Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil
Kevin Young wrote:I planted some peach pits last fall and none of them came up (I am in northern Utah). Did you do anything special prior to planting? I'm surprised to see how quickly your peach trees have grown!
I can understand growing a locally-adapted annual vegetable, but growing a locally-adapted peach seems much harder due to the long time span between planting and harvesting. Do you have a timeline or specific plan you are working through? And if you obtain something you are really happy with, where do you go from there? Do you clone your new variety onto existing root stock, or do you keep on breeding?
Works at a residential alternative high school in the Himalayas SECMOL.org . "Back home" is Cape Cod, E Coast USA.
Striving to grow things as naturally, simply, and cheaply as possible!
My YouTube channel
Rebecca Norman wrote:I got my first fruit from a 4 year old seedling tree and it was delicious!!! Omg I was so excited! They were small, late (Sept), and a little tart, but whoah, the flavor was amazing, very dramatic. They might ripen sweeter in future years -- I had to take them in earlier than I wanted to because the neighbor workers had already asked for or stolen about half of the 25 fruits that were on the tree.
My first peach tree was started from a dried seed in early 2018 in a container, planted out onto the greywater canal in spring 2019, and produced fruit in 2021.
All my others were fresh seeds in a container of soil to stratify in late 2018, sown into a garden bed in early 2019, grew and survived two winters in the garden, were planted out onto barren canals in spring 2021, and have not yet fruited. I think I got about 50% germination and survival. Since I was planting seeds of peaches I'd eaten so I had plenty of seeds, and only wanted a maximum of 10 trees, this germination rate was more than enough for me.
In 2021 the first tree alone bloomed and set fruit with no pollination partner for miles around, so cross-pollination is evidently not necessary.
Peaches are not common in my region (the main fruits are apples and apricots, and I know of a few mulberry, pear and sour cherry trees at my altitude). The few local peaches I've eaten were very late and had not much flavor. I planted seeds from 2 local sources of peaches and 2 American sources of peaches, and I didn't keep track of which was which. A local govt. horticultural agency posted on social media recently that they have a good variety and can give scions to the public next year, so I'll be able to graft a good variety if any of mine turn out to be dull.
Good point about nectarines. I thought that nectarines (fuzzless peaches) would have to be grafted onto peach roots, and would not come fuzzless from seed, but maybe they would, since this year I learned that peaches can self-pollinate just fine.
Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil
Striving to grow things as naturally, simply, and cheaply as possible!
My YouTube channel
Works at a residential alternative high school in the Himalayas SECMOL.org . "Back home" is Cape Cod, E Coast USA.
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