Exactly. Roots are more spread out than down. A chainsaw and tractor with a chain will do the trick. And then plant in the same spot.
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Thanks! Thats good to know. Planting in the same spot is useful so you can keep tree spacings the same.
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It depends a lot on the type of soil you have, your tools and level of experience. With a couple of picks my helper and I never encounter any dead tree that takes more than an hour to remove with peach trees requiring about a third of that at most. We are only removing about a 5-6’ diameter circle of the root system, however. Of course if it was just me, it might take half a day 
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Me too! The orchard is my thing and it is not often I can get helpers.
I was curious what zone you are in? I don’t see it in your profile.
Also, do you recall what is the coldest winter temps you have had in the last 10 years you have been growing those Contender & Reliance peaches? Thanks!!
We’ve pulled some out with the tractor. In my backyard, where I can’t drive a tractor, I just cut them flush with the ground, then place the new peach tree right on top of the stump of the old one, then dump a bunch of fresh dirt on the roots of the new peach tree (about 10 or 15 five gallon buckets). Seems to be working so far.
After too many replantings, you can get replant issues with peach trees. Generally experts recommend to remove most of the roots out of the soil and let it set idle for a while, then replant. I haven’t done that so far.
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When I started my business I had many useful conversations with my closest commercial grower of peaches, apples, plums, nectarines and pears. His family had been growing fruit on the same land for close to a century and he bragged about still being able to stick new trees immediately after removing old ones in his soil with no ill affects towards vigor. He was (he retired recently and sold his operation to a nephew) a dry farmer and grew free standing trees on 7 and 11 rootstocks. Plums on myro and peaches on whatever ACN was offering.
I doubt you will live long enough to have problems with replant disease, just because of all the woodchips you use, but who knows? Not even the experts.
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Probably true. For the last couple years at the orchard, I’ve been pretty much cutting trees off at ground level, then use a tractor driven post hole digger to plant right next to the stump. It will grind through any tree roots next to the stump. I haven’t noticed any real issues yet, although the new trees don’t grow as fast. We’ve been doing it this way because when we yank the tree out with the tractor, it leaves a big hole where the stump was, that we then have to fill with dirt.
There is quite a bit of orchard land up on the MO river which has been in peach production for a long time. I once spoke with one of the orchard owners up there. He said he had some replant issues with peach. But the orchard had been in his family for generations.
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We are in Zone 5A but we are literally 5 miles (West) of Zone 5B, 10 miles (South) of Zone 4 and 30 miles (North) of Zone 6A. Our coldest winter temp in the last 10 years has been around -25 (I don’t keep records even though I should & recent winters have had much warmer low temps). We have always had some peaches every season which is amazing for this climate!
I prune moderately to heavily EVERY spring. We also fertilize with 10-10-10. Finally we do spray for weed control around the trees which I feel has really helps with tree health (less competition for water and nutrients, less chance for pests & disease to enter trunks). Good luck with your trees!
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That is kind of crazy how close you are to zone 5B and 6A! wow.
Pretty cool you have been cropping peaches with such cold winter temps. Do you get periodic warm-ups in Jan. or Feb in the 40s-50s or warmer?
Thanks for taking the time to answer! 
I see… that is a good idea. The hole you are left with after yanking out all the roots is pretty large. I had to remove my Montmorency last spring and it took quite a bit of soil to fill in that hole, and there wasn’t an impressive amount of roots since it was only about 5 yrs old. Thanks for letting me know how you deal with replanting. I hope these trees I have growing will be with us for many more years. I did want to be thinking about a plan for replanting though. I thought that replanting in the same spot would have drawbacks, but couldn’t envision how I could stagger my plantings and not end up having the spacing too close together- since I don’t know if they will start to decline at about the same age or if it is going to be more random than that. I guess I won’t worry about it now, but I appreciate knowing how some of you guys proceed.
Fine by me! One less thing I need to worry about then! 
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Every time I watch videos like these I think of all the hacking away I’ve done at my trees and wonder how I ever got any fruit. Looking at some black and white “right/wrong” diagram of pruning then trying to figure out how that applied to my trees- which never looked like the diagrams.
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We really don’t get those types warm-ups in mid-winter which really helps keep the trees/buds dormant. Starting to get some days in the 40s but we are heading into March so that is to be expected.
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Well, that’s what I figured, but wanted to ask anyway. There are places in the US that get strange winter weather and warm ups that you wouldn’t expect, unless you live there of course.
Yep, we are getting the high 50’s and low 60’s temps here this week in my 5b zone. We always get a week of this weather every winter. So far my peach trees have not suffered. We got sub zero temps about a week ago for about a week. Some evenings it was minus 15 to minus 20.
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