In the forums I have seen people mention peach tree vigor. Much of the area I plant in is poor soil, so having a vigorous growing tree is important to me. Which varieties do people consider to be vigorously growing trees? I would also be interested to hear which varieties are vigorous blooming trees. In my experience Elberta, Contender, Belle of Georgia have grown fast and large. Halehaven, Desiree, Coral Star, Reliance have produced medium size trees. Encore, Tango, Red Haven, Gloria have produced small almost stunted trees. Bloom wise Elberta, Contender, Reliance have been the best followed by Belle of Georgia and Desiree. Halehaven and Coralstar have been absolute disasters as far as blooming goes. Redhaven and Encore are ok blooming but limited due to the small tree sizes. Tango has a few blooms but not so great.
With poor soil it is important to plant on a mound and use a good rootstock like lovell. If you thin all your fruit or leave 1 or 2 for the first couple of years they grow better. If you don’t have native soil to mound you can use a 50/50 mix from your local gravel and rock store. They will deliver it by the yard. Do not use the bagged soil from your nursery, it will break down fast and does not work well. Peach trees like to be watered heavy once a week, allowing the soil to dry a bit between waterings. Some varieties grow faster than others but if you follow this advice most should grow sufficiently. Good luck!
Spud,
Coralstar was an absolute disaster for me too. Very poor bloomer for me.
In terms of vigor, I’ve not noticed a lot of difference in vigor b/t varieties. I’ve noticed more the growth habit (more upright or more spreading). Generally, my peach trees have plenty of vigor unless they are getting older, or cropped very heavily.
I think if you give TangOs more time, it will start to set more fruit. My TangOs are pretty heavy setters here. Sometimes it takes a while for peach trees to get really going on production.
As Fruitgrower recommends, I have all my trees in raised plantings, although there is no need to water them here.
Based on my own experience, I second the recommendation of Lovell in this situation.
Try Guardian root stock. It produces trees with much more vigor
and size.
Where nematodes are the issue, of course. Good advice for a VA grower, for sure.
Coralstar always bears heavily here except on rare years where peaches fail generally. When mine first started bearing I thought the fruit was exceptionally good, but when rain water is plentiful it is more exceptionally large than exceptionally good, and while pound peaches are extraordinary to behold they are not necessarily the same to eat. My Earnie’s Choice right next to it bares sweeter peaches on wet years, but no variety I grow can hold such a heavy crop of huge peaches and come through the same way the following year as Coralstar can. But who cares, I’m not a commercial grower- I want the better tasting peaches.
The peaches you mention as not growing well are plenty vigorous here- there really doesn’t tend to be all that much difference in the vigor of peach varieties as a general rule, beyond the dwarfing affect of cropping. In your case it might have more to do with rootstock and perhaps nematodes.
Spud, I probably have the least amount of experience in the group with a dozen or so peach varieties, but the advice given above matches my experience very well. My soil is not great, about a foot of very hard packed ground (I can’t get a shovel into it - need a pickaxe), on top of fractured basalt. Two to three yards of 50/50 mix, sandy loam type stuff really makes a difference. My more vigorous trees are on the bigger mounds. Some early spring fertilizer really helps as well. I thin hard and don’t let young trees set much fruit.
As for prolific blooming, I have a PF24C that is a nightmare to thin. It is the standout bloomer in my orchard - followed by Redhaven. I have an O’henry that doesn’t seem to produce very many blooms, but the tree is extremely vigorous which I attribute to being on one of the larger mounds since the Fat Lady that was there before was also very vigorous.
Peaches grow vigorously through the season to just about the fall equinox here. If you are establishing trees and want the fastest growth I find two apps- the first 90 day encapsulated urea and the second, straight urea to be noticeably more invigorating than a single app of even the slow release in spring. That will be used up by July.
Nearly all of my peach vigor problems have been from borers, diseases (bacterial spot in particular), or lack of enough sun. So make sure none of those three are an issue.
I have a few peach trees planted on thin rocky soil (the rocks are so close to the surface I had to cut the roots to fit the tree in). Ten years later those trees are doing as well as the ones not over the rocks. So at least in my soil the variations there don’t seem to be a large factor. I have a couple trees that are not vigorous now, they may just be old but they are also in a wet spot and may have developed some root diseases.
I planted a Redhaven in some poor soil in spring of '16, and it’s still only 3ft tall. There’s a Coralstar next to it, planted the same year, and has got to about 4ft tall. They’ve both bloomed the last couple years, and have a lot of fruit buds on them now, though. I didn’t fertilize either one last year, but will give them a double dose this year.
There is a Blushingstar and Contender down by the barn in richer soil, planted in '17, and they are doing much better, thicker trunks, and taller. They were thicker caliper than the RH and CS when planted, but still have been more vigorous. If we can avoid the typical late spring freeze, we ought to get some fruit off them this year.
Just another data point here. If I plant peach trees in a raised planting, they grow at least 4’ per year of the soil is settled. If the soil is loose, they grow at least 5’ per year or more. That is without pruning.
Also assumes no borers or other issues (otherwise healthy trees).
There are varietal differences in vigor of peaches although not to the extent of apples.
I can personally attest that ‘Babcock’ is an unusually vigorous variety and I have seen it so described in the literature.
Coralstar is one of my larger trees, but few blooms and no fruit set. This is my last year, no fruit set or small fruit set and it gets the ax. I wonder why the difference between Northern climate and mid-Atlantic. I assume mine was not mislabeled, came from Cummins.
Some of my trees are planted in 4ft x 4ft x 1ft raised boxes. While planting in raised boxes definitely helps I am seeing substantial difference between varieties and possibly rootstock. I have some peach trees on seedling rootstock from Vanwell Nursery that have grown twice as fast as varieties from ACN Nursery on Lovell or Bailey rootstock, both planted the same year in raised containers.
My own peach tree seedlings out performs all the commercial ones I’ve tried (except Nemaguard) in terms of vigor.
That’s interesting. Most of mine are on seedling rootstock as well. Many of them purchased from Vanwell.
Before a variety is released it is tested extensively. The process is expensive so a great deal of effort is made to make sure the variety is productive. However, it is only after the release that varieties tend to be tested in a wide range of regions.
If you stick to releases from programs in regions more closely resembling your own weather conditions you are more likely to get productive varieties. You are located in an area between Rutgers and Clemson. Plenty to choose from there.
I would say I’m halfway between Rutgers and lake influenced Michigan as far as my climate type. Stella peaches are bread for Michigan conditions as are Paul Friday’s.
I have good success with varieties coming from both programs.
VanWell lists their peach roots as seedling on their invoices. Once I talked with them about it a long time ago and they said seedling meant Lovell.
Not surprising, but good to know. Lovell seems to do quite well out here.
Olpea,
I called and asked about the rootstock they used on peach trees in 2017. Is specifically asked if they used Lovell or Halford and the answer I got was no, peach seedling. Maybe they changed rootstock or one of us got someone who did not have the correct answer. For whatever reason all of Vanwell’s trees seem to have consistently grown faster than other trees I have gotten from Cummins, ACNursery, Starkbros, etc. The only trees that have grown better were store bought Elberta trees from Walmart.
Spud