I was listening to an interview today with Jim Kamas (he wrote the Texas Peach Handbook) and he mentioned something that I have never heard of. He was talking about winter pruning peaches and he said that he suggests waiting until bloom to winter prune because winter pruning before bloom will cause peach trees to bloom 7-10 days earlier than they would if you do not prune before they bloom.
This is interesting to me as I am always at risk of a spring freeze (had 2 peach trees with ice layers over the blooms this spring).
Has anyone incorporated this technique and if so was it successful in delaying bloom?
I have never heard of this either but it sounds reasonable. Wonder if this applies to apples and pears? I would like to see the others opinions on this. Bill
I’ve heard that related to grapes and do think it applies to some small degree for that fruit. Haven’t heard it about peaches and don’t have any experience that would confirm. 7-10 days sounds like a lot to me.
Another reason Mr. Kamas suggest spring pruning is the stone fruits are less prone to bacteria canker. It seems that when trees are actively growing it helps push out any bacteria. In the fall trees go dormant and the bacteria has a better chance to get into the pruning wounds. The only negative I can think of is having to use more dormant and or copper spray since you have to apply it to the unpruned tree.
I do know that when you prune roses they will bud out faster. It would seem that the same would be true for peaches.