Coppicing fruit trees

Has anyone heard of using Coppicing to try and extend the life of a fruit tree.
For example lets say you have a none grafted peach tree now they only live about 15-25yrs what would happen if you coppiced every 10yrs? Has anyone tried it?
I know most ppl would just plant/graft a new tree at year 8 next to the old one and just stagger things like that.
I was just wondering if there would be any advantages to trying the coppiced method.

Darnell Brawner wrote:
For example lets say you have a none grafted peach tree now they only live about 15-25yrs what would happen if you coppiced every 10yrs?

I think most full sized fruit trees are longer lived than that. That's about the age of a semi-dwarf but you'd have to make sure you coppiced or pollarded above the graft. Some of the oldest trees alive were coppice so I think it would work.

Well I didn't do it on purpose but I have a pear and a cherry that were hit hard with fireblight. They compartmentalized the blight and began to send out new shoots above the root grafts and below the dead zone. I cut down the dead part of the tree above the new shoots, they were about ten and 20 feet tall when they died, they seem to be coming back strong and healthy but no fruit yet. Really just an experiment on my part.

I've seen apricot trees hacked off thoroughly at head-height in Ladakh, but I'm sorry, I never asked what the reason and results were. Anyway, they did appear to be growing back vigorously.

In my personal experience, old peach trunks get rot and then suffer fatal wind damage. Once rotted out I don't think an old peach could support the load of a freshly coppiced canopy.

The best option I think I could suggest is to sprout some of the peach seeds from your favorate trees, and then use them for grafting rootstock for the same trees. Typically when I graft sprouted seedlings, I try to leave one branch on the tree as the wildtype, so it could at least act as a pollunator. Don't be surprised if the fruit from the sprouts is somewhat different from the fruit of the grafts though. Peaches are less variable than apples, and there's a fair chance they will come true to type, but there will still be some variation.

Not much info is available on coppicing fruit trees but it was mentioned briefly in the book  Coppice Agroforestry. Not many details but it appears that it does work for some species. Looks like pear, plum, apple and cherry and of course mulberry are good candidates. Idk about peaches but I will be experimenting them and will hopefully remember to report back. The best info I've found on this, the guy doing it was planting his annual garden in-between rows of fruit trees and when the trees got big enough to cause shade problems in the garden the coppiced the row in a way that there is always fruit trees fruiting and ones regrowing. After 1-2 years of regrowth the trees are tied over horizontal to induce fruiting faster. Probably goes without saying but the trees must be on their own roots. So either seed grown or you'll have to propagate cuttings or maybe scar a branch and tie a bag of compost around it or bury the graft union. I'll link a discussion and unfortunately poor quality video for those interested. Like I said I'll be playing around with this on both fruit and nut trees so maybe in 10-20years I'll have more details to share.


https://groups.google.com/g/alt.permaculture/c/_6Wo5V1l_is?pli=1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjSiQSfBlsE

Thanks for asking,  Yes coppicing fruit trees on their own roots is something I am doing in my food forest.  Coppicing in general resets a trees growth to the juvenile state.  I don’t see why it would not regenerate The rootstock of a peach tree so it could be regrafted .   I coppice and mound layer Apple rootstocks and bury graft unions on non dwarfing rootstock to create own-root apple trees.   This gives me a tree that I can coppice if it grows too large for its space or will regrow true to type if it is coppiced by animals girdling the trunk or test winters killing the top of the tree.   I use the coppicing method on wild plum and tart cherry as well.  Many of my trees are probably planted too close together for proper sunlight distribution so I plan to use coppicing to reset the growth of some trees to a juvenile state that allows the most desirable trees to dominate the canopy.

Rene Poulin wrote: Yes coppicing fruit trees on their own roots is something I am doing in my food forest.  Coppicing in general resets a trees growth to the juvenile state.

How long after coppicing do your trees set fruit again?

Not old enough to know for sure but fruiting trees fruit based on the age of the rootstock.   If you graft a Scion onto a mature rootstock it fruits within 1 to 3 years depending on the cultivar.    It is most likely that a coppiced tree would fruit again in about the same time if it’s root system was not impeded by competing vegetation.
My tart cherries bloom again in three years.  Nanking Cherry and Western Sandcherry are short lived botanical plums that regenerate when coppiced..