Peach Tree Pruning opinions

This a Sweet Cap flat peach, that I reshaped to follow what I just described. The branches might have been straighter if I had started directly pruning it that way, but I think it shows the main idea.

And please ignore the horrible tumour like canker at the base. Got infected with crown gall, but it’s still growing strong… For now

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There may be some degree day models for various peach cultivars (once they’ve met their chill requirement) in order to predict bloom.

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen any degree day models for predicting when peach leaf bud scales loosen for a leaf curl spray. The spraying window is rather large for leaf curl, so the sprays (if more than one is needed) don’t really have to be timed closely.

I think I’ve read the earliest leaf curl spray is recommended at something like 80% leaf drop, in the fall, up until leaf bud scales start to loosen in the early spring. Those leaf bud scales stay pretty tight up until you start to see flower bud expansion. Even at first swell of flower buds, leaf buds are still pretty tight.

It sort of reminds me of when to treat for greater peach tree borer. I think the label recommends treating following trap catches (usually in June here). But the way the life cycle of the borer works is that it does very little damage the first growing season (the grub is pretty small then).

So treating in the fall, while not the most very optimum, it does control most of the damage and prevents the life cycle from completing.

Sort of the same with leaf curl. The spring before leaf buds loosen is the optimum treatment, but anytime after most of the leaves have fallen off the tree works in all but the heaviest leaf curl pressure. It doesn’t work well before leaf drop because the leaves block optimum penetration, and it’s a bit too long to expect the fungicide to remain on the trees and efficacious.

Plus the fungus can overwinter on leaf scars. Another reason to wait till leaf drop.

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Do you find crown gall eventually kills peach trees in your climate?

As an aside, do you regularly prune peach trees that hard, or are trying to remodel the tree with super aggressive pruning?

We have enough spring frosts here, I would never prune a mature peach tree that hard before the season, unless it was corrective pruning.

Not in my climate, at least for now. The tree has had crown gall for a good 3 years or 4, and it’s still going on. I considered removing it, but I thought that it really didn’t make sense as long as it was growing well.

I’m in a mild area, some very light frosts at times, but but much more than that. I have some Dwarf Namwah bananas that some winters get their leaves frozen, but the stems are not affected.
Also lots of citrus

My issue is the lack of chill many times.

And connecting that to pruning, I don’t have issues with winter dieback or such, so I just prune as needed.

The tree was reshaped last winter, leaving those main branches, so no big wood removed this winter.
I do remove like probably something like 65% of the new wood each year, for the production/fruiting pruning (how do you guys call it exactly? I can’t find the word in my mind).

@Oregon_Fruit_Grow … sorry no other pics of that peach tree.

I had good luck with peaches (no spray) here for 10 years… then OFM showed up… then Brown Rot showed up.

I am a determined no sprayer… and had to give up on peaches about a year after that picture.

I had 3 peach trees at that point… and removed them all. I have grown blackberries and strawberries in that location since removing that peach.

Below is a good memory of one of my peach trees before OFM and BR.

TNHunter

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Do you mind posting the YouTube video. One thing I have observed is in the US the default training architecture is open vase, but have come across a few narrower training systems from Europe and in Ukraine. Although, recently there is some focus on narrower architecture like Quad-V, Hex-V etc. Here is the original V system https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUBxhLBDh6c

I came across this paper from the 70’s focusing on Redhaven and Elberta.

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Speaking of PLC spray timing, I spray Ziram at Thanksgiving after I knock the remaining leaves off, again around New Years and lastly right before bud break. Even with 3 sprays I still had a tiny amount of PLC.

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Commercial growers in the U.S. use a variety of training systems, just as in Europe, but this forum is primarily made up of home growers who are not necessarily in need of maximum, early production of fruit and don’t grow peaches in long rows with trellis support. I doubt more than 4 members are growing peaches here for profit. Olpea does so using the traditional shape, as far as I know. That’s actually good for most members because he has so much experience training trees to the same shape most of us use.

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I’ll post a couple.

He posts videos every other day, there isn’t like one single specific video about pruning peaches. It’s more like a vlog style channel, he films himself, many times phone on hand, and goes around showing the pruning done when he goes to a commercial orchard, or his own home orchard, or a friend’s. The concepts are repeated time and again, as to get them clear by repetition and by showing practical examples.

Unfortunately a lot of the information is spoken, and it’s rather useful to understand the videos and their context.

For example:

This one is in a commercial orchard. Some other guys had their hand before, and topped the branches, and he is commenting along the way that is not the way he does it, and proceeds to redefine the leaders that are to grow. Also some other branches had Anarsia killing the tips, and he redirects the leaders again using outward facing branches.

A thing he mentions frequently is that commercial orchards tend to have more limbs, like in between 4 to 7, while in he home orchard he finds that with 3 or 4 is more than enough for home consumption. In young orchards he leaves behind sometimes limbs that are to be cut out next year, to get fruit out of them that season and get them to ‘work’, getting a sizeable production sooner.

This next one is a peach in his orchard. A different, more home oriented, setting (the variety mentioned, Maruja, is and old traditional yellow clingstone peach)