Lets say there was this guy, who didnt know any better at the time. And he went and planted a peach tree in a low spot, which basicly equates to a hole. The hole retaines to much rain water and the poor peach tree has suffered to grow very much at all for 3 long years.
How does this guy correct his mistake?
A) Fill in around the peach tree with dirt and hope for the best.
B) Relocate the peach tree to better ground while its dormant. Fill in the hole and plant another peach tree there, after a season or two.
B- while it is still sort of smallish. Once it gets bigger it will be impossible to move.
Move it when it is dormant like later in the late fall or very early spring before it leafs out.
I moved a Contender Peach to higher ground three years ago. It was probably a 5-6 foot tree and 5-6 years old. It took a year or two to settle into its new spot, but is putting on lots of growth this season. It was pretty heavy-a two man job for sure.
This was before I discovered this site- you may get some advice on pruning it back after moving. @BobVance had a post several years ago on moving trees and had good results.
Good luck!
There was a thread here where people were swearing up and down that planting peaches deep was a great idea. If you just topped up the area with soil so it was level I’d be worried about girdling it or rotting the trunk. If you have it on a particular rootstock because of resistance to the local nematodes or whatever you’d possibly lose that resistance if the cultivar rooted. And the feeder roots would still be at the same elevation, and buried deeper, but maybe not pooled with water every time it rains which would be good, but maybe suffer from less oxygen which would be bad?
Personally, I’d move it while it’s dormant to a new location. Or dig it up, add enough native-ish soil-like fill to at it at least level ground after some compaction/sinking, and then plant it back where it was.
Also, take a close look at it if you haven’t already to make sure it doesn’t have any serious problems that would make it not worth the time to try and move. Cankers, borer damage, etc.
How difficult it is to transplant a tree depends a lot on the soil and the heavier (more clay) the soil the harder it is, but the heavier the soil the worse the drainage problem is likely to be. In most soils peaches have been found to function best in raised berms according to my experience and some of the literature on commercial production. This probably only applies to the humid regions where it rains a lot during the growing season.
You can sure use something like a King of Spades all metal shovel for this kind of work, especially if it is isn’t a light sandy soil. I recently purchased a Fiskar all metal shovel for a fraction of the cost of the KS. It isn’t as strong but is a great all purpose shovel that would be much better for the job than most and then can be used as your all purpose shovel. Amazon.com
The King of Spades is only useful for prying and cannot be used as a common shovel for moving dirt. It’s great for loosening rocky soil down deep to free roots and that’s about all I use mine for besides prying out big rocks or removing trees in general, including the massive root balls of dead ones.
Well Mr. evilpaul, i don’t believe that is the best approach for me. Maybe upon inital planting if the soil was well draining (sandy) and the root stock would develp shallow feeder roots. But in my case i have heavy clay soil with decades of cattle manure on top, so it’s really not a option for me.
I also believe I can pop it out of it soil with my tractor. Put the forks together a run them down around the tree. Tilt them up in a couple spots and pry it loose.
I’d go with option B. Wait until the tree is dormant in late fall or early spring, then carefully dig it up and move it to a spot with better drainage or build a small mound so the roots stay above any standing water.
Just filling in dirt around it won’t fix the problem and might make it worse by trapping more moisture. Once you fill in the old hole and let the soil settle, you could try planting another peach there after a year or two to make sure the drainage has improved.