Questions not deserving of a whole thread

My area is seeing typical fluctuating temperatures ranging from 40 - high 60s during the day, with a random low 30s mixed in, and 40s to below freezing at night. Is it safe to plant newly received bare root fruit trees now,?

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That sounds pretty safe to me!

Does anyone know if Early Blush Apricot is self fruitful?Mine is forming flowers,which haven’t opened yet,while most of the other varieties are getting past bloom.

go for it :slight_smile:

If the trunk is painted, will notching still work to promote branch growth?
If the tree was painted after being notched, will the notch still branch growth?

The paint is not going to reconnect the cambian layer so the notching will still be effective. The question of course is if trunk painted or not has any inactive buds or not.
The second questions is did you remove all of the apex buds eg, the very end of each branch especial the central leader

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Thanks

I made a notch above inactive buds on the trunk. I did not remove any buds or prune the ends off of the branches.

Can I graft don-dormant scion to the trunk of a peach tree during spring / summer?

I want to establish a new scaffold. Once established, I plan to cut down everything above.

If successful, can I expect fruit on the new growth next season?

you can summer chip or T-bud. You do this with buds from the base of this years growth end of summer.

You cut the leaf of the bud, but leave the leaf stalk. (if the leaf stalk falls of ~2 weeks after grafting you know the graft took. (the hormones from the rootstock/tree make the bud eject the leaf stalk)

Grafting with an already cut scion that you have now, thats leafing out. is gonna be hard. Your best bet would be to find the most dormant bud on your scion and chip that on your rootstock thats leafing out the most.

unfortunatly peaches usualy have little or bad dormant buds.

If you have a apple scion thats leafing out. you can brake the bud off, but still chip bud the “leftover bud”.

If you let this heal and then cut the stock beginning of summer (~3-4 weeks later)
you have a good chance that a latent bud on your chip bud will start to grow.

you might have to brake off a few latent buds on your rootstock when forcing the latent chip bud.

@YumYumTrees

I am in the same boat as you having the same crazy dreams. My Peach and Plums are in the same position with either being lopsided or having 3ft of blind wood with no buds.



Since there multi graft I cant just take the top off with out loosing the most productive part of the tree and most or all of that cultivar is above the 3ft marks.

University of Texas does what they call Green Wood Grafting. I found a few other references, maybe it has a different more common name? Its basicly T-Bud with more material from an actively growing branch.

Green Wood Grafting - Earth-Kind® Landscaping Earth-Kind® Landscaping (tamu.edu)

I took a number of cuttings last month various stages of bud break and fridge them. When it warms up a bit I will be trying a few bark grafts. They wont be pretty but what do I have to loose.

Unfortunately, I have zero dormant scion wood. I was hoping that I could take a current cutting from the tree itself.

The tree is 10+ years old, and as you can see, not ideally shaped or pruned for good fruit production.
PCHTR1

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Thanks, I will give that a try. Hopefully it works with peaches.

Honestly that trunk would be glorious for top working. I would collect scion wood next season and several other cultivars and make a huge open vase multi out of that one.

How old is that peach tree? I am not optimistic about grafting on a trunk of an old peach tree. Even grafting in 4-5 years old peach branch is very challenging, never mind in an old trunk.

Peach trees are not as forgiving as other fruit trees.

I know you want to save it. To me, planting a new peach tree will give you opportunity to shape the tree correctly, knowing the variety you grow and get fruit in 2-3 years.

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The tree is at least 10 years old. Its actually probably closer to 15 years old. I cant say for certain, but considering the tree has remained around this height ( 10’±) for at least 5 years, I am assuming it is a semi-dwarf?

I would prefer to cut it for top working, if it has significant time left to live, or just replace it. However, the tree holds sentimental value to someone else…

Where are you in zone 6?

If you are in an arid, drier area, your peach tree may last longer. In the east, it tends to decline after 15 years. Mine after 10 years due to peach borer’s attack.

You may hear about topworking fruit trees so you could graft new varieties on, rejuvenate the tree, etc, etc. That works well with apples, pears or even plums or cherry.

Does you peach tree send out a lot of new red shoots? If it is, there is some hope. When it declines, it barely sends out new shoots.

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The Great Lakes region. Its very humid during summer.

It does appear to be sending off new shoots. Though, I am not sure what would be considered a lot.

Peach Tree Short Life is not a guaranteed, on there own roots in the right environment they can live 100+ years. You of course mentioned your not in perfect peach country and if this tree is growing on its own roots that might be more a very interesting tree. So is this a seed grown tree? If not I believe the reason @mamuang asked about red shoots is because many rootstocks for peaches are redleafed.

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Now if this tree is from seed and growing on its own root you can graft it to other root stock to save it. But it itself might be a fantastic root stock worth saving and sharing in its own right. In that case your going to want to star trying to root hardwood cuttings.

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This tree was purchased from a garden center, so I do not believe it is growing on its own roots. The foliage is green, and the peaches produced are small. I do not know what variety it is.

how small? Do you have any pictures from previous years?

Do they resemble the pictures below?


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