Update on the old peach tree. I decided not to cut it down… It has a lot of disease, but is still thriving. As you can see in the photos, I attempted to cut it out ( it has actually healed over quite a bit ) but the infection was never ending, and doing so ultimately led to even more visible gumming. Again, its produced a fair amount of peaches. They are currently larger than previous years, and not yet ripe. I believe they have a month to go.
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Was at the local nursery looking for an early apple. Earliest they had was Red Free. Anyone know if it is a worthwhile addition.
Is it ok to trim out black knot when rain is in the forecast or is it better to wait for a dry spell?
Hi YumYum,
This thread is so long, I haven’t kept track of all the comments (including my own) of your tree.
I will say it doesn’t take long to replace a peach tree with another. At the same time, I’ve nursed old peach trees along and got lots of peaches till they finally call it quits.
Pruning a lot of wood off an old peach tree can reinvigorate it a bit. It works with a lot established fruiting plants. It’s even mentioned in the Bible.
All I have to say is congrats. Keep it going till the tree finally tells you it’s not up to feeding you anymore. I’ve had several peach trees I’ve nursed along and got a worthwhile amount of peaches from. Eventually the scaffolds just keep breaking down till the tree gets smaller and doesn’t produce much. Sort of mirrors humans, I think. Meaning as we get older we get less and less productive, and get smaller.
There is a sad saw of humans. It’s “go go” for most of our life, then it’s “slow go”, finally “no go”. That’s something we can see acted out in short order on peach trees (sadly, as well as our pets).
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On the subject of rejuvinating a peach tree, would it work to chip bud lower on a non-bearing branch to start a new productive tier?
A couple of my trees have developed a great deal of “blind wood” due to my mis applying the little bit of pruning skills that I had at the time
I try to keep my trees at a mazimum of 8-9 feet tall and that is proving to be a challenge with peaches in particular. Stone fruit are the anti-espalier denizens of my orchard.
Mike
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Hi Mike,
I’ve seen lots of pics of your orchard. May I say you are pretty much an expert on espailer or close plantings. Not trying to flatter you, just calling it as I see it.
I think it would be difficult to renew blind peach wood with chip buds. I think the best bet would be to allow sunlight to hit the wood, which will generally force a few adventitious shoots. Those shoots will grow upright, but can be pruned short to force some lateral shoots. We’ve done this numerous times.
I will mention that if the blind wood is big and gets a lot of blazing hot sun, it will cook the bark. I don’t know a whole lot of the climate in NY. It may not be as big a concern there, but it may be something to think about. When we cut trees back in the summer, we try to leave a bit of shade on the scaffolds, whereas when we prune earlier in the spring, we cut the trees back ruthlessly. Especially in years like this where there are no peaches.
We butchered the peach trees earlier this year, but on varieties which are prone to blind wood, we headed back shoots where there would have been blind wood. On varieties which aren’t prone to produce blind wood, we thinned all those unproductive shoots off.
It’s kind of tough to create new shoots on blind wood of an older peach tree, but with slow methodical care, it can be done.
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I wonder if I was kinda hoping that you would say, “forget about it, it can’t be done” 
because as I can’t seem to let a challenge go unchallenged, I now will be adding another “project” to my to do list.
Someone told me grapes would be a problem for my space so… last fall I planted a potted vine and this summer I have two bunches growing… yay !!!
Mike
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Robert, I have a redfree apple tree. It is just okay, not a real flavorful apple, nor does it keep long. It seems to get a lot of curculio bites even with Spinosad and Surround sprays before bagging. A good early apple for Wisconsin is Zestar! I have grafted seven or 8 experimental varieties to my redfree. The redfree seems disease free.
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Thanks. That’s good to know as they had super fat prices on their trees. Think I will skip it.
My two year old in ground white Marseilles fig just started producing a main crop of figs. Will they have time to ripen in zone 7a central PA?
Maybe some will, it depends on what the fall weather is like.
Got a couple potted pears on sale and they wasted no time defoliating. Not the first time this has happed, but never this early in the season. Any predictions on coming back next year?
When does the Zestar get ripe?
Can peach be grafted to nectarine? Will peach and nectarine pollinate each other?
as far as i know, yes to both.
Nectarine is basically a peach “sport” or mutant.
i thought the fuzzy-less gene was recessive though. so you might have to sow quite a few F2 peach/nectarine seeds
((peach times nectarine) times nectarine) to get fuzzy-less peaches again.
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Robert, did the leaves turn black? Could be Psylla.
I was betting on transplant shock. It’s happened several times in the past planting in heat, but it was later in the season on those. Leaves went yellow to brown and dropped.
Adams County Nursery in Aspers Pa has Zestar ripening from August 10th to the 25th on their ripening chart.
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TY, I will check them out. I need to get an early apple that fits into that time frame. I have a Monark apple that has produced apples for the first time this year. I have about two dozen apples on it. They are not quite ripe yet. They look nice and red but still a little starchy and the seeds are still greenish. I will do some more looking at how the Zestar tastes and how long it holds up before getting going bad.
