Large limb on peach tree split, how do i safely trim it?

General Fruit Growing
#1

My new home has this wonderful peach tree. Recently a very large (heavy with peaches) limb split and is hanging now. I want to do the best thing for it. I’m guessing to cut it next to the tree, do I put something on the cut or just leave it to heal on it’s own?

#2

Cut it and just let it heal by itself. If it is an important branch you could leave a piece a few inches long and see if a new shoot comes from it.

#3

Thin the rest of the tree

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#4

I had the same thing happen to one of my peach trees. It was not thinned yet and the peaches were very, very small. Then we received three days of rain. They doubled and tripled in size and broke off one branch. I left the branch on the ground because there were so many peaches on it. It was still attached by a small amount of the branch. What could possible happen if they did not ripen correctly? I just picked them two days ago. The branch broken on the ground had nice peaches on it and were ripe enough to pick. I will probably cut it off when they are all picked off. I did thin the rest of the tree once that branch broke off. It hurts me to take off so much fruit BUT I know it is for the betterment of the rest of the fruit still left on the tree to ripen and get bigger.

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#5

I have a similar experience. I let a branch get overloaded and it broke at the trunk. Of course it broke at the top and was still well connected to the tree at the bottom. I thinned that branch appropriately, braced it back into position with a 2x4, then used some long deck screws to reattach it to the tree. I harvested good peaches off that branch that year. It performed well the following year as well. The next year, that branch died.

#6

Thanks. I will do that.