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.
London is: 51.5° N; Hardiness Zone 9; Heat Zone 3; 24 inches of rain a year
Don't dream it - be it!
How Permies works: https://permies.com/wiki/34193/permies-works-links-threads
Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil
Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil
Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil
Works at a residential alternative high school in the Himalayas SECMOL.org . "Back home" is Cape Cod, E Coast USA.
Works at a residential alternative high school in the Himalayas SECMOL.org . "Back home" is Cape Cod, E Coast USA.
Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil
May Lotito wrote:What do you do with the seeds? Are you going to plant more peach trees or share with other people in the area?
... Oops, I read from the recipe the peaches were blanched whole so the seeds in the pits were killed I guess? Did you save some from regrowing?
Works at a residential alternative high school in the Himalayas SECMOL.org . "Back home" is Cape Cod, E Coast USA.
Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil
Works at a residential alternative high school in the Himalayas SECMOL.org . "Back home" is Cape Cod, E Coast USA.
May Lotito wrote:Now what do I do with the dead dry shoots? Do I need to prune them all off?
Striving to grow things as naturally, simply, and cheaply as possible!
My YouTube channel
Striving to grow things as naturally, simply, and cheaply as possible!
My YouTube channel
Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil
Matt Dale wrote:what's the best way to store peach seed that you collect throughout the summer? or should they be immediately planted? Or saved somehow to plant in a bed in fall or spring?
Steve Thorn wrote:My 18 month old peach tree last October with the its first fruit buds forming!
Bethany Brown wrote:I started with 10 peach seedlings that came up in my compost pile, I potted them up, three quickly died, I gave two away, one died after that. So I’m left with these 5. Two look pretty yellow. Should I cull those two or keep nursing them along?
Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil
May Lotito wrote:
Bethany Brown wrote:I started with 10 peach seedlings that came up in my compost pile, I potted them up, three quickly died, I gave two away, one died after that. So I’m left with these 5. Two look pretty yellow. Should I cull those two or keep nursing them along?
The yellowing is likely from the lack of nitrogen in the potting soil, which is common when the nutrients leach out from watering. Give them nitrogen rich fertilizer and the leaves will turn green again. Do you plan on keeping the saplings potted or they will be planted in ground?
Creating edible biodiversity and embracing everlasting abundance.
Hugo Morvan wrote:Some years ago i noticed peach trees popping up easily. When i had a bumper crop i collected loads of seeds and planted them all.
They've ended up functioning as a wind block.
Not because i wanted to, but they were the only trees to survive the drought record summers.
Finally after years of beautiful flowers and early frost killing off fruits they have come this wet and cold year, fruities.
Not very big, but i'm happy with the F1 seeds as well to landrace the peaches.
The child of a farmer friend knows i do trees and collected loads of differing seeds. We'll plant them this fall together to get this adventure of peach growing into a next phase.
Nice for him to see trees are fun too, not only the snailfarm he has set up.
She'll be back. I'm just gonna wait here. With this tiny ad:
Kickstarter Earlybird Rewards for the Low Tech Laboratory Movie 2 - the sequel!
https://permies.com/wiki/earlybird
|