Squirrels, but they have to get past my dog. Yes I have to thin, I have thinned them once. i will again. Yes some may drop, they are though growing at a fast rate. No bug damage so far either.
I have 2 peach trees, and 2 nectarine, all have fruit.
Pf Lucky 13, Indian Free, Arctic Glo, and Nectaplum
I put in two plum trees, and Nadia the plum-cherry hybrid this year.
I have one sweet cherry and 2 tart cherry trees here in the city. One sweet at my cottage is left. I had a couple others that lived about 5 years and got canker.
I have 16 Cornus Mas trees at the cottage too.
Mostly i grow berries, all kinds, here in the city, and at my cottage.
I like to forage for fruit too and usually harvest black and red raspberries, blackberries, and mulberries from the wild.
Drew51 hi
You said you got -27 c, you meat this winter 2014-2015? You said it is cold, yes it is cold but it is relative. I have had colder weather in past, but not last winter 2014-2015. Don’t get too excited before your peaches ripen so you avoid disappointment if you loss your peaches this year.
Yeah, no worries there, I have grown fruit a long time. I will be patient. I’m already satisfied as I have made the best progress ever this year. so even if no fruit, it was a good year of learning. I expect fruit though. The peaches are growing fast, increasing in size, all looks fantastic! I have 5 trees with fruit.
Drew51 hi
You have made good progress in what way this year? Do you mean that your peach flower buds survived cold winter and you have now peaches growing? Thinning helps making better and bigger peaches if you have a lot peaches coming in peach trees. There is change for peaches to get ripe as you have peaches now in your peach tree. Good some one has peaches.
Yes, as using an anti-desiccant saved the buds, a major discovery. Also I practiced grafting, very few takes, but the one’s that took were the last I did. I got better at it. So that was a good learning experience.
One of my wife’s friends knows I have a peach orchard. She once came up to me and struck up a conversation about peaches. She told me she loved that song about peaches and tried to quote some of the above lyrics. She had NO idea what Steve Miller meant by those lyrics (if she had, she would have died of embarrassment). I just smiled. 
now that is funny! Despite the entire song being a bit too suggestive, seemed like she was ‘immune’ to such double entendre’s. Got to hand it to her: she has virtues!
Drew51 hi
What is anti-desiccant? Saved buds, flower buds you mean? When I searched for it, I found it something about water loss protection. Grafting do you mean grafting some fruit trees to some rootstock? I don’t know much of growing fruit, so I don’t write much about it. I might know more about sun and coming weather than growing peaches. Although i haven’t made any comparison with those.
An anti-drying agent I used a product called Wilt-Stop, it worked very well!
I will be using it every year.
I grafted other cultivars unto my trees so that they have multiple varieties on one tree. I’m not sure any took? I did plum too, and a few are growing already.
Drew51 hi
I have heard people graft varieties to their fruit trees. I haven’t done that. I think grafts start growing if they have took in sometime. I don’t have advice to you regarding this, but have you looked on internet or book how to do this graft thing?
The people right here taught me, olpea, bob, Scott, Fruitnut, etc.
Many threads on grafting are here.on this site. thanks a lot guys!
I have the same problem as you do with my peaches. I planted some peach trees last year (im in Southern Ontario) and we had a terrible winter, went down to -30C which isn’t typical near the great lakes where I am. My PF24C peach tree isn’t too bad, most of the branches have good growth but my other peach trees have most of the upper portion of the tree is dead with just the bottom branches with leaves on it. I planted a PF5B, TangOS and another PF24C this year but it was definitely not a great start to growing peaches. All the other types of fruit trees I planted made it through the winter without any problem. What do I do with the peaches that survived but have a lot of the top growth dead (these are young trees so they are very small)? So far I am impressed with the PF24C peach tree, it seems like a winner. Do you use Wilt-stop before winter or just as low winter temperatures are predicted?
Drew51 hi
It is good that someone gave you information about that how graft, if information is correct. It is good to be somewhat cautious sometimes what information you have been got because not all of it are always right.
These guys have been grafting for years, they know their stuff and info was extensive. I have complete faith on the advice. It’s rather simple really. Not that hard to do.
You tell em Muddy! I was in Gaffney last week and drove right by the Big Peach.
Drew51 hi
Good if you found grafting information useful. You have complete faith on the advice you said, do you mean you have complete faith on the advice you got from people you told earlier? It is good to remember they are still just people and might be wrong or might tell information which is not always correct. If you got information which was useful to you, you can be good with that then.
The information i got was correct as I confirmed it from other sources, University info, other growers, tutorials from garden magazines, etc… Some people here are commercial growers. Their livelihood depends on doing things right. Plus it’s not that hard. It’s not rocket science.
Many of us are well educated. The main lesson in higher learning is anything you need to know is in the library. This is old school stuff, it has been done for hundreds of years, We got it down.
All your trees are grafted too! Well some call it budding, which is a form of grafting.
Drew51 hi
So you got correct information about grafting. How hard grafting is relative, for me it don’t sound easy. I have read my peach book, but I don’t know still much. Also I don’t have much growing experience about peaches. Growing peaches looks seems different than just reading growing about them. You know i have had some problems growing peaches in past times. It is easier if you have experience growing peaches and some experience in your area growing them. If you don’t have much experience and don’t have much information about them, it might go the harder way of trying to grow peaches. Not all information is in library but some information are there. Yes my peach tree have grafted variety Red Heaven.
Yes, get down growing them, and once you do consider grafting just ask for help and all of us will help you. I know you can do it, if I can you can! I agree though it’s too early let’s get some peaches first! Do you have any other fruit trees?
Drew51 hi
I have european pear tree in addition of peach tree.