I first taped the lower part of the crack, to hopefully keep it from propagating further
Sank two 10’ long top rail into ground and drove small rocks in around them to tighten things up (standard procedure for posts for me)
Pulled part of the tree up and temporarily stabalized it with duct tape (a lot quicker to apply)
The duct tape doesn’t last long, but it gave me a chance to adjust things, at which point I followed up with cabling (I reuse old cable TV wiring)
I thinned a few peaches first, then realized that me moving the branches around was going to thin more (maybe 10), so I waited until I was done to thin more off.
Good news is that one of the 3 varieties I have grafted is on a lower scaffold which is OK. Though it is bent down a bit, which I was partially able to address. I thought I had a lot of cabling, but I used all of it up.
But the other 2 varieties are on one of the halves that split. I may make some backup grafts of them anyway. It’s a shame, as they grew very well.
I’m glad doctors for human don’t think that anymore, at least since the 1860’s (got shot in the leg? hold on while I get my saw…). Grafting is an example of trees healing. But I take your point that it could be a bit tricky when the injury is this big.
I have my doubts about it healing. I’m tempted to just come back and tie the trunk tighter with cabling, though I guess I’d need to loosen it slightly from time to time (annually?) to keep it from girdling. Hopefully it will hold together for another month.
I always thought it was tight V which were the problem. This one was fairly open. At least 90% between them. Was the issue more the large size of the two branches (effectively co-leaders).
Here’s another of my peaches which is the same age- it was supposed to be a donut peach, but is not, so hopefully I can figure out what it is when they are ripe. Do I need to worry about the same sort of thing here? It has a much lighter load, so it isn’t really even bending down any, but it might be good to know before it does…
I do lose a lot to animals. Sometimes everything at some sites. Even if I trap (which would be a lot harder to do at other sites), I still lose a lot. There were two sites with apricots this year (aside from my house which had only a few). One of them was completely wiped out by something that broke some branches (likely a raccoon and maybe some squirrels). The other site, which is the one with this Gloria peach came through completely untouched. So, I’m both looking forward to trying Gloria, and to the possibility that there isn’t a large animal concentration near this property (fairly busy road, not big yards, etc).
Edit: I should mention that I am still working on consistently producing fruit. Over the last 5+ years there has either been: late freeze, poorly handled insects, animals, brown rot, poor/no pruning, and underthinning. Once in a while I get lucky. Jujubes aren’t included in the above, as most animals ignore them, no insects (maybe 1% loss from grasshoppers with no spray), no disease (other than maybe some cracking with poorly timed rain), no thinning (at least I’ve never heard of anyone doing it), and they bloom late, so I’ve never lost any to freezes (though in Cliff has in KY, so I guess it is possible) . That just leaves pruning and figuring out how to make them more productive in our climate, which I seem to be doing OK on.
I thinned at least 3 times on this tree. I think a big part of why it wasn’t enough is because each of these fruit is so big. A peach that makes softball sized fruit can’t physically support as many of them as something like Carolina Gold or Baby Crawford which are pretty small.
Kind of funny, but mowing the lawns at the rentals guarantees that I see them on a regular basis and I did what I thought was a decent job thinning at them. There are trees in my own yard that got completely ignored, or had a very cursory pass over. Mostly apples and pears, as they have been almost completely replaced by jujubes in my fruit diet.
Hi Bob
It might pay to take a stout rope to go in a circle around each of those scaffolds say about 2-3’ from center so that these opposing scaffolds can support each other, or you could install a vertical pole in the center anchored to the tree trunk and run your ropes from the central pole support out to each scaffold. As you mentioned take care not to let ropes and cables to cut into bark, so use some sort of soft plastic or rubber as a saddle where the rope goes around each scaffold to spread the pressure against the bark.
It’s amazing to me how fast my grafts grow during summer. I splint almost all of my very aggressive grafts during the first season even though most are strong whip and tongue, but if I’m not careful my twist ties that tighten my splints can girdle the growing scions. Recently I have replaced my twist ties with 1” wide plastic tapes to tie the graft union securely against the splint. That works a lot better avoiding the girdling concern. Each spring before bud swell I usually renew or replace all splints that appear necessary.
Your repair seems to be pretty Pro! You may be able to use wide duct tape to replace the cables by installing some Large hose clamps that you can use to close up the wound long enough to get duct tape applied. It’s pretty strong stuff and would spread the pressure against the bark avoiding girdling while the tree heals itself. Best of luck, I look forward to seeing your healed tree someday!
Very often while I am hiking I see examples where two trees weld themselves together in strong bonds. If nature can do it, I suspect your tree can do the same. If you get thru this growing season and can take some supports off, you could probably also use bridge grafts that run diagonally across the wound to strengthen the healing across the tree grain, in a stronger manner, just some food for thought! Best wishes
Dennis
Kent, wa
Are you suggesting this for the one that broke or the last pic in my post? I did run a cable around the broken one, though I should probably add a 2nd or 3rd one.
And now that I’ve had this happen once, maybe I should preemptively run the cable on some other peaches.
Good idea. When I was trying to tighten things up for the duct tape I was thinking that I should have brought some clamps with me to put more pressure on it than I could with my hands.
Hi Bob,
My first suggestion was in reference to your multiple scaffold tree I your last pic that is not broken. Those steep angle scaffolds may always need some extra support especially as they load on more fruit.
Take care
Dennis
One more thought!
I would start at the bottom of the wound with the first hose clamp, tighten gently then add the second clamp about 6 “ above.
After cinching up the wound with those two hose clamps, I would wrap a layer of black poly plastic around each spot between the clamps before you duct tape so that when you remove the tape you do not damage the bark! Then take the boot on clamp off and go another 6” up above the second clamp and repeat this process until you reach the top. You may need to go back several times to relocate the spots you tape to allow the trunk to expand as it grows in diameter so the plastic would facilitate removal of the duct tape but if the healing starts at the lower part of the wound, that makes it easy to relocate the duct tape to new locations.
Hope you can follow what I’m trying to describe, because you do not want to leave the hose clamps on once you have it securely taped
The problem is you need to thin 10" apart and it’s almost impossible for any of us to do, at least until about the third pass. I keep telling myself 30 leaves per fruit, but when I first go through shoots have only started to grow so it isn’t until about 3 weeks before harvest that I get it right, if I ever do.
The only time I regret thinning as much as I did is if animals end up taking the fruit.
Anyway, I think my wife is almost ready for visitors again although she just recovered from a terrible, tick born illness and is only beginning to get her strength back, but by mid-August maybe you and your wife can come by for a visit. My Earnie’s choice peach should be loaded with ripe fruit about then and I will be focused on nectarines… hopefully.
Peaches are easily girdled by their own growth when restricted by a ring, and a hose clamp would likely cause that. You can get the same result as far as firm holding with electric tape, but for peaches it stretches enough to prevent girdling in my experience- and I’m speaking from experience about all of this. I’m not just guessing, which is fun, but I’ve fixed trees like that before.
I think the hose clamp is a great idea to use while setting up the permanent splint and taping job. Just set it up in a way that you can remove the clamps once the tape has given the union adequate support.
Group think has it’s own power.
Incidentally, you could also use a small nut and bolt near the beginning of the split and leave it in the tree permanently. use a long enough bolt so it remains visible for the life of the tree. I have saved big scaffold branches by including one with wire support held in place with eye screws.
I understand where you’re coming from. You wanted to see what you could do. And as per usual you did a great job. But honestly that Y that you taped back together has no chance of holding in the long run. I doubt that it will even heal back enough to hold the limbs in winter, no leaves, no fruit.
And the second tree has weak spots as well. That Y up high will probably split open with a fruit load. And the crotch lower with several branches joining at one point isn’t a strong setup as well. That’s not a recommended structure. The scaffolds should originate at different levels not all at one point.
Hopefully you can havest your fruit and then see what happens. Nice work and good luck…!!
Bob,
Re. your trees that have many limbs at about the same level. Let me show you mine. When my Freckle Face was in a pot, I did not want its scaffolds to stack up as the tree would be too tall to keep in the basement. So, all scaffolds came out at about the same height.
Found out the fruit is so good, I want more of it so I put the tree in ground. By then, the structure of the tree could not be altered. I also have no space for it to spread out at a lower level.
So I make do what I can. I just pruned it severely a week ago and pained the exposed ares white.
Overloaded peach tree… reminds me of my reliance ? Peach tree… back before ofm and brown rot got so bad. It used to do this quite often… yes i should have thinned more.
It did not split ever but did break a limb or two over the years.
Bad unions can ALWAYS be compensated with crutches or other support. Have you ever tried to repair a tree broken the way Bob’s is? I’ve done it successfully so it certainly is possible from where I sit. When you have a codominant or bark inverted branch all you have to do is spring and summer prune it back to give the collar a chance to develop. Peach trees grow and heal fast when they are healthy.
I have tried to repair a few trees. None that bad. Hey, it’s fun to try. But it’s so easy to start over. Peaches heal fast but they also regrow rapidly. In a couple of years, I could have him a whole new tree that would be a lot stronger. And never miss a crop in the process.
Yes, and pruning back to lessen the load. That union will need it all. And still probably split out down the road.
Oh no, two experts with different opinions based on different experiences. This is war
I can never keep up with all the peaches in my nursery and sometimes branches I need split when I spread them which would require me to remove all three scaffolds if I removed it and start over. When I repair them by the time they are ready to sell the scaffold that broke is at least as strong as the other two.
I’d lose a year if I started over and all the work already put into the tree. The repair takes a few minutes.
i had both a sour cherry and a apricot break in half. one from a windstorm. the other from the U.S mail. i spliced with bamboo stakes and taped well. both totally recovered, and the cherry is now pushing 12ft. both only had about a inch holding the top from completely snapping off. only reason i didn’t think putting this peach back together would work is the crotch angle will always be a issue as a future weak spot. it will definitely recover but it will always need to be looked after and may, despite your efforts Bob, break again. good job on your doctoring skills. you definitely have more patience than me in that aspect.
ive seen a few old apples have a split like that peach and continue to grow and fruit like that with nothing supporting it. i guess it depends where the split is and placement of branches under it. life finds a way.
i had one of my sour cherries with angles like this literally split in half from snow weight over this last winter. there was no repairing it so i drove a stake in and tied what’s left to keep the rest from breaking. it’s very lopsided. it’s got a big fruit crop on it and where the other half broke off there’s a new leader growing. i have it tied down to keep the crotch angle more open this time.
It’s a continual battle to make myself thin enough. I’ve never gotten to a 10" between fruit standard. The best I’ve been able to do is maybe 4-6", and often I settle for a “not touching”, which still involves removing a lot of fruit.
But, every time I get a lot of small low brix fruit it is a lesson that I should have removed more. Of course the lessons aren’t consistent, as the animals are still fine removing all the low brix fruit, as they attack before it is even ripe.
Lyme disease? My father had that and it took him a while to get better. We’d be happy to come by whenever you are ready. Just as much as nectarines, I love Euro plums. I was surprised the other day when it looked like Castleton was ready. 19 brix and very good. Feels a bit early for it, but it was definitely ripe. I’ll have to go out and pick the rest- probably about half a dozen, as the tree has been having black knot issues and never grew much.
I always thought that was what the goblet open center was supposed to look like. Until this thread I had been pretty pleased that the tree grew that way mostly on it’s own, though I did prune out some of the growth in the center. So even for the goblet open center, you want a few inches vertically between each scaffold? Mine aren’t all the same, but they’ve only got about 1" (maybe sometimes 2") difference.
I’ve been thinking about it and maybe it would stand a better chance if I cut off 90%+ of one of the 2 halves. Only one of the halves has grafts that I care about, so I could cut off the other half leaving just a few short branches to keep it alive. Though I’ll definitely need to keep the other half well supported by the posts.
I hadn’t noticed it in person, but saw the same thing when looking at the pic. Would cutting half of the Y off be the right move there?
Yours looks great to me (aside from being painted for Halloween). I guess 3 of the scaffold coming from the same spot is the issue…
Keep it for now to get the fruit. Cutting off a good deal next spring would be a good idea. And take out any Y splits that are similar to what broke open. Take off one side.
I wouldn’t expect a Castleton to reach 19 and still have green flesh. I don’t consider any E. plum to be tree ripe until the flesh turns amber- although Stanley sometimes drops from the tree before getting to that point, which is why I don’t grow it.
17 is good for just about any J. plum by my standards.
Grafting is an example of trees healing. But I take your point that it could be a bit tricky when the injury is this big.
