Article - Common Mistakes in Peach Training

General Fruit Growing
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I saw this article this morning in GP. Bill Shane has been writing some good stuff in there.

The biggest challenge for me is to not choose all the scaffolds the first year, especially w/ purchased trees, because sometimes they won’t throw out any new scaffolds the second year. Because of this we have a significant portion of scaffolds which really don’t have the “collar” protection, and therefore don’t have the best connection to the trunk.

Alan’s mentioned in his pruning guide to select scaffolds 1/3 or less the diameter of the trunk. The formation of a collar on peach trees is yet another reason to follow this rule, whenever possible.

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Thanks for posting this article, I will be sure to apply the guidelines to my newly planted Contender Peach and Mericrest Nectarine.

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Love these kind of articles. Alan told me one time that pruning peaches isn’t rocket science, but sometimes I still think it is, so I like to read and re-read these things. Then I go watch the guy from Dave Wilson who says make the cut, walk away and don’t look back - you can’t spend time fretting about it.

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Olpea,
Thanks for the article. I have had those crow’s feet clusters. Now I know why and what to do. I should get it right one of these days :grinning:

Thanks for sharing,

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Mamunag,

I’ve had those crow’s feet clusters too. I’ve always just pruned the cluster to one, but I like his idea better. :relaxed:

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Is it safe to assume that the same applies to apricots?

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Mark,

My limited experience in apricots suggest the trees act more like plums than peaches. Still I think it would be of benefit to choose smaller diameter scaffolds, which would be easier since they seem to throw out more new wood from everywhere.