Bonide’s Fung-onil isn’t working very well for me at the recommended dosage.I’m probably going to try Copper next year. Brady
Matt, happy to provide a report. I’m keeping my fingers crossed about the container method. If it works for me for figs, maybe it will work for peaches. I have some ideas about improving the chances for success.
Roy, they seem to grow very easily from seeds. Mine sprouted in the compost bin. They are either from the Garden Gold or the Honey Babe.
I’m surprised Zaiger hasn’t crossed them into their plum line. They have nectaplums and tri-lite peach plum, so might be possible. I hoped tri-lite would be resistant to leaf curl, but it’s not.
i could see the seedlings having an almost bonsai look with minimal effort. Sounds like a good idea.
Good to know. Olpea uses a commercial product, it may be stronger? I use both, and have had no curl, but I have seen it on other trees nearby So I treat for it. A generic Kocide is for sale on Amazon. Expensive stuff, but better than other copper products
http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B008ITVY5U/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_8?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3LY2QZAXPD93W.
Bear,
How is your Eldorado doing? Fruit ripen for you? Tasting notes?
Hope you are well.
wow. I love the flowers of your garden gold.
I’d love to see your report too, Bear. Hope summer is treating you well.
This was Eldorado on June 28. A couple of small branches broke from the fruit. I tied up other branches to support the weight. They were excellent small peaches. It was very worthwhile to grow in container.
I was very happy to get so many peaches, and they were delicious.
Now I want to find a way to do this with other genetic dwarf peaches. I have some seedlings from Garden Gold or Honey Babe but who knows what they will do. Collected seeds this year from El Dorado with intent to experiment.
The tree needed water twice daily in the 90+ degree weather. Now I am back to once daily.
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WOW !!!
Bear, they look great! Thanks for sharing. Congratulations!
Matt, when firm they were semi- free stone and have a nice sweet tart peachey flavor. Really ripe, they are freestone but a little too soft. The inside has quite a bit of red. They were about large apricot size but to me were very worth it.
I plan to prune some of the longer branches back to more proximal new growth, to reduce the risk for breakage next year, although it wassn’t too bad.
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Found this thread again and decide to post an update two years later on my Empress dwarf peach.
This is our third summer with the little tree. The first year we got 5
peaches, the second year about 15 and this year will be maybe 12. We had
a bad hail storm as the fruitlets were setting this year and lost many,
otherwise the tree would probably support 20 or so fruits.
I have to thin heavily, like remove 3/4 or more of the fruitlets. I hand
pollinate with a q-tip. As said above, the blooms are gorgeous. The
whole tree is covered in pink. I keep the plant under a covered patio
from leaf drop to bloom time (Nov-April). In three seasons, there
haven’t been any disease issues. I have not re-potted since purchase. I
just add organic fertilizer and compost to the soil a couple times a
season.
As for flavor, my wife and I like it. It is sure better than store
bought peaches. I understand people complain about the genetic dwarf
peach’s taste being sub par, but we are happy with it. I plan to add one
of the other genetic dwarf peach varieties in the future.
I’ll put some pictures below of the tree, and developing fruit.
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Thanks for following up on this! I’m really interested in GD peaches. We get so many late spring frost’s here, covering the tree is the only way to get reliable crops. It would be way easier with a tiny tree. Plus, for just fresh eating, one little tree would be about enough.
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Yeah, me too. I’m in zone 5A and peaches can be a challenge, but I’m considering putting two of the genetic dwarves in my yard where they could be covered, hosed down or whatever in the event of a spring frost. My orchard is too far away and typically too large to really do so and I just accept a certain rate of failure during many or most springs.
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Just a thought from my own experience, but any tree container grown is pretty much a dwarf. Most of my trees put out very little growth if they are carrying a fruit load. Its coming to the point where i’ll need 2 of each variety and just fruit them every other year to regrow new fruit wood.
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Good point. I’ve seen the lovely pictures of the container genetic dwarf peaches, but I wonder how large I could expect them to get if I planted them in the ground and didn’t prune to specifically keep them small. Like I said, I’m inclined to plant two in my yard close to the house, but I’d hate to do it if I had to keep them heavily pruned to avoid them getting too large (I’d love them to be about chest height, but no taller than head height).
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GANGGREEN, at the rate my Empress GD Peach has been growing, I don’t think you’d have an issue. I have not pruned at all, except to remove a couple of short die-back branches (couple of cms at most). In each of the three seasons, I tended to get maybe 2-6" growth. At some point I’ll want to prune more to encourage more new fruiting wood, but right not, I haven’t needed too. What I’m getting at, is that I doubt even in the ground the GD (at least Empress) will be a plant you need to prune heavy or often.
If you want a GD peach chest or head height, try to find one grafted 18"-24" high. Mine is grafted a few inches from the ground, so it is quite a short plant. I noticed the nursery I purchased my Empress from now sells them grafted about 18" high, which is probably better, so you aren’t bending way over to work on the plant.
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Do most still prune their dwarf peaches in an open vase shape or is that considered unnecessary?
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Which is your favorite of the three? Thank you.
Drew
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What would happen if I grafted a non genetic dwarf variety like elberta peach onto a genetic dwarf like empress peach. Would the elberta take off and grow normally or would its growth be stunted from the empress interstem?
If it stunts the growth of normal varieties my thought is to graft better tasting varieties onto my genetic dwarf trees.
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The Elberta would grow normally I think.
Someone on the forum grafted a mulberry on Gerardi dwarf. The scion grew normally. Assuming the same mechanism at work, there will be no stunting.
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