Home grown peaches, part 1

Flower & Garden Magazine, June-July, 1996 by Brenda Olcott-Reid

Bite into the Luscious Sweetness of a Juicy, Tree-ripened peach and you'll experience one of the joys of summer. Gardeners without peach trees in their yards can realize the delight of harvesting home-grown peaches sooner than they might think -- just two or three growing seasons after planting.

Though peach trees seem to have more than their share of pests and weather problems and do take some care, the beautiful spring blooms and resulting summer fruit will more than reward you for your efforts. Many of the potential problems can be avoided, in fact, through careful selection of appropriate varieties and rootstocks.

CHOOSING VARIETIES

Choosing peach varieties that are well-adapted to your area will maximize your chances of producing peaches in most years. Varieties vary greatly in cold hardiness, bloom time and resistance to serious diseases. A few peach varieties, notably 'Reliance,' are cold-hardy enough to withstand winter temperatures of minus 20 degrees (U.S.D.A. Hardiness Zone 5). The choices are wider for Zone 6 and warmer (see "see Disease-Resistant Peach Varieties for Zones 5 through 8," opposite).

Within an area, some peach varieties begin to bloom as many as 10 days later than others. The later-blooming varieties are more likely to escape spring frosts, which can kill the blooms and eliminate crop. A good way to select later-blooming varieties is to look for those with high "chill refinement." Dormant peach trees are genetically programmed to bloom only after they have been exposed to a period of temperatures above freezing but below 45 degrees--measured as "chilling hours" degrees -- measured as "chilling hours" -- followed by warmer temperatures.

Gardeners in the Deep South must choose peach varieties with a low chilling requirement, ranging from 200 chilling hours in southern Florida to about 650 chilling hours in South Carolina. Peaches with higher chill requirements may fail to bloom or leaf out in those areas. In other peach-growing regions, though, it's best to choose varieties needing 900 hours or more of chilling, as these will bloom later than those needing only 700 or 800 hours.

Gardeners in most parts of the country should also choose varieties that are resistant to bacterial spot disease, which can defoliate susceptible trees. Many good-varieties, including all those listed; in the chart, resist this disease and require no sprays for it. Only growers in arid Western areas needn't be concerned about bacterial spot resistance. Make sure the trees you buy are certified free of viruses, nematodes and other diseases at the time of purchase.

Peach varieties with a smooth skin are called nectarines. Lack of "fuzz" leaves them much more susceptible to brown rot, so I'd recommend nectarines only for arid climates where that disease isn't serious. Many nectarines are more watery in flavor, lacking the intensity of the best peaches.

Most peach varieties are self-fertile (they produce fruit even without a second variety for pollination), an advantage in small gardens with room for just one tree. Where there is room, I recommend planting three or four varieties with successive ripening dates, so you can have fresh peaches for two months or more. A final consideration: varieties with larger petals have more showy blooms, which can make a backyard peach orchard very attractive in spring.

STANDARD TREES VS. DWARFS

Peach trees are produced by budding the desired variety onto a young seedling called a rootstock. Once the budded variety has taken hold, the top of the rootstock is cut off. The resulting tree has the selected variety for its fruiting top; the hardy rootstock provides the anchoring root system.

Most peach trees are offered on "standard" rootstocks that produce a full-size tree, 15 to 18 feet tall and 18 to 20 feet wide at maturity. With proper pruning, standard trees can be kept to a more compact size: 10 to 12 feet tall and 12 to 14 feet wide.

Choose trees budded onto `Lovell,' a widely used standard rootstock, for most peach-growing areas. `Lovell' imparts greater winter hardiness to the variety than most other rootstocks. `Halford,' another widely available rootstock, could be substituted where winter temperatures seldom fall below minus 10 degrees and don't fluctuate much.

`Nemaguard' rootstock resists root knot nematodes and is the best choice in the Southwest and Florida. Avoid it in most other areas, since it's susceptible to other nematodes, more susceptible to bacterial canker and not as cold-hardy as `Lovell' or `Halford.'

If standard peach trees are too big for you, consider dwarf trees that stay 8 to 12 feet tall and wide. You can even grow miniature peach trees that reach only 3 to 6 feet. Dwarf peach trees are produced in one of two ways: either a dwarfing rootstock is used to keep a standard variety small, or a genetic dwarf variety is grown on a standard rootstock.

The best dwarfing rootstock for peaches is `St. Julien A,' a damson plum (Prunus insititia). It has far better compatiblility with peaches than other dwarfing rootstocks, and it produces a cold-hardy, well-anchored, 10- to 12-foot-tree that can live as long as peaches on standard rootstocks.