Of peachtrees as windbreaks, sunscreens and climbing racks.

Peach trees grow easily for me, they're very drought tolerant, grow quickly and bear fruit in three years.
I started with three varieties in my garden and must have 50 now. I guess if i wanted i could have 5000 pits to plant out this year. But most just fall off for wildlife, they're not very sugary this year and had so many fruit that lots of branches broke. I shaked a few and they fell, but still there was too much weight on them and they broke. Ok with that too.

Because they're so drought tolerant and fast growing i use them in a line facing south as a wind break. Less wind saves so much watering. I planted them quite closely, one tree every 3 feet. A bigger one, a smaller one, a bigger one and tried to grow the tall ones taller and the smaller ones wider.

They shade out nicely as well. Not a hard shade, dappled light. I planted some plumtrees to the north of them which i hardly watered except through serious drought. In three years they became as big as a human adult. I thinned out the peach trees in front, chopping and dropping, feeding the plum trees. There is enough place to plant other trees in the peach forest. Apple trees and pear trees will go in, maybe a cherry tree.

Finally ringing the bark leaves a beautiful dead structure for climbers to colonize. Beans and what have you, maybe hops or a kiwi vine.

I hope somebody can use this information to do something similar or maybe add information that i overlooked.

Thank you for sharing a practical way to stack so many functions!

I have a small lot and inadvertently “planted” peach trees after including the pits from my neighbors trees in my compost/worm bin. More than 10 have grown into healthy trees. The most established tree produced a few delicious peaches this year.
Due to space constraints of my small lot, I will dig up all but 2 trees and give away the rest.

I wanted to include a tip that I learned from a separate post about managing peach leaf curl and provide an update on how it’s working on my peach trees.

The Post suggested pushing a bit of copper pipe in the ground (the piece I inserted was about the size of my finger) and sprinkling raw eggs shells around the tree.

My peach trees have not had any sign of leaf curl in the last 2 years since I added the piece of copper pipe and periodically sprinkle eggshells.

My neighbor’s tree, from which the pits came, continues to struggle with peach with leaf curl.

I’m posting this to say how grateful I am to the current and prior “Permies Post-ers” for sharing experiences that help gardens and gardeners thrive.

Thank you

Thank you for sharing and thanks for the tip about peach leaf curl.  
I am going to try the copper pipe and eggshells.  My trees always have leaf curl.  But it didn't seem to affect production?? It's that normal?

Any ideas for brown rot?

This year we actually got a ton of good peaches off 2 volunteer trees.  They didn't freeze out as they often do.  And many didn't rot,  but some did end up just a moldy pit on the tree.

Wow!  I am glad someone has an easy time planting peach trees.  I live in Upstate NY and the plant zone maps claim it is fine for peaches, but the winds I get seem to sear them to the ground.  I expect using peach trees for wind breaks up here would be futile.  I find lilac more useful as they flex easily and eat energy from the wind.  Those peaches that survive the wind have fallen to the deer.  While there are thousands of trees of all sizes around my farm, the buck deer seem to prefer my isolated fruit trees to strip the velvet off their horns.  While performing their beauty rubs, they strip the bark to the heartwood and then disease slips through the cracks.  I have finally decided that, for many trees, I need to set solid locust posts with chicken wire and hardware cloth to ensure my fruit trees' get the personal space they require.  Thanks for the brown rot hints, if I plant some more peaches, I will add that to the protocols.

hello hello,

wonderful peach pictures, thank you.

i started off with one peach tree, now they grow like weeds, die off pretty young but hey ho.
the photograph with the branches heaving under the weight of fruit is pretty much the situation here.
i have no idea about varieties; they know who they are.
locally, they are referred to as peche de vigne as they grow around grapevines, like fruity groupies.
they come in white, yellow or red flesh.
i have the white which have finished now and on to the yellow ones.
everyone is enjoying them. ants and bees and wasps and hornets are busy in the branches.
i need to pick them several times a day to avoid total rot.
they are fabulously delicious and juicy.

baskets and crates full of these fruit in the kitchen.
what next?
jam, chutney, compote(canned fruit), juice, cake, dehydrated slices and fruit leather, juice all over my hands and chin as I can`t resist another bite.

as for protection, yes egg shells; I hang those up in little nets in the tree, plant tansy hoping to discourage ants, a bit, and have lots of copper wire, mesh and  pipes all over the place, mainly to stave off slugs.
at the same time I`m careful with copper as I believe it`s an indiscriminate fungicide and I like mushrooms, some at least.
I remember a newspaper headline: copper kills sheep.
they were not talking about British policemen sometimes referred to as coppers.

I have used a spray using diluted whey to keep some pests away from peach and certainly apple, early in the year.

my approach to many things is intuitive so crap with dates, measurement, recipes and such like.

There is now a very happy frog in the new pond; lots of rain, yey!
the pond needs shade after a summer of worrisome evaporation.
duckweed, source of vitamine b12, has arrived which will afford a little protection, and willow are making lovely roots in various buckets and will be planted shortly.
the peaches are just too fruity to be near the pond.

thank you and of course merci
blessings from peachy me
m-h