Good day all,
I recently planted a white lady peach in my backyard. It is my first fruit tree and I would appreciate any info you can provide to help me get through this first summer.
Thank you,
Rob
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Hi Rob-
Keep it watered all summer, especially during the dry periods. Mulch heavily 18" around the trunk, 4-5" of mulch. Then watch it get established and grow.
Thanks and I predict you will have a second tree very soon, then a third, then a mutant tree…
Enjoy!
Chris
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When mulching make sure mulch doesn’t touch the bark on the trunk, keep it couple inches away.
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The work with peaches starts in the dormant season, before the tree starts growing in the spring - you have lots of time now to read up and get ready
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Thank you very much, been keeping pretty solid on the watering. My soil drains very well, and we have been getting some decent rain. I will measure the distance on the mulch, and post some pics.
Thanks,
Rob
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Here is a good general guide to read, most of the issues are in future years but its good to know whats ahead. Click on the headers for more information.
http://extension.psu.edu/plants/gardening/fphg/stone
Scott
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Awesome feedback, such a good article for the beginner, lots of useful definitions and insight into the future.
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Starting out right saves SO much trouble down the road
And as promised here is the pic, I made a mistake in the title of this thread, it’s actually 4’ tall
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I’ll say between 7 and 8 hours. I would like to trim the maple that grows next to it and that would easily pick up another hour easily.
Yes, multiple trees are in the yard now.
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Are you fertilizing with anything? Ever do a soil test? Could just be that we have different varieties but I feel like your tree should have a bit more vigor after 4 years.
What’s up with the concrete pad around the base of the tree? I feel like that would be an awesome idea for a fig tree, acting as a heat sink.
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I read a recommendation for another member on here a while back on keeping trees short. The post mentioned a book on pruning fruit trees to keep them manageable without a ladder. I liked what I read and adopted that philosophy, since the tree was so young when I read the book, I think I had it for two years at the time. Notice the low crotch in the center, it’s approx. 21” high. Ideally I wanted it below 18”, however the lowest branches were above that point, so when I made that cut, I lost a lot of tree. As for the concrete pad, I built it with my oldest daughter last summer. It’s mainly meant to keep lawn fertilizer and seed away from the peach tree and keep the tree’s mulch near the tree.
I don’t think Dimitri was referring to the height of the tree. I started reading the thread top to bottom and when I saw the update pic after 4 years I too expected a monster peach tree. They do grow fast and I would expect it to grow more in 4 years. Do you give it any fertilizer? Experienced growers here have told me to give my young trees urea after establishing. I’ve had great growth with fertilizer, mulch and water during dry times.
I have problems getting my trees to grow due to clay soil. I have some that after 4 years look similar to your picture. In my yard I would consider the tree to be stunted. I also have some that are easily 8 to 10 times the size of main caliper in your pic (after 4 years). The trick I found to eliminating runting was planting in 4ft x 4ft raised boxes 10 to 12 inches deep filled with mixed soil. And as Susu mentioned, fertilize. I fertilize after the first month in the ground, some do it immediately - many of the nurseries will tell you not to fertilize the first year. I have never had any damage fertilizing the first year.
I have dug up a fair number of trees that size/age and you will likely find the roots have not grown since you planted the tree or very little. I have two more to dig up this year if they do not grow that I planted in a hill side without boxes.
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Yeah, I’m sorry Rob, but I agree with the others. There is something wrong with that planting site or the tree.
I have some peach trees in my backyard and just stepped out and snapped a photo of a two year old peach tree. Trunk is about 1.5 inches in diameter. By year 4 (after four seasons in the ground) I expect the trunk size to be about 3" in diameter and to have a canopy diameter of about 12’. Four year trees should give about 100 fruit.
The toilet paper is just for size reference. 
If your issue isn’t borers, I suspect it may have something to do with too much water. Peach trees really don’t like soil the least bit over wet. If you dig down about a foot during the springtime, when the ground is normally saturated with water, and see water in the bottom of the hole, that’s too wet.
Hand watering in the summer may exacerbate the problem. I’d also get rid of the concrete (although it does look attractive). Peach trees don’t do well with concrete over their roots. Ultimately if you could could plant your next peach tree in a mound, I have a strong suspicion it would do much better.
Btw, my tree needs pruned badly. It shouldn’t have all those random shoots coming off the trunk. I’ll prune those back when we start pruning this spring.
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I have a sand based soil and haven’t watered it since the year after I lopped it in half. I knew I was taking a risk that year, and that it would basically bring the tree back to year one. Essentially making a 3-4year old tree a 1 year old. Notice in the first year’s pic, the height of the tree. That is all central leader. The following year, I did normal maintenance. There was peaches on the tree that year. The ensuing winter,I chopped it to the lowest branch. Lost all new growth, and all development, but felt confident it would all come back. The following year the tree developed, and I pruned it accordingly. Last year, it had ten peaches. This year, I counted over 30 Blossoms so far. I have not fertilized this tree. Last year’s fruit development went pretty good. This year, I’ll thin the fruit and see how we do. I appreciate the input, we’ll see what this year brings and hopefully get her looking like yours. Thanks for the compliment on the concrete. We put it in last summer/fall.
If you had to prune it that hard, perhaps that explains part of the issue. We generally remove about 50% of the wood on a new tree each time we prune and we prune our young peach trees twice a year, sometimes three times.
One way to measure if you have good growth on a young tree is that if you don’t prune during the season, you should get some straight up shoots that grow 4 or 5 feet. Once a tree large and starts fruiting heavily, ideally you’ll get a lot of new shoots with about 18" of growth, but a few water spouts which will grow 4 or 5 feet straight up if unpruned during the summer.