pruned peach tree trouble

Hi everyone,

I pruned my 2nd year peach trees in February. Unfortunately, the outward facing bud on several of my heading cuts never leafed.  In fact, about 6 inches from the tip of these branches don't have any leaves at all.  The remainder of the length of branches are doing wonderful.  Many shoots already 6-8" in length.   I live in west central GA, so we only experienced a couple of mornings where the temperature dropped below freezing after pruning.  Anyone have any ideas?  Should I go ahead and snip the "stub" to the next outward growing shoot?  

I appreciate your input.  First time poster here and eager to see what y'all think.

Welcome to Permies Ld!

Ld Williams wrote:I pruned my 2nd year peach trees in February. Unfortunately, the outward facing bud on several of my heading cuts never leafed.  In fact, about 6 inches from the tip of these branches don't have any leaves at all.

I've had the same thing happen to peach trees in the past when they were younger and when I pruned them more.

I added some soil around them to have better water drainage, as they were in a pretty moist spot, and that seemed to really help.

It's gotten a lot better as the tree has gotten older, and I also minimize pruning as much as possible, which has really helped, and I haven't seen it happen at all the last two years.

The remainder of the length of branches are doing wonderful.  Many shoots already 6-8" in length.   I live in west central GA, so we only experienced a couple of mornings where the temperature dropped below freezing after pruning.  Anyone have any ideas?  Should I go ahead and snip the "stub" to the next outward growing shoot?  

Yeah, that's what I did and they grew fine!

Hope you get some peaches soon!

thanks for the input Steve!  Drainage is definitely a concern as I have a fairly shallow hard pan.  The trees are doing great though.  I'll go ahead and snip off the stubs and see how they respond.    

Ha! If I've learned anything from a lifetime of pruning fruit trees, it's that the trees will grow how they grow, and the best I can hope for is that sometimes, the tree with agree with my intentions.