Looks like at least my Saturn is moving towards the petal fall stage. I’m reaching uncharted territory here and would like some assistance.
From your experience what can i expect moving forward? When should i start seeing fruit set? When can i start applying Surround? Will kocide 3000 be ok for the season or should i go out and get something else?
Any and all help from you “Peach Tree Experts” would be greatly appreciated.
Hi Sean, I assume you found my low impact spray schedule?
Basically start Surround when the first shucks start to come off. I would also throw in spinosad with Surround sprays if you see any signs of OFM (tip flagging with worms in them).
Saturn is highly rot-prone so you will need to lay on the Serenade/oil or sulphur throughout the season. I put one of the two in every tank. You are fortunately not in as warm a climate as I am, plus rot takes several years to take hold. But, its good to keep beating it back now, it will give you more rot-free years.
There is no need to spray copper during the season; its hard on leaves and the soil (earthworms) as well and should be used only when really required.
Scott,
Yes i found that. Was looking to see if anyone does anything different, or had stuff that works for them. I found your schedule very useful and the instructions you just provided even better.
I already had Surround on order, looks like i may have to add a few things.
Now speaking of what to expect… i understand that every zone, tree, planting, etc is different. This is my first time with any peaches so I’m in the dark here. Not really looking for " on day 11, that morning you should see… and on day 22 you should want to do this…" just wanting to know a general “in about 10-14 days you should see fruitlets form. You will want to thin when they get to the size of …”
Watching all these videos can sometimes be a little overwhelming and many of them tend to gloss over topics. I go out to my plantings now and about every tree (minus the Indian Free) is entering petal fall and the flowers don’t look any different now then they did 2 weeks ago.
Given that your trees are young there probably are not too many things you will need to be concerned about. Just watch out for curculio, OFM, and rot, and thin from shuck fall (fruits are bare, no flower parts left on them) through dime sized. At the start it helps to thin over a longer period, the final goal is e.g. a fruit every 6 inches but do it bit by bit to learn more about selecting the best ones etc and gaining confidence.
Oh, and do be alert for squirrels and other wildlife. They can also take a year or two to catch on, it seems like its one season one squirrel finds it and next season their whole litter gets led there by mom and dad.
Last year I saw a squirrel use her mouth to carry her young into my yard from the woods across the way. My daughter found the scene adorable. I did not.
Awesome Scott. I’ll be on the lookout for those critters. I guess when it comes to thinning is kind of like pruning. This year was my first time not coming down hard on my peaches/nectarine. I probably left a lot more fruiting wood than i should, so maybe i can thin by pruning.
Is your experience about how many days after petal fall does the fruit start to develop? Also is petal fall a symptom of having a fertilized flower? I have some flowers that have gone through petal fall, while others have just started to shrivel up. Or are these 2 not even related?
Shriveling up usually means its dead… if the petals fall you may or may not get a fruit, peaches almost always come through and plums and cherries much less consistent. Since things sound like they are going fine I would just sit back, relax and watch the show, and prepare to be surprised by how things evolve 
Scott-
Have you heard of/read about Venerate? Might be another option for PC…
No I hadn’t. It looks good, hopefully it will soon be available to try out. It would definitely be good to have something to add to Surround to give it more punch - it requires careful attention to get Surround spraying to be effective.
Sean,
I wanted to try to address some of your questions, so thought I would try yet another video. It didn’t turn out too good, but I was trying to show the small fruit which falls off and the larger fruit which stays on and keeps growing. Plus I wanted to show how the leaves feed peaches, but I didn’t describe that very well either (leaves feed the peaches from the top down).
We had petal fall three weeks ago, so at least you can see what your Saturn peaches should look like in 3 weeks. I really like Saturn peaches. We just harvested them last year, so I don’t have a lot of experience w/ that variety, but customers liked it so much I grafted about 20 of those trees last fall. We have so many I ran out of places to put them and had to put some of them along the fence line.
OMG, that was perfect!!! The quality was perfect. At least this gives me an idea moving forward what to look for, what the fruit/tree should look like, etc. My main questions were answered and more!!
If you had petal fall 3 weeks ago I’m probably about 3 weeks or so behind you then. It looks like from my window today (rained all day so i couldn’t get out there) that just about all my trees are getting close or hit that stage. Looks like my only hold back is my Indian Free as i can still see the big pink blooms.
Now one question that may be dumb, but thought I’d ask if you have time. This is my only year for flowers (three year old trees) since we had the polar vortex 2 years back, and I’ve noticed that some of my varieties have big pink blooms, yet a few (mostly PF series) have small reddish looking flowers. Those ones aren’t as showy, and about 1/2 the size of the others, and are red in color. All in all the flower quantity is about the same from the red flowers to the pink, so do these varieties just have flowers like that? Or are all peach supposed to have the same? I know it may be a dumb question. But just thought I’d ask.
Again thanks!! My wife asked “wait, he made this video for you?!?” Sometimes people just can’t grasp the kindness of these Internet communities. 
Thanks Sean,
That’s a good question about the flowers. It’s pretty normal to have different colored flowers. Some flowers are very pink, some are more red, a few are sort of lavender, and at least one of the flat peaches has white flowers.
Glad the video was of some help.
Unless you have some super power to halt the wind when you want, there’s no reason to apologize for that video. I hope you leave it up because it answered Sean’s questions much better than words alone.
Edit: Fiddlesticks! I was a minute too late hitting the Reply button.
I hope you don’t mind but i saved the video for future watching. If you don’t want me to just let me know and I’ll delete it. It’s just that I’ll watch them… then re-watch weeks, or even year later just as a refresher.
Again i hope you don’t mind, it’s just that it answered my questions, and as they always say a picture (or video in this case) is worth a thousand words!!
That’s fine Sean. Honored that it helped you some.
Ok, here is what i got as of today on my trees:
And here is a so called “Independence Nectarine”. Based off the fuzz I’m thinking not:
Now here is a question. Is it too early to start thinning? The fruit isn’t even really dime size yet, but i got to thinking, is it ever to early?
Also take a look at this picture. I have a few branches like this:
Since they have no leaves should i just go ahead and prune them off? Based off of Olpea’s video the leaves ahead of the fruit feed the fruit. No leaves so nothing to feed them??
Also i’m going to start spraying since i see a few with damage right now. I currently have Surround, spinosad, and seranade. Is there any reason not to spray all at once (same mixture) or should i split it up somehow? Also i have a sticker so do i need to add it with any of these? Would adding in any neem oil to the mix be helpful or not really needed?
Thanks!!
I don’t see the video. Am I looking in the wrong place?
It was removed by Olpea.
Ive been told it’s never too early to thin. Although I think some people wait in order to thin the sickly or damaged fruit.
