I have a dilemma, or may be even trilemma on my hands.
There is a 12-13 years old peach in my yard, that still looks OK for its age and produces. But I already think I need to get ready to replace it. My property is small and completely occupied, in order to plant something I need to remove something. So I do not have a luxury to plant a new peach and wait until it is big enough to remove old peach. Also, last year I got a peach seedling popped up near my compost pile, practically on pathway. I was fascinated by it strong will to grow, so in fall, when we were about to re-purpose pathway for camper storage , I dug it up and planted in the garden bed. The whole thing just a bit over a foot high, but already has 3-4 branches. I thought may be it has a natural dwarf property in it. Anyway, I have several ways to deal with replacement of the old peach keeping in mind lack of space:
I can plant new peach in the pot and keep it there for 2-3 years and when it gets too big and starts producing I will remove old peach and plant the peach from the pot there.
Now, about that new peach.
It can be my seedling “as is” in hope it will be dwarf and will produce good peaches. If not, I will have to graft it in few years when I figure out the peaches are not good.
It can be my seedling as rootstock that I will bench graft with my own peach and/or Contender peach I wanted to have time ago
I can discard the seedling(with heavy heart) and just buy a new contender peach when my old one will turn to the worst.
What are the chances that seedling will produce good peaches?
How difficult is it to bench graft peach? (I only bench grafted one apple tree so far)
How difficult is it to keep a peach tree in a pot for 2-3 years?( I will use air-pruning pots )
Any complications with replanting peach after peach practically in the same hole?
Anybody needs a peach seedling?
It may or may not be dwarf, but it will likely be manageable in size, with good pruning, and peaches, I believe, are known for producing good fruit from seed (true?).
Sure. Why not?
Keep the seedling! You like it, and it wants to come live with you. I like to think that volunteers have some good genetics working for them, but that might just be hooey. Besides, if you don’t keep it you’ll never know!
My own thought is that if you are very short of space, and want peaches for dessert, I would graft the seedling to a known variety which you like.
Seedling peaches are a risk. Sometimes you will get something good, sometimes you will get small bitter fruit, which at best will be suitable for jam. If you have the space and desire to experiment, then throw the dice and enjoy the ride.
If you want a more sure thing, then use the seedling as rootstock for a known grafted variety. I do this every year, although not with potted culture.
My preference for planting is with a known variety/cultivar, which I’ve tested/tasted. Nothing wrong with growing ungrafted seedlings to see what you get, the risk can be thrilling. Just know the odds are you will get a less desirable fruit.
My opinion based on my personal experience. I have wasted to much time growing mislabeled peach trees and ending up with varieties I did not want. I would not want to waste my time growing a “maybe” peach if I need a productive tree. With a peach tree you are talking anywhere from 1 to 4 years to see if it is productive/edible. If I needed a tree that was definitely going to be productive then I would grow a named variety from a reliable online nursery or a non-big box local nursery. I happen to have a lot of land available and have an area for growing peaches from seed and have some that are two years old. They are strictly for play - I expect nothing from them.
It’s nice to experiment if you have space and time. Otherwise, there is really no shortage in proven high-quality peach varieties. Best results for peach grafting are via summer budding (a lot of info and videos are available on how to do it). I think a couple of years in a pot is doable. I like using large (10 gal or larger) fabric pots for this purpose.
Thanks, everybody! I guess I will have to plant my seedling somewhere in the woods and hope it will grow their. I hate just throwing it away. For the replacement, I will wait. May be some of my current plants decide to leave me and I have an empty spot before old peach dies. I not, well, I will have to live without peaches for some time, waiting for replacement to grow.
