I’d say that your tree is much more open than almost any mature peach I’ve ever seen. So that allows a heavier fruit load on what is there. All the leaves and fruit are very well illuminated.
You must get some vigorous upright growth on a tree like that. Either that or your tree is lower than normal vigor. Alan and Mark talk like they are always fighting vigorous upright growth.
That may not be a good example since the picture was taken during a year when we used no fertilizer and reduced irrigation to try to reduce the growth which was out of control. That tree is Rich May which is a vigorous tree here.
My soil is very different from the sandy soil at the research farm where the pruning videos were recorded. I got into trouble by over stimulating my trees using their recommendations and I had to cut back to regain control when the trees wanted to grow to the moon.
They use micro sprinklers and high levels of N on their trees.
About 1/2 pound of 17/17/17 per tree is all the fertilizer I need.
Thank you @blueberryhill. Your peach trees look really nice and open.
I rewatched the videos… I usually watch them 1 or 2x a year for a refresher, so I am glad you and Mark posted them again.
I think I was getting hung up on dormant vs summer pruning, and wasn’t sure that the same techniques would apply (such as heading cuts at the ends of the fruiting wood). When you cut back the fruiting wood by 1/3 as he suggests during the dormant season, this is to stiffen the limb and reduce fruit load. I think he also mentioned it will stimulate new growth/branching, but I need to go back and listen to that again.
Since I am almost exclusively pruning during summer, none of that fruiting wood he is talking about gets pruned back before fruiting. Some of my trees have been pruned after I have harvested the fruit, while there are others that will be pruned before the fruit is harvested. Not sure that really makes a difference, other than in a marginal year like this one, I was able to keep some peaches that would have otherwise been pruned out.
I will try take a few pictures of the scaffolds that “Y” that concern me. I think it might be more appropriate to say they form a “V”, rather than a “Y”. They tend to have very narrow crotch angles which look weak, since half of the “V” does not form a good collar.
Went out to look for some of those scaffolds that V at the end I couldn’t find the ones I was looking for. I did find several that have multiple shoots at the end, 3 to 5, that I have neglected to prune.
[quote=“Olpea, post:38, topic:1304”]
Eventually I just started selecting 3 scaffolds.
So I’ve had it drilled into my head since I took commercial tree fruit production in college (I graduated in '07 so I’m going back a few years) that peaches are pruned to six scaffolds with an open center…
I know I mentioned somewhere my tree fruit production ‘professor’ in college was a cooperative extension agent with a master’s degree in Weed Science (the other kind of weed, the stuff herbicides are made for) who only had a handful of years of working experience in an orchard when he was in high school/college…
I worked at DelVal’s orchard for a year (I went to college at what was then Delaware Valley College)…as one of my classmates put it the lack of supervision was an education. I spent a decent amount of time pruning…yeah, not explaining how to pick scaffolds on the trees we were working on was part of the lack of supervision.
I’ve worked on a couple commercial orchards since then…the best instruction I’ve gotten on training fruit trees by way of pruning-or any manner…has been from a combination of touching base with a large grower I used to work for (the way that grower’s pruned has changed over the years) and the grower’s convention I go to every year…and they’ve gone through every training system and planting density under the sun at the grower’s convention…6 scaffolds open center, 4 scaffolds open center, 4 scaffolds trained to a V, 2 scaffolds spaced 7 feet between trees trained to a V…I know I’ve seen research presented about spacing peach trees tighter than 7 feet between trees but I remember hearing payoff in spacing reaches it’s limits right around 7 feet
3 bushels per year.
So the original density I was spacing my trees at was 12 feet between trees and 15 feet between rows.
Over the last 3 years I’ve been planting 10 by 15.
The first spacing is 242 trees per acre and the second is 290 trees per acre.
If I get 3 saleable bushels per tree out of either density in a good year, I’d be very pleased.
@Olpea
After watching your video for the 3rd time and Dr. Mike 4th time? (over the past couple of years), I felt like it’s past time that I seriously reduced the height of my Freckle Face (4th year in ground) and shaped another 3 rd year old peach tree.
With pruner and a loper in hand, I hacked both trees down and remove at least 50% of the mass. Yes, I should have done it in the spring or, better, 2-3 years ago but it is what it is.
@KSprairie My FreckleFace looked similar to yours tree. I just had enough of mine growing out of control. It’s done now.
good for you @mamuang . glad you got it pruned into shape. I am working my through mine. I have about 13 left to do! Not enough daylight, or too much work away from home, and I’m struggling to get it done.
Maybe just me but I think mid summer is a bad time to be opening up stone fruit trees. Around here that’s a good way to sunburn the bark. I’d wait and do it early next spring.
The thought has crossed my mind. However, this summer it has been mostly cloudy or rainy. Maybe, I could get away with minimal or no sun burn.
For mature trees that’s right. We are still pruning and make sure we leave some shade in the center of the tree. For young trees, they don’t sunburn (at least I’ve not seen it happen yet).
This thread is dangerous, I too went out and hacked 80%of my donut peach, it opens up more sun space for other fruit trees, a win win, lol.
Your area probably has stronger sun than mine. Hacking 80% off, you should be concern about sun burn.
I found a can of my old white latex paint. I will paint the trunks of both trees.
Actually it’s hidden behind a huge Longan tree. So it’s safe.
Yep I see the flower buds in your picture. I highlighted them in red. Thanks for posting the pictures you’re a big help to me 
Here is a video I did a couple days ago. It’s a terrible video (and the kind I’m likely to delete because of my rambling, and said “Uhh” about a hundred times).
The trees I am working with in the video were planted Spring 2022.
One thing I didn’t mention in the video is that I left a little stub above the top selected scaffold. This is so that the top selected scaffold won’t break off while it’s young. If you don’t leave a little stub, sometimes that top scaffold will break before it grows enough.
Also I didn’t get into selecting primary branches off the scaffolds, but you’ll want to make sure those have good collars too.
You get those broomstick ends from terminal buds. If you prune off the tips of the terminal buds when training the young tree, it won’t produce those broomsticks. It’s not a huge deal, if you do get them. You can clean them up by pruning, and select one of the shoots. You definitely don’t want to leave the broomstick. Many of the shoots will break down as they get older and weighted with fruit.
Hey thanks for recording and posting that video Mark! It is helpful!! and not as many “uhhs” as you think. 
On some of these trees it is hard to get the spacing between scaffolds that I want, good collars, and 3 scaffolds heading in different directions. But I realize that sometimes I will have to compromise and choose the best that I have to work with. Your demonstration tree had it all! Nice.
I haven’t read or heard about leaving the stub above your top scaffold, so thank you so much for pointing this out. It’s too late for a few of my trees but I still have plenty to prune so I can get it right on those.
I appreciate your explanation of what causes the broomsticks (I didn’t know what to call them. The ones with 3 look like turkey feet; like big bluestem). I figured to choose the one going the direction I want with best collar formation and prune out the rest. I have a long weekend, so I’m hopeful I can get most, if not all, of the pruning and scaffold selection completed.
Hey, if you have a minute, could you look at the pictures I posted over here?
sun damage on peaches?
Have you seen this in your trees? @mamuang says most likely sunscald so i will be painting trunks for the first time. I have to check all the others more closely, but so far it looks like only my 2 Harrow Diamond (planted 2021) are affected. Have noticed any propensity for Harrow Diamond to be more prone to sunscald than other varieties? Before I pruned, the trunks were pretty well protected by a lot of leaf growth. The damage was already there, it occurred before I pruned.
None of my trees (including apples, pears, plums, etc) want to grow limbs towards the south. Our S and SE winds are tremendous and what does try grow that direction ends up growing straight up or bent around to avoid the wind. I’ve tried to tie and train them, but that is dangerous as they can break in severe wind. Anyway, it is hard to get any scaffolds to grow to the south, but once the others grow and fill the space, they should provide some shade on the southern facing trunk.
Thanks for the video, Mark! It was amazingly helpful! You answered questions I’ve been asking myself all summer.
I would say that it’s freeze damage. Generally, it’s pretty rare in KS/MO. It’s more of a problem the farther north you go. However, we had a lot of trees which got that from the sudden drop in temps last Dec. White or light colored latex will help some. We’ve painted trunks before, but most of the time, it’s not enough of a problem to be worth the time/expense of painting. If the trees are vigorous they will almost always heal up the dead bark, although it can take a few years.
Your tree does have a lot of dead bark to heal, but it can do it I think. Make sure you give it some N fertilizer, if you haven’t already. It’s not too late this season to supercharge that tree. It’s a small tree anyway, and you want it to grow rapidly to fill in its space.
Throw in a couple handfuls of urea per 5 gallon bucket of water. Stir until urea is dissolved. Then pour that around the drip line of the tree. I’d pour a couple of 5 gal buckets of water, with the dissolved urea. That should get the tree really growing good. The tree will use the vigorous growth to put more energy into healing that trunk. You just want to really keep that tree as vigorous as possible to heal that trunk.
I’ve not noticed Harrow Diamond is more susceptible to that kind of damage vs. other trees.
