How quick are peaches to bear fruit?

General Fruit Growing
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My father-in-law had a frost or something similar from Gurneys like 10 years ago, and he loved the peaches he got, but he got them for like all of 2 years before the peach died. I think black knot killed it, but could have been borers or other stuff, his yard is pretty sub-optimal (lots of overhead cover from jack pines, sandy soil).

I’m thinking of getting him a peach, but he’s also getting up there in years and health problems–if he’s around in 2-3 years, that’s great, but this might be his last fruiting season, too…he likes to watch his garden, and most of the garden is gone now but I thought a tree might entertain him some for the summer

So I’m thinking if I want to maximize his odds, I have 3 choices:

  1. Choose precocious varieties–any suggestions?

  2. Choose as large a tree as possible–any suggestions there too, as far as where to get as large and full a tree as you can expect from mail-order, at least? I know burnt ridge sells larger and smaller, but I don’t know if their larger are actually any bigger than a “standard” raintree or even Home Depot for that matter

  3. actually shop box stores and/or places like Jungs, check their bare-root plants, and try to pick a peach with visible flowers/flower buds

thoughts on my best options? Is it reasonable in any case to try to get peaches/apricots in the first year, or is that a pipe dream?

also, how quick are apricots to bear by comparison? Not a peach, but another thought at least…

2

Reliance peaches have produced fruit for me in 2-3 years from a switch. A larger Reliance peach from a local nursery potted in a sack could produce peaches in a year or less.

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Mark,
Your father-in-law also lives in zone 5, WI, too?

Zone 5 is iffy. Buying cold hardy varieties like Reliance, Madison, Contender or even PF 24 C is a way to go.

A Potted peach tree from a local nursery near you may be the fastest way to go. However, 1) it is very expensive. 2) they sometimes, do not carry varieties suitable for your zone. In my area, potted peaches have flowers on them already. A buyer gets fruit that same year but it is $80-100 a tree.

If you can get a good size bare root tree, it can fruit in year two. I realky like Cummins nursery trees. I got a PF 24 C from it. Good size tree that established well.

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My PF 24 C from Cummins planted in 2010, flowered and fruited in 2011. Two years ago, we had really bad, freezing cold winter, it still had some flower buds survived. A good tasting peach with a good size.

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Peaches can set fruit before they “should” which may be perfect for you,because who cares if you stunt the tree. My first homegrown peach came from my Contender in the second year I had it, while potted in a 25 gallon fabric pot. You definitely can get a peach from a local nursery capable of setting fruit this year in the container, or even from big box stores.

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I like bare rooted trees over container trees. However, in this circumstance I would get a container tree in a 5 gallon pot. The tree should be able to support 4 or 5 peaches the first year. I do not think a bigger pot will help much. Get a tree that has good limbs that can support the weight of a full size peach.

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Peach trees will try to produce fruit quickly, but the blooms should be removed in year 1 and year 2 in order to have a big crop in year 3. The goal is to sacrifice a few peaches in years 1 and 2 in order to get the maximum production in year 3 and future years. This rule may not apply if your goal is to just enjoy a few peaches as quickly as possible without worrying about future production.

A clean toilet brush works well to remove the blooms if you have a lot of trees. This bloom removal was suggested to me by the peach PHD in my state and is the standard practice used by the large commercial growers in NC and other area.

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I am in zone 6. The potted peach trees I got from big box store all bear fruit on the same year, plant in spring, got a few (4-5) peaches in the fall. Not sure whether I stunt the trees’ growth by keeping the fruits first year, but trees are fine now.

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Most peach varieties are precocious. Although, I’ve run into a few varieties which seem to take longer to fruit than normal. I’ve grown all the varieties mentioned so far on this thread and found none to be tardy bearers.

Some of the most important things you can do to get maximum precocity:

Make sure the roots don’t sit in soggy soil (i.e. if the soil doesn’t drain well, plant the tree in some sort of raised planting).

Pre-loosen the soil before planting for a good sized area. Peach roots will fly through loose soil and you’ll see the positive affect on growth above.

Keep a large area around the base of the tree weed free. The roots of young peach trees won’t compete well at all with weed roots.

Lastly, if your goal is max precocity, give the peach peach tree lots of N fertilizer. Don’t give it so much to burn the roots, but very regular smaller applications will make the tree take off like a rocket. The N is really important to size the tree fast. Once the tree has some size you can cut back on the N and target for normal growth.

However, just like a rocket, the tree will get tall very quickly and catch a lot of wind, which will cause the tree to rock back and forth. This causes some minor root breakage, which can then slow the tree down. To avoid this, either stake the tree, or start pruning a little bit the first summer to keep the tree lower. You can select scaffolds early and tie them down to help precocity.

I little bit of organic mulch around the base of the tree (assuming the soil is well drained, or the trees are in a raised planting) is a good idea too.

I think purchasing large peach trees for planting, might help some, but my main focus would be on the things mentioned above. Really what you are trying to do is size the tree up as fast as possible, which can be easily done with small trees.

Once I really pushed trees using the methods I describe and got a small but decent harvest the second year in the ground (about 50 to 75 nice peaches per tree). I planted these trees as whips (about 1/2 caliper) and (I know this sounds unbelievable) but they grew to 3" diameter trunks the first season.

In terms of removing flowers the first or second season, this is a rare instance I’m going to disagree with my fellow commercial grower Blueberry.

I’ve never seen peach trees runt out, or slow down by allowing them to flower or fruit early. The difference may be the soil. We have pretty rich soil here (soil tests show about 6% organic matter for our soil) so that may be why I’ve not seen any detrimental effects of allowing peach trees to bloom and fruit early.

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I dont doubt you at all. I had a few peaches I didnt get sold last year and now I feel like without a tree spade you would probably kill the tree trying to transplant them as they were 2-3" diameter trunks and 6’ tall by the end of the summer.

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I’ve never seen any stone fruit runt out. It’s all about growing conditions. I usually fruit them as early as possible and haven’t seen any negative effects.

I’ve also had big crops of apples in the second leaf by pushing them as you describe. All that nitrogen can lower fruit quality but back off for a yr and on most soils the quality returns.

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12

I’ll second the recommendation for Cummins nursery. My second year Harrow Diamond peach produced this past year.

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My two little peach whips didn’t do much last year after planting. I guess I’ll be applying some fert to them and my some of my other fruit trees in a couple of months.

I was considering moving them to another location, I think they were in wet soil for too long, and maybe could’ve used more sunshine. Right now, where they’re at, they get about 8 hours of sun in the summer.

But, I have noticed a bunch of buds on the little branches of the peaches. Are these buds just leaves ready to pop out in spring or fruit buds? Obviously these trees are not ready to fruit yet this year. I’ve seen these buds on some of my apple trees as well.

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Single buds will be leaves, triple buds are flower leaf flower.

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15

One of our local nurseries here gets Dave Wilson Nursery potted trees in the spring. I have seen them with peaches on them in the pots. So that could be an option if you can find a store selling those monsters. I think they were the price of a large-sized potted shade tree - around $80.