Hi. I have 3 peach trees in our front lawn (sw facing in colorado) i understand from last year that irrigated lawn gives peaches the wrong watering. Its a little lawn and i am not wed to the grass at all. So, can anyone point me to a watering schedule for peaches? Also, is there something i can plant under the trees that has a similar need for water? We have a huge xeric pollinator garden, i was contemplating creeping thyme or another griund cover. Id also be happy to plant herbs or something the local rabbits wont destroy. Ideas?
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Peach trees do not like to compete for nutrient with grass or other plants. Their feeder roots are shallow. I would make space under peach trees clear of any plant for at least 4’ diameter.
Once established, they don’t need watering except for a serious drought. I watered my peach trees the first year of planting when soil is dry. After that, they get rain.
They don’t like being wet too much. It could kill the trees. We had a wet year one year, peach trees dropped healthy green leaves when it rained continually for weeks. The year we had a 3 month drought here a while back, my 5 years old peach trees were fine with no extra water.
If you replace your yard with perrenial tri-rye or dutch white clover and you do not water until it needs it your peaches will be stoked. They would be even happier if you just switched it to a semi xeric pollinator garden (Thyme, lavender, bee balm, scabiosa etc work great) you could go with plants that want around 22" or so of rain a year as that’s about what i give my fruit trees. Without supplemental irrigation even older peach trees will die during some of our summer droughts if they are not planted in a place that collects water
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I first became addicted to nurturing fruit trees in the dry chaparral hills directly up from the coast in S. CA. I never attempted to grow peaches there but stuck in several almond trees that I lost interest in when the squirrels took all the nuts. Those trees survived horrendous droughts, even years where we received only a few inches of rain- and they were planted in broken up sand-stone! And on the side of a steep hill.
I’ve also seen very old apricot trees in the high desert of New Mexico that must have survived similar drought, but maybe they had tap roots deep down.
Established stone fruit trees can be surprising in their adaptability.
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The yard they are in is full sun and collects no water. If i killed the grass and watered only for the peach trees, what kind of water do they want? A good monthly drink? Every couple weeks?
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Alan i really think it depends on if the trees are able to access groundwater. In many spots in colorado here underneath us are enormous boulders and rocks, when we are lucky we get some mix of bentonite clay loam and sand. When peaches dry out severly in the heat here they stress and insects rock them out pretty quickly. A few years ago during our hard droughts tons of peoples peach trees died but apples apricots sour cherries all did fine, If you go to fort collins nursery in fort collins (Atleast a few years ago she was still standing) there is a 55-60 year old peach tree that is planted by the irrigation ditch in the back by the fruit trees, the owner claimed her unlimited water supply was why she was still standing. On the western slope where there is aquifers and ground water definitely stone fruit lasts much longer and established peaches can survive on no irrigation, however on the eastern slope of the rockies you get a lot of areas that have weird soil issues and then you get the weather.
@Codude So i wait until the plants near the trees are starting to stress and would just begin to wilt to water and I think you need to do winter waterings some years. I try to not water but will water if the ground is cracking (Also means i have planted the wrong things) and let as many dandelions do there thing as possible although for my neighbor i mow the front lawn daily when they are popping up seed (We had a great deal where he would not use herbicides / weednfeed within 10’ of my backyard as well as watch each others houses during vacations). Now that he moved we will see how the new neighbor feels about things. Last year i did not have to water much at all honestly but some years you need to hit things 2x a week during the heat of the summer. First year stuff trees and perrenials i baby and water real good however and wean trees 2nd year because i want to make sure they establish
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