Welcome to the New Peaches Forum!

Where everything is peachy keen!

https://permies.com/f/435/peaches

I bought some peaches from the store this past summer. I ripened them on the counter and bit into one hoping for a peach flavor explosion! My teeth didn't get far though as it was so hard, picked way before it's time, that I couldn't even eat it. And it tasted like cardboard on top of that!

In contrast, I ate some peaches this summer picked from a local wild peach tree. They were picked while still firm but starting to show some color. I let them ripen on the counter until they started getting soft. Wow! What flavor!

Grow your own peaches and taste the difference, and share all your peach pursuits with others here!

I haven't post for a very long time, but I love good ripe peaches! These pictures are from a Red Haven peach tree I had in my back yard in Parkland, Wash. in 2004. It was my first try growin peaches I bought a little bare root tree from a nursery in our area and it didn't take too many years before this happened. It was like the once in a life time boom year. I was off traveling the world and my son sent me an email sayin you better get home the peach is about to collapse.
It's pretty impressive for our area, but as you can see is absolutely possible. The Red Haven seem to do the best here. They aren't any good for canning, but when they are tree ripened they are those juice drippin off your elbows kinda peaches!
The tree died a few years later, and all my peach stealin neighbors really missed it. I keep tryin to grow another miracle tree, I kept losing them to Leaf Curl. I have another that did very well, but it collapsed under all the weight of another dream load two years ago. It was doing just fine had a lot of peaches on it, then one day they all just exploded in size and it was a near total collapse of the branches. I cut it all back to the main trunk of the tree about 5 ft off the ground and it has grown back beautifully.
I'm hopin we've had enough frost nights this winter and even some late snow seems to make it produce better.
We'll see.+

 

Ed Hoffman wrote:I haven't post for a very long time, but I love good ripe peaches! These pictures are from a Red Haven peach tree I had in my back yard in Parkland, Wash. in 2004. It was my first try growin peaches I bought a little bare root tree from a nursery in our area and it didn't take too many years before this happened. It was like the once in a life time boom year. I was off traveling the world and my son sent me an email sayin you better get home the peach is about to collapse.
It's pretty impressive for our area, but as you can see is absolutely possible. The Red Haven seem to do the best here. They aren't any good for canning, but when they are tree ripened they are those juice drippin off your elbows kinda peaches!
The tree died a few years later, and all my peach stealin neighbors really missed it. I keep tryin to grow another miracle tree, I kept losing them to Leaf Curl. I have another that did very well, but it collapsed under all the weight of another dream load two years ago. It was doing just fine had a lot of peaches on it, then one day they all just exploded in size and it was a near total collapse of the branches. I cut it all back to the main trunk of the tree about 5 ft off the ground and it has grown back beautifully.
I'm hopin we've had enough frost nights this winter and even some late snow seems to make it produce better.
We'll see.+

 

I'm nearby in WA, have pruned and picked other people's peach trees, and really want to have my own, so I want all the knowledge I can get about growing peaches.  Peaches are so good for the body.  It would be fabulous to let them ripen on the tree!  Besides the juicy, eating peaches, I also want to grow peaches for canning... to have their sweet goodness in Winter, like right now!

L. Hayes wrote:
I'm nearby in WA, have pruned and picked other people's peach trees, and really want to have my own, so I want all the knowledge I can get about growing peaches.  Peaches are so good for the body.  It would be fabulous to let them ripen on the tree!  Besides the juicy, eating peaches, I also want to grow peaches for canning... to have their sweet goodness in Winter, like right now!

I’m with you on those canned peaches! I have been eating so many this winter. They’re just store bought so not nearly as good, but a peach tree will be one of the first in my food forest since Texas is actually somewhat known for its peaches, too

I'm not an expert by all means, but I thought pruning is what prevent the branches from collapsing. Otherwise they will 'prune' themselves, as they are of the 'prunus' family.

I was learning some pruning techniques this winter, and apparently you can guide the tree production. You can make it produce more fruit, or less, depending on where you cut the little stems, and you can make it produce it bigger by removing a few blossoms and/or branches.
You could let the tree be, but since it is a cultivated variety it might not behave as well as a wild one.

Yes, you totally need to thin peaches--five inches apart, is what I've read. Apples too. But unlike apples, peaches have scrawny branches, so even after thinning you may need to prop up some branches as they ripen. I love peaches and have three--no, four trees but haven't gotten more than two peaches so far. That's because the first two are volunteers growing in a place that's mostly shady, and I won't cut all the surrounding trees just to accommodate those two peaches; the third one was a volunteer in my neighbor's garden, which grew to FIVE FEET the first year--that fall I dug it and wheelbarrowed it to my orchard. It bloomed the next year but set no fruit--this region is prone to early spring warmups followed by frosts. Last year it bloomed its total brains out, and I pruned off some branches for a large bouquet--but it set only a few fruits. Last year I planted a new grafted PF19--007--hey, I didn't name the damn thing! I assure you, I coulda done a whole lot better than that! The series is called Flamin' Furies or something, which is almost as bad. But never mind the name, it's supposed to be productive, reddish, freestone, and most important, resistant to brown rot which ruins my neighbor's peaches every year just before they ripen. It's still tiny so no report on it yet.

I'm at a new property and just establishing my perennial food systems.

I ordered a Madison Peach bare root tree from fedcoseeds.com. I'm thinking about putting it next to our deck. It would get full sun there, but mostly I just like the idea of sitting on the deck and picking a fresh peach to eat. Does anyone have any advice about where to place a peach tree?

My dad has a single dwarf peach tree. He's never had a peach from it. He is the squirrel whisperer and they wait on him and follow him around. When he found out that the squirrels were eating the fruits while still green and about the size of a pinball (remember those?) he said it wasn't important and that he'd rather have the squirrels. I offered to net the tree and he said no. Did I say he likes his squirrels? :D

As a kid growing up in Southern California along the coast we had 2.5 peach trees available to us. The point 5 was the tree in a neighbors yard hanging over the fence behind the garage. I believe now that the tree in front was a semi dwarf, and the one just the other side of another fence but in our back yard was standard. No clue what cultivar. All had a wonderful orange flesh, were free stone and ripened the best shades of yellow, orange, and red.

They all had good years of bumper crops when we ate fresh, juicy, perfectly sweet tart, made lots of peach cobbler, and did some of my first canning. These bumper years also saw my relatives coming to take grocery bags full home for their own use. Then there were bad years when there were maybe 2 dozen fruit per tree. And I learned how to pick ripe peaches from the grocery store from this experience. I'm sure many here know how hard it is to get a good peach from a typical grocery store. Most are hard, tasteless and worthless. I've a fairly well educated palate, so having a good peach cobbler hasn't happened in a long time.

As a young adult, I moved to what is referred to as the Inland Empire. Closer to Palm Springs desert than the cooler coastline where I was raised. We used to have a local u-pick and we did that once, to the tune of about 25 pounds that I canned most of. My kids were all very young.

I don't have a peach tree now. I chose apricot and plum before a peach when we moved to our current location with a tiny yard. Knowing I wouldn't be staying any longer than necessary. I need more space in my yard than this has. Most mobile home parks don't have much yard space, and I've got the most in the park. But that's another story.

I don't like white fleshed varieties of peach or nectarine. I don't get the fascination of some for the flat, donut cultivars either. And after I get moved from a zone 9 to 6,  and after the mulberries and apples get planted, the peaches will go in. I can't wait to get a good peach.

Jackie: put your tree in full sun and where you have good drainage, very important for peaches. And since you live in New Hampshire, think about a spot where it won't get hit by the dawn's early light in spring--because lightly frozen blossoms can recover and set fruit if they thaw before the sun hits them. But maybe where they get some winter protection, from your house maybe, especially if it's windy. Zone 5 is on the cold side for peaches.

Does anyone know if there are any kinds of fruit trees the deer and elk won't eat?

I have two peach trees in the yard but I have had no success with them so far.  I need to connect them to the drip irrigation system, but for 2 years now I haven't put forth that effort.  I recently found out my soil is pathetic so the lack of fertilizer has been a major problem as well.  The tallest is about 2 feet, the other died back due to the lack of water and now I have 5 branches coming out of the 3 inch tall main trunk.  I have been lucky to keep leaves on them all summer, let alone see the start of a peach.
I look forward to learning from this group.
Thank you.

I have two questions for the community:

How do you keep squirrels out of your peach trees?

Exactly where and how is the best place to prune?

Carmen,
I don't know how the deer/elk decide what to eat.
I know people in Seattle suburbs that had their fruit trees eaten by deer.
On the other hand, I am in the middle of nowhere and I see elk and deer tracks and spoor right next to my fruit trees every day but they did not touch them.

That does not mean all trees are fine - I had voles eating the roots completely until the tree fell over. The rabbits eat lower branches and the slugs chew through leaves and buds.

Triton Nomad wrote:Carmen,
I don't know how the deer/elk decide what to eat.
I know people in Seattle suburbs that had their fruit trees eaten by deer.
On the other hand, I am in the middle of nowhere and I see elk and deer tracks and spoor right next to my fruit trees every day but they did not touch them.

That does not mean all trees are fine - I had voles eating the roots completely until the tree fell over. The rabbits eat lower branches and the slugs chew through leaves and buds.

Indeed! (about the voles, moles, ground squirrels) I lost a nice cherry, I believe to ground squirrels in CA. Is there any remedy to them? I brought a sprout off my favorite heritage apple tree from CA and would sure like not to have it killed here in WA. In our town the deer were thick and starving much of the year. They ate my hollyhocks, took bites off my sage plant, etc. They would eat almost anything but they never did touch my raspberries. That's the second place I lived with deer that they didn't bother the garden. I may be wrong but I attribute it to having mint growing profusely all through and around it. Like I said, I could be wrong but that's my theory. Anyone else have similar experience or other ideas? The soap, hair, etc. doesn't really work, unless maybe there's plenty else for them to eat.

Jackie Frobese wrote:I'm at a new property and just establishing my perennial food systems.

I ordered a Madison Peach bare root tree from fedcoseeds.com. I'm thinking about putting it next to our deck. It would get full sun there, but mostly I just like the idea of sitting on the deck and picking a fresh peach to eat. Does anyone have any advice about where to place a peach tree?

Do it!  That's what I did about 10 years ago and I love it.  Soooo nice to step out on the deck and pick a lovely peach.  Just make sure you know how large it will get....mine got bigger than I expected so I do a decent amount of pruning every year (but zero regrets).

Michael Fundaro (may not have spelled that right) I'm in SW Colorado and have a really hard time growing stone fruit.  Others around here have told me the same.  Now, I've started some apples and pears.  Maybe you're in the same situation I am.

We compost all of our kitchen waste including bones, cooking oil everything and of course all the yard waste. I burn whenever possible and add the char and ashes to the compost so the char can charge before I add it to whatever I decide needs it the most.
If your Peach trees aren't setting fruit, it needs help, and good compost on top of the soil is the best way I know. It will hold the moisture in the soil and make it grow. Wood ash and charged biochar will help it set good fruit. I was told by growers not to prune my peach tree, well if they are in a good nutritious spot they will grow incredibly fast, probably the biggest reason I keep having huge collapses and the reason I've started pruning mine the last few years. I was also told peach trees will only live or produce fruit for about 15 years. I haven't had one live that long yet, but I'm gonna keep tryin!

Oh, I got an apple. Could I have a Peach instead!
I've done some work for an elderly lady quite a few times over the last 10 years or so. She has a peach tree planted almost underneath the branches of an extremely large Douglas Fir, and she gets loads of peaches. I would think that peach tree wouldn't stand a chance of getting any nutrition or water but it does just fine. My peach tree is the first to bloom each Spring, and I've seen it with blooms on it when we've gotten a very late snow. And that was the year I had so many peaches it collapsed. I have read where they need a certain amount of frosts or they won't bloom. All of my fruit trees are self pollinating, but I do also know some varieties do much better from being pollenated from other types of fruit trees. Growing trees from seed is great, but most of us don't have the time or space to find out if its a good variety for your specific area. With that in mind, it would probably be best to purchase a bareroot tree from a local nursery that would probably give you some good advise. I will also say, now is the time to plant the bareroot fruit trees before the Spring bloom!!! Another thing to keep in mind is Table peaches and Canning peaches aren't the same. Eating (Table) peaches generally ripen early, canning peaches ripen later! And you can't Can table peaches, all you'll get is mush!
I would really love to see more pictures of trees you Bunch of Peach lovin Special People might have!
I'll post more pictures of my little tree in back as the year unfolds.

I have grown two peach trees from seed here in the hot Phoenix area. Both produced fruit that was subsequently pilfered by the only gray squirrel I have ever seen in the Sonoran desert....One of the tress died from lack of water after transplanting to our other property in NM (USDA 6A) the other is still here in a big pot in the backyard. I recently bought it a friend. This one is a Babcock and she is quite small yet. Both of them currently have buds. We will see how they do this year. I'm excited about this peach forum and eager to hear from more experienced peach growers.

A friendly Hello to all
I'm getting "depressed". I have red so00, s000o many neat and wonderful stories, ideas, way of life and...I'm in a "black hole".
No, no! I'm not looking for sympathy! Just putting my 2 cents (and I'm sure, I 'm not alone) that I can't grow much...if anything! I don't have greenhouse, can't have any chickens nor any other domestic animals, can't have higher fence then 4' high,  (my small city by-laws don't allow, even though other people tried to change some of them. One needs a permit for anything and everything! Soon, one might need  a permit to..."fart"! For Pete's sake! ). Can't keep bees, can't grow much due to weather (all my tomatoes, herbs, peppers, potatoes,  went to shit because it's cold and didn't ripened). Can't tap maple trees (there are hundreds of them .... in my backyard).
Anyway...I just want to let all of you to know, that I admire all of you, so very much! The ingenuity, willingness to try many things, and that I so appreciate reading about it on the sideline. I am glad so many people benefit from this website. I do too, in learning,  I just can't use the advice. My climate is cold, my land is small (tiny backyard), my dirt is rock (I love rocks but miss real dirt), my 3 raised beds produced nothing (rain, frost, snow ruined all).

Thank you all. This is SUCH a resorcefull site... I am "jealous". But on a positive note, such a pleasure to read  

I keep reading about squirrels on this thread, don't you people have a BB gun?
And if you haven't heard, deer and elk taste really good too.

Ela La Salle wrote:A friendly Hello to all
I'm getting "depressed". I have red so00, s000o many neat and wonderful stories, ideas, way of life and...I'm in a "black hole".
No, no! I'm not looking for sympathy! Just putting my 2 cents (and I'm sure, I 'm not alone) that I can't grow much...if anything! I don't have greenhouse, can't have any chickens nor any other domestic animals, can't have higher fence then 4' high,  (my small city by-laws don't allow, even though other people tried to change some of them. One needs a permit for anything and everything! Soon, one might need  a permit to..."fart"! For Pete's sake! ). Can't keep bees, can't grow much due to weather (all my tomatoes, herbs, peppers, potatoes,  went to shit because it's cold and didn't ripened). Can't tap maple trees (there are hundreds of them .... in my backyard).
Anyway...I just want to let all of you to know, that I admire all of you, so very much! The ingenuity, willingness to try many things, and that I so appreciate reading about it on the sideline. I am glad so many people benefit from this website. I do too, in learning,  I just can't use the advice. My climate is cold, my land is small (tiny backyard), my dirt is rock (I love rocks but miss real dirt), my 3 raised beds produced nothing (rain, frost, snow ruined all).

Thank you all. This is SUCH a resorcefull site... I am "jealous". But on a positive note, such a pleasure to read  

Hi, Ela, not for sympathy but as an advice. If life gives you lemons, make lemon juice.

I don't know how to put this, but I think you are trying to impose an ideal garden you have in your mind, but that's not how permaculture works. You have to sit down and observe. Take at least 20 minutes a day, observe calmly as if you were meditating. See how nature works in your location, your garden and around. Then use that knowledge to grow food. Focus on what you can do, try small changes and observe again. It does not matter if you are working in your own 2 acres farm or your balcony, the principle is the same. Maybe you have to grow other things that are more tolerant to your climate, maybe you can eat some wild plants that grow like weed, maybe you can change the shape of your backyard so the water flow is more useful, or plant some trees for shade, or have some thorny bushes for protection. Design it within the realm of the possible and build it slowly, accepting feedback so you can modify your design as need arises.

Even in a balcony there are hundreds of options, but if you feel the local limitations are too much for you, there are two options. You can do as Brad Lancaster and break the law, hoping the town hall doesn't fine you (until they see that what you do works and let you be). Or you can consider moving to other location with fewer limitations. By the way, if you have the chance, watch Brad explaining how they built their rainwater gardens in secret. The garden where I work now was reclaimed by an activist neighbour action from the municipality, and we are not fully legal yet, but we are producing food, half of it comes from plants that are considered weeds.

To Ela I say--you ought to fight, with others, to get rid of restrictions...if you can't move, but moving seems a better option since apparently you also have lousy soil, a tiny backyard and a lousy climate. If you SERIOUSLY want to grow food, it's not just a passing whim--you need to settle in a place where every bit of success isn't a huge struggle.
I also see what I think may be misconceptions here. Pollination: I believe all peaches are self-fruitful; if some benefit from cross pollination, they would need to get it from a different kind of peach--planting pears or apples would be useless. Most apples and pears do require cross pollination, which means you need two different varieties of apple or pear, and not all of them are compatible (mostly because they may not bloom at the same time). The website of the Adams County nursery in PA has a great chart for apples and one for pears, showing which varieties are compatible.
Oh, and I think peaches typically live 30 years--which is still less than other fruit trees,  but dwarf trees bear younger, and then die younger, than standards. Peaches are generally not dwarfed as the full size trees don't get more than ten feet high or so.
One more thing on peaches which no one has mentioned: apparently they are subject to damage from borers. These are larvae of a wasplike creature, black with an orange band around the middle; the wasp lays its eggs from a spot near the ground so leave the area immediately around the base of the tree bare so you can see if that's going on, and dig out the evil larvae with a wire

When I was growing up everybody used to prop up the loaded branches with 2x4's

My eating peach is from the rootstock of an ornamental peach that froze one winter. When I saw that the rootstock was growing I let it be to see what it would do and I am glad that I did! It turned out to be a clingstone peach that did not taste any better than a pretty good store-bought peach, and it was firm and a little crunchy while I prefer a soft peach. But it is rapidly becoming my favorite fruit tree.

See, I got a bumper crop 2 years ago and so I dried some. Drying it did not injure the peach flavor like some peaches do, instead it made it rather more intense. Those were some grand dried peaches! We did not get any peaches last year because of a late frost, but I have real hopes for this year!!!

Ela, some areas have trouble growing some vegetables. In my area you have to jump through hoops to raise blueberries or to raise lettuce that is not too bitter to eat, but, cabbages do great.
potatos are delicate so I start mine inside. And, green beans grow like bad weeds!

My advice to you would be to look at vegetable gardens in your area to see what is happy in your soil and your climate. And, your state extension service will give advice for free. They might or might not give free soil tests, but all of them will tell you how to amend your soil to fix any shortages that a soil test may show up.

Also do the maple trees shade your raised beds? In a very hot area a little shade during the heat of the day is not bad, but where the summers are shorter and cooler it will set back your plants

What a great forum!  I've been tending a peach orchard in upper New York State, 5b, in the foothills of the Catskills for about 5 years.  I'v e learned a lot about peaches since then.

Unfortunately, all the trees were planted years prior to my coming on the scene, and there are no records of varieties, so I can only speak in generalities.  Of the 12 trees present, two are off by themselves in their own plot, and had traditionally developed wilt.  Mountain soils tend to be alkaline, and I got an intuitive hit that the ph was outside of their range. After applying peat moss for a couple of years wilt never happened again.  Ed Hoffman said in an above post that he knew a woman with a peach planted under a fir tree that produced well, and I'm thinking the acidic soil beneath that tree may have been a factor.  

Even after getting a certificate in Nutrient Dense Crop Production, I'd thought of ph as less important that nutrients in the soil, but am coming around to being more fastidious about it the more I work with mountain soils.  Peaches are reported to find a slightly - 6.5 to 7.0 - acidic soil optimal, and those struggling with poor production might want to consider this a factor.

Hello Jill,
What exactly is leaf wilt?
In my area, the Pacific Northwest on the West side of the Cascade Mountains, we get alotta rain and we also get alot of Peach Tree Leaf Curl. Which can just kill the entire tree. I wondering if it's the same disease as Leaf Wilt?
I started using a mineral supplement about 10 years ago called Sea-90. It is actually sea solids collected in a very pristine bay in Central America. I have a friend who was growing and selling micro greens to restaurants in mostly Seattle until the pandemic hit, he adds it to his water for sprouting and growing the greens and it works great. I just toss the solids around the trip line and I don't seem to get leaf curl so much!

Abraham Palma wrote:I don't know how to put this, but I think you are trying to impose an ideal garden you have in your mind, but that's not how permaculture works.

Ain't that the truth!  I have spent a large number of years doing very little in my tiny back garden (I live in London UK. If you think US backyards are tiny...think again!) beyond tomatoes and chillies, because they grow well and easily, but I don't actually like chillies!  I day dreamed about retiring and being able to afford maybe half an acre (land in the UK...very very expensive) somewhere out in the country, having chickens, fruit trees, maybe ducks, with a pond and an eco-system etc. etc. I'd watch homesteading videos and sigh "ah yes, when I retire I will have space to do these things".  Then something clicked a couple of years ago and I suddenly thought "farm the land you have not the land you'd like to have some day". I've never looked back.

I believe leaf wilt and curl are the same thing.  The  shape of the leaf becomes distorted and puckered, it hangs skewed on the twig, and may develop red warty patches.  And  yes, it can take down a whole tree, or at the very least curtail fruiting.  

I studied Nutirent Dense Crop Production with a second or third generation organic farmer from Massachusetts (Dan Kittredge, bionutrient.org), and his whole approach is that any growing thing in the right environment, which includes sun exposure, heat, wind, water and healthy soils can overcome most pathogens without having to resort to such things as fungicides (standard treatment for wilt/curl).  Healthy soil is key here, meaning not  only having the full compliment of nutrients (at minimum 36, as opposed to the three in commercial NPK fertilizers)  but also various factors like ph and robust microbial and mycelial communities.  I've seen this in action many times, not only with the two peach trees mentioned previously, but in annuals and perennials as well. With a tree the results will become evident in next year's foliage.  Soil tests can give you hints,  but think of sowing lightly acidifying materials under peaches - peat moss, pine needles, or blood meal.  Most peach trees prefer a ph of 6.5 - 7.0.

Adding something like sea solids, which have vast numbers of  minerals, to the orchard or garden environments can not only ward off plant diseases, but also diseases in humans that very often have nutrient deficiencies at their core.  A woman here on Permies talked about having a constant yearning for snacks for years, which went away when she started drinking some kind of seaweed extract, never to return after she regularly added the extract to the water for her garden.  Making a nutrient dense garden/orchard, saving seeds to be planted in next year's rich environment, can create vibrant, healthy plants and people.

Alcina, I've been to England and Gardens are small. We call it the frontyard and the backyard. My sister and brother in law live in the East Midlands and they are lucky enough to have a sizable back garden and grow quite a bit of food. Here in my area with all the high density the County is pursuing with new building, all these new homes have no room what so ever.

Jill, Thank you so much for clarifying leaf curl and wilt. What you described as Leaf wilt is exactly the same description of leaf curl.
The soil in my area is acidic because it was all once the forest floor. I'm constantly trying to amend the soil, but Im gonna take your advice and leave my 🍑 tree out of my amendment practices.

To: Abraham Palma from Ela La Salle
Thank you very much for your response

To : Mary Cook]  from Ela Lasalle.

Thank you too for your response. I appreciate it.

On a side note, I'm not a total  newbie. I used to have 2 acre each fruit and vegetable/herb gardens.  I moved to another place where the problem is climate and... not much support from other people to make changes  

To Terry Matthews from Ela


Thank you. Yes, I moved growing things directly in soil because of maple trees, onto raised beds with sunny breezy location. The soil mix, nutrients etc are fine. It's just getting colder earlier and earlier  and the growing seasons are getting shorter. I tried covering some vegetables and some bush fruits but I can't beat the amount of snow or rain. Nature wins.  There are few of us where I live who are trying to figure out what will grow  and "hoping for the best. "Hence my little "jealousy"  for those who have better luck and my admiration for those who willingly share their knowledge.
Thanks again :-)

Ela La Salle wrote:To: Abraham Palma from Ela La Salle
Thank you very much for your response

In that case, just a little note of encouragement: Whenever you can, replace the word 'problems' by 'challenges'. Then it will be us who envy you because of your more interesting challenges. Good luck!

L. Hayes, where are you in Western Washington?

It's starting to rock and roll around here. The one peach I planted from pit a couple years ago has started to blossom and leaf.

So it's been cold and wet up here for most of March.
My peach tree is in bloom and loaded with blossoms.
Hopin for a boom year. We'll see.

I just grew a organic palisade peach and it germinated. Its got green tiny leaves and is about 2 inches tall. the base of the stem is brown. is that normal?