Im excited to be expecting 2 Red Haven Peach trees soon. My extension recommends this and the Redskin for my area. I’ve been pretty much reading up on them all day and I’ve been wanting to put some out here for a while. I’ve got plenty of room out front and it may add value to this dump. I’d just like to read one article about peaches in SC without references to “the hot summer day refreshment” or the fact that more peaches are grown here than GA. I feel like more of a man cause we have a lot of peaches, ok. I understand they require maintenance and can be pest magnets. Anybody else growing this fruit?
i dont know about all that. mama bought me a peach from local store and i ate it,so then got the thought grow this dang seed,so i threw 3 seeds in solo cups,forgot all about them until winter and started the early get things together for spring and found them on a table with crap stacked all on top of them,2 of them had a 1 inch tall plant inside,so i up pot them into 5 gal buckets,they grew around 2ft tall first year,but had to get them out those buckets. so you know i feed a deer herd right,all the old alfalfa they dont eat i rake into a huge pile for composting,so i cleaned up the area real good,with all that alfalfa,i took a 4 ft field fencing and made a 12 ft round circle and right in the middle of it i dumped a wheel barrow full of spent soil from my medicine grows right around 4 5gal buckets full plus the five gal bucket the tree was in,planted right into the center of that pile,filled in the 12 ft circle with fall leaves,alfalfa ,cardboard,in layers and filled that whole ring,watered it down real good for about week straight and went back to pile around 6 months later and most had broke down ,and right in the middle of it was the peach tree,standing proud. i never water it,to far to drag a water hose,i bury all my compost and the usal stuff and the tree require nothing,it is around 5 ft tall this year. the second tree i bury it in rock,i mean to bury it by the house here i had to jack hammer a hole,went down around 19 inb ,as far as hammer would go,right into a retaining wall,it is around 4 ft tall this year,had some of the prettest pink flower on it this year,i think i watered it twice last year. my soil is fertile as heck,when you can find it,im better off growing rocks hahahah,if i think of it tomorrow i take a couple pics of the two and show you,i dont give them any attention really,the one in compost pile gets around 6 or 7 hr sun daily max,the one by house gets more and i asume that why i got flowers on it this year
I thought about trying seeds but it’s a gamble since most come from hybrids and are sterile. I’m going to get the spots ready for these trees this weekend.
I don't have a "real" peach, I have a nectarine tree, a "Fantasia". We planted it several years ago and three years ago it started bearing fruit. The neighbors have a small peach tree in their front yard, so we do get cross pollination. We don't spray the tree, yet the nectarines are bug-free (unlike the apples from the mature apple trees we have in the back yard). First year that it bore fruit, we got 6 nectarines. 2nd year, we got as full of a crop as you could get off of a small tree- enough that we froze several gallon bags. 3rd year was a bust- we had a hard freeze just as the tree went into full bloom- zero nectarines last year. This year, well, the tree is in bloom right now and we had a mild freeze 4 days ago (we are at about 4,000 ft), but the flowers are still there, so we may get nectarines this year. Gardening outdoors is always an adventure in the mountains! Granny
We have big peach producers around here and the fear of that late season freeze is a lead news story. I feel like following the goings on with these big farms can help with my little attempt.
I’ve got the spots picked out and I aerated them to catch some of the incoming rain and hopefully make them easier to prep and plant. I added a little mulch around too. Still excited.
Sounds like a plan. I put in a Belle of Georgia peach about a month ago. This is my second try- last year my tree went down to a bacterial canker and I had to pull it out. The nursery refunded my order, so I turned around and bought another. I’ll try to share any knowledge I gain in the process.
That’s my fear and excitement. I’m tempted to try a pair of redskin trees too but may wait until this winter. I’ve got room for several more. I hope we can make this a good peach thread.
So I googled growing peach trees and it blew my mind when I read that the leaves and branches of the peach tree contain cyanide
i dont really want fruit ,but i will give um hell,i really just got surprised when they grew,both were just trail plants to show a buddy in estonia i could grow in rocks hahaah,then he moved to spain and bought a plantation that is covered with rocks hahahh
I just got thru choking down a peach from the store that a little cyanide may have given some flavor too. Jeez that thing was bad, with a hint of bitter. I hope these trees grow a better fruit than that.
@dobro49 Don't worry! With reasonable care, any peach you grow will be picked when perfectly ripe and be totally delicious! And an old saying about fruit trees (although inflation has made it rather out-dated ) "Dig a $10 hole for a $1 tree." For the rest of you- if you can't grow your own peaches- peaches from a Farmer's Market or fruit stand can be as good as home-grown, but quality can vary by the farmer. Try buying one peach, walk off, wash it off and eat it. You'll know what to do next.... Store-bought peaches are picked green so they can be shipped, and then they are being "starved" as they ripen in the store or at your home. They never taste as good as fresh, ripe peaches direct from the tree! Granny
That’s a great point about the 10 dollar plant spot @Storm Crow , I’m already prepping the spots for these with no plans to cut corners.
I aerated and added mulch to the spots I plan to plant, trying to soften it up and get some matter in before I have to dig it for the tree.
if your running into clay ,be a good time for gypsum mate. i have a real bad clay spot in my earth garden and around august when it is just to hot for growing i add gypsum for over wintering,this coming season i plan on planting cover crops,this past winter was a odd one,we never get cold spells past 2 or 3 days and in 5 years snow twice and the first snow didnt make it a couple hours and it was gone,so weird year. what was the weirdest is all my oak trees drop leaves during summer ,the snow made them drop couple weeks after the snow so i got plenty of leaves to still rake up and add to compost pile