Late last summer, I budded a bunch of peach seedlings. The buds did not grow last summer. They are just beginning to grow now. I want to cut the top of the tree off so the bud can become the new leader. Should I wait until warmer temps?, I am in zone 5 and we are still having light frosts most nights. I have heard that it is best to prune peaches after they flower, but I want to give the grafted buds a chance to take off and not be suppressed.
Thanks for any information
I’d cut it now.
cut cut cut… i cut a bunch a while back…after the extreme cold had passed.
Thanks for the advice, we have 28f this morning, I imagine there are still several more nights like that to come. Are the peaches still able to heal their wounds when the temp drops below freezing?
Yeah if all your doing is cutting back branches to the buds you want to push…then sure. They’ll do fine at this point. I cut mine back in early March and everything has pushed nicely…here is a Saturn peach bud grafted to P Americana seedling i’ve grown out–even trying to push a flower …
I’ll cut off the other branch too when i get around to it so that peach graft pushes good growth over summer.