Peaches 2023 - Journal

[rdback]

The following are my 2023 journal entries regarding our two peach trees. I thought you all might find it interesting. I know I learned something!

................................................

May 13, 2023

Did you all know that to increase the size of your peaches, you're supposed to thin the fruits on the tree when they're the size of a quarter, or less? Well, I'm new at growing peaches, and I didn't know until I read an article by the University of Florida. You get fewer fruit, but the fruit you harvest should be larger and of better quality. I figure they know better than I. So, I grab my eight-foot latter and head out to "thin". Several hours later, and with a crook in my neck from constantly looking up, I finished ONE tree. We have two trees. Not sure the other one will be thinned, ha. This better work! lol

The beginning...

...the end. All peaches are now spaced at least 6-8" apart. Woo-hoo! Makes my neck hurt looking at 'em.

[rdback]

July 4, 2023

A quick update/observation. The fruits continue to grow, which is a good thing. It looks like the "thinned" tree is indeed producing larger fruit. The "un-thinned" tree seems to have FEWER fruit than before, and they are smaller in comparison.

"Thinned" - tree #1

"Un-thinned" - tree #2

[rdback]

July 21, 2023

Peach tree update.

As you might recall, I've been conducting a very unscientific study re thinning peaches. I thinned one tree, I left the other alone. These are young trees, just starting to produce their first good crop.

Here's the thinned tree. Much more fruit, larger, and starting to mature. They're still pretty firm (like a baseball), but I think they'll be ready in a week or two (fingers crossed).

Here's the unthinned tree. Fruits are smaller and lagging behind the thinned tree.

[rdback]

July 24, 2023

Remember that movie "Now You See Them, Now You Don't"? Now think peaches.

This was the tree a few days back.

This is the tree now.

In a matter of 36 hours (two nights, one day), this tree was stripped of all fruit, except one. Could not believe what I was seeing. There had to be over 100 peaches on this tree! There was NO fruit on the ground, only about a half-dozen of these:



The only thing I can come up with is squirrels. The branches are too thin to support raccoons or opossums, and the fruits were too high for deer to reach. There's a pretty good colony of squirrels living near the peach trees. Might be time to reduce the population.

By the way, I discovered this carnage in the morning, on the way to the garden. On the way back to the house a few hours later, I thought I'd at least pick the last remaining peach, so we could at least get a taste. It was gone, by then, as well.

So, after using several of those words reserved for just such an occasion, we figured we at least had the other tree with its immature fruits that hopefully would produce. I was figuring out a netting scheme to use before they ripened. Turns out not to be necessary. Three days later, the green, unripe fruits were completely stripped like the first tree.

I guess the unscientific fruit thinning test is cancelled for this year. Boo.

[macmex]

We had this exact problem with peaches grown in our front yard. Every single year, just before we planned to pick, they'd ALL disappear! One time my wife told me around 10 am, we better pick the peaches today, before the squirrels get them. Well, we waited until after lunch and... they were gone. I'd swear they squirrels did a "bucket brigade line," to ferry them across the road and into the woods! I finally cut the trees down, having gotten tired of getting no fruit. Here in our part of Oklahoma we only get sporadic harvests anyway, due to our late spring freezes, which often freeze the small fruit. 

[woodeye]

rdback & macmex. So sorry for your losses this year Rick, and for your losses in past years, George. This is horrible! Peach trees haven't got a chance seems like. It's now past time to avenge those cute little tree rats.🐿️🤬

Thank you for the awesome study of improving peaches that you had going, great pictures. I had not heard of thinning peaches on a tree like that, good to know...

[rdback]

Aug 31, 2023 13:34:30 GMT -6 woodeye said:

...rdback I had not heard of thinning peaches on a tree like that...

Shoot, I just realized I didn't include a link to the article I mentioned. HERE it is.

[chrysanthemum]

We had one peach tree in Texas and had the same experience the first spring of going out one morning and finding the tree stripped completely clean except for one lone peach. I think it was Memorial Day weekend, and we had planned to pick the peaches Monday.

A few years later after losing the small crop of pomegranates and all my Black Krim tomatoes to squirrels as well as having to pay a good amount of money to have some outdoor wiring repaired after it had been chewed, I decided it was time to reduce the population. A gardening acquaintance who works in pest removal recommended some tube traps for me that are instantly lethal to the squirrels when they are caught. I hated to resort to it, but we employed them for only one season to get the numbers back to more reasonable levels, and then after that we could coexist. I also did use netting on parts of the peach tree in later years to save part of the crop.