Planting Peach Trees

Tap to Read ➤ Pragya T

If you wish to enjoy fresh, juicy, and homegrown peaches, then planting peach trees in your backyard is a great idea. Here are the tips and tricks on growing this tree that will guide you in the process...

Everybody loves juicy peaches and it is a favorite fruit of many. Even if you are not fond of the fruit, you must be enjoying the peach fruit toppings on desserts. If you want to enjoy excellent-quality peaches, then consider growing organic peach trees in your home garden.

Besides the succulent fruit, these trees will also add beauty to your landscape with their beautiful pink blooms.

Tips and Tricks

✦ Before you start planting any trees, first select the right peach tree variety for plantation. There are many varieties of peach trees some produce peaches which have white flesh, while some produce fruits which have golden flesh.

✦ The best considered tree varieties are Garden Gold, Honey Babe, O'Henry, Cresthaven, Red Haven, and Elberta peach tree.

Each of these varieties have their own uniqueness. Elberta peach bears sweet, juicy, freestone fruits, the fruits are large and can be eaten raw. Honey Babe peach tree is very popular, as it grows very slowly but bears fruits quite early. The fruits of Honey Babe are nice golden color, sweet, firm, and are freestone which have an excellent taste.

Garden Gold bears soft and freestone fruits and even the average sized fruits are large. O'Henry fruits are large, firm, and freestone which can have white or golden flesh and have a wonderful flavor. Red Haven is a strong tree which has large, creamy-yellow flesh bearing fruits. Cresthaven peach tree has fruits which are golden-yellow with a smooth skin.

✦ So, decide which variety of peach tree you want to plant in your yard. Peach trees are grown from pits, and take quite many years before they bear fruits. So, many gardeners prefer to buy a young tree from a nursery as these young trees are couple of years old and within a year or two of planting them in the yard you will have fruits growing on them.

✦ Once you have your young tree, pick a site in your yard which receives full sun. Then dig a hole big enough for the tree and fill the deep hole with plenty of compost. Then mix it properly with garden soil and carefully place the tree in the hole and gently spread the roots out in the hole.

Then bury the plant with soil and tamp the soil down. Then water the soil thoroughly, you can add some more soil if necessary.

✦ Keep watering the plant regularly, and provide it with a good fertilizer a week to ten days after planting it. Then again after a month provide fertilizer. Use 8 ounces of 10-10-10 fertilizer according to the directions mentioned on the package.

A 2 - 3-year-old peach tree should be provided ¾ pound fertilizer in the month of May and March. If the tree is 4-year-old or older, then provide a pound of fertilizer in the month of May and March. This will keep the tree healthy so that it keeps bearing fruits.

✦ One of the common peach tree disease that gardeners experience is leaf curl, where the leaves become red or purple, distorted, and start to curl. If this happens you need to apply a fungicide - during the fall when there are only 10 percent of leaves on the tree, and during spring before the buds begin to expand.

You can also provide the tree with extra nitrogen using a fertilizer to help it recover faster and maintain its strength.

So use the planting tips given and follow the care instructions properly to maintain a healthy tree, and within few years you will have juicy, fresh, home-grown peaches!