t set terminal buds till sometime in Sept. here.
Some stress is causing the tree to shut down growth early.
Looking a second time, it’s only the skinniest twigs doing this. The “thicker” shoots are still growing strong.
I noticed this with my pear and Apple already. All the branches were setting terminal buds. But deer or another leaf-loving creature ate one branch and that one had small leaves popping up again. That made me wonder if removing the terminal bud might get a tree to grow again?
I pruned off about an inch off of 3 branches removing the terminal buds. We’ll see if they start to grow again.
How old is that peach tree? Looks very healthy!
First season from bare root. Planted it in March. I hope for some blooms next year.
After I posted, I took a second look and realize only the spindly lowest branches have set terminal buds, all of that more vertical growth you see is still very robust and shooting for the stars.
An update on this followed by a question:
So every branch that I took the terminal bud off of started to grow and put on couple of inches of growth so far. But I wonder if there’s a downside to it. Since I’m forcing the tree to grow after it had decided to be done for the season. Any thoughts? Anything that can be bad about making the tree grow by taking out terminal bud? Wood will not harden to survive winter? Is this relevant in pear and Apple since they easily survive our winters? Thanks for any comments.
False alarm. Asode from a couple of the lowest side branches, the thing has put on another foot since I posted this.
