I have always heard that you should never plant a peach tree in the same location where a peach tree had died. What I have is a Rio Grand Cherry for replacement but was wondering if it being a pom fruit ,would the cherry be diseased by the soil where the peach tree had died.
Fact or fiction?
Possum,
Forgive me if I’m wrong, are you saying that cherry is a pom fruit? Cherry and peach are both stone fruit. Stone fruit also include apricots, nectarines, plums, etc.
Pear and apples are pom fruit.
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Cherry of the Rio Grande is in the Myrtle family. It is neither pit nor pome.
http://growingfruit.org/t/cherry-of-the-rio-grande-eugenia-involucrata
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Thanks for the correction on my assumption that they were related. So do you think that it would be ok to plant the RG Cherry in the same location?
Any precautions with the soil before planting?
Thank you, Richard for the info.
Possum - was your peach tree died because of soil-borne pathogens?
I think that it was a matter of slow drainage in that spot. I noticed some white stuff at the base of the tree that I tried to eliminate but it came back and the tree died slowly. I plan to elevating that spot at least 12’’ and plant something else like the RG Cherry.
Peach trees have not done well for me because I live near the Gulf and it is just too wet for them.
I am thinking of giving the area a good sprinkling of Captan or Rally and watering it in as a precaution.
Thanks Richard, I had no idea that the RG was a Myrtle.
You might look through this list of diseases and isolate the pathogen prior to planting anything http://plantdiseasehandbook.tamu.edu/food-crops/fruit-crops/peach-apricot-and-nectarine/. Planting trees is a lot of work and I would like to hear that the new one did well for you.
As you may know, most fruit trees do not like wet soil.
What type of fruit trees grow well in your area? Have you seen anyone grow RG cherry in your area? If you soil is rather wet, you may need to raise it even higher than 12 ". After a while, a berm/raise bed will settle so you may want to start on a higher side.
Cherry of the Rio Grande is native to upland regions of the Rio Grande River in Venezuela.
I have plum tree died in wet location. Elevated the location about 12’’, planted new plum tree. So far(2 years) it is OK.
Richard I know that you are very knowledgeable.
Galinas,
Here in Kansas those locations can at times be better during times of drought. During wet periods in Kansas those locations can stress fruit trees to a point of death. I’ve learned through the years to use wild callery pears from a wet location to plant those challenging areas on my property. I think long term choosing a tree that normally lives in a challenging spot like that and thrives in the wild will pay off. The new trees are doing extremely well. The thing I like about semi invasive trees is they grow where nothing else will. In the case of the wild callery I did not raise the soil or prepare it in anyway. Another location I did raise the location several feet and spent thousands of dollars to do so to raise cherries. I have a bunch of cherry rootstocks there now that are thriving. I have a friend with a small stone fruit orchard in a wet location that was not raised that suffers from bacterial canker and continuos fungal problems. One spot on my property several trees died in and I raised 3’ 15+ years ago. I planted a new cherry tree there which is still alive so I suspect raising that location will pay off for you.
Thanks, I think it is working - new tree grows fine. I have no way to place anything semi-wild, as all my tree space is very small and I only can afford dwarfs, but raising did the trick.
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My point was that the soils are generally wet in the COTRG native environment. However as others will note, the plant has proven very adaptable to environments way outside its tropical native range.
In the county east of me in a 60 inch rainfall belt they have 3 or 4 mesquite trees growing in a 3 foot raised bed. It does make a big difference if trees are in a raised bed. Just remember that in the wet years all the roots that are outside the raised beds might die and when it dries out the tree will suffer due to lack of roots. I grow most of my trees in raised beds or pots. the couple of peach trees not in raised beds are in a natural mound. I planted one at ground level and it died after a couple of years.
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