Prunus persica - Peach

[Jan]

November 25, 2021 - we were experiencing our third "spring" (spell of cold weather and rain followed by a warm break). The ground was WET, weather cool so I collected a small peach trees from a local rural roadside. I'd noticed the attractive pink blossom in the long grass. I set out to collect what was thought to be one tree, but turned out to be two trees (original and a sucker?).

Multi trunked peach: The roadside had been angle graded in the past, partially tearing the larger tree out of the ground and slicing of the original top. This tree had reshot and had a number of trunks, some heavy roots and some fine root and found it was carrying small, green peach fruit.

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Single trunked peach: The second trunk had been sliced off, as the road verge was graded, and a root reshot. This tree was presumed younger because of the stump size and newer, single stemmed, growth. This tree was not carrying any fruit.

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Multi Trunk peach: Mud was removed from the roots, the thick roots were heavily pruned but with a good amount of finer root remaining. The top was pruned back to a practical size with a couple of leaves remaining. It was potted into green glazed bulb bowl to recover, grow roots and new top. Potted into bonsai soil containing small stones to promote root ramification.

Single trunked peach: Again mud removed to see what root it had, heavy roots pruned back, fine root left to support the plant, top was cut back then potted into a black, deep, round, ceramic pot with bonsai soil containing small stones to promote root ramification.

December 19, 2021 - We have new shoots!

20211219_134901 Multitrunk Peach.jpg

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20211219_135256 Single trunk Peach.jpg

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[Watto]

Fingers crossed for you.
Hopefully its the tree growing roots and pushing foliage and not the stored energy pushing the last leaves.

[Jan]

Thanks, Watto.

indeed; I'm thinking the positive thoughts, "Prunus are tough, Prunus are tough".

These were in excellent health (before they met me) and did have some fine roots to go on with, so I'm hopefull that they are in Recovery Mode not Last Gasp mode.

Now it's wait 'n see time.

Jan

[Jan]

So far, so good.

Both have pushed out new shoots so I added some charcoal spreaders to open up the future branches and keep these two moving in the right direction.

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[Jan]

Both peaches seem to be doing well - so far, so good.

20220205_103459 Before trim.jpg

20220205_103834 After trim.jpg

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20220205_105049 after trim.jpg

I'd love a look at the roots but I'll not disturb these until at least next spring.

[Jan]

I think they're going to make it. Shame about the branching (on the left hand side of the first image) of the large peach not shooting but the other side is going great. Stacks of spring growth so I've trimmed it back to try for another set of shoots when the weather warms up after this icy blast.

20221118_163122 Prunus persica - Peach Spring Trim.jpg

20221118_163101 Prunus persica - Peach Spring Trim.jpg

I'll need to do some carving on the branching that has not shot but that is a job for next winter.

The smaller plant is going well. It has been trimmed back, too, and the stump cleaned up a bit where there was some weathering on the top.

20221118_162108 Prunus persica - Peach Spring Trim.jpg

Both are back on the bench waiting for the warm weather.

I'm going to leave them in these pots for at least another year to put on good root growth. We'll see if I decide to move then into more suitable pots then.

[alpineart]

Hi Jan , nice trunks you have there . I have tried prunus persica "Japanese flowering peach" in the past and found them a bit difficult to maintain .

Constant die-back was an issue here once potted , however they grew well in the ground as most things do . leaf size reduction is bare minimal to say the least .
It may not apply to these particular tree's but trimming during the growing season resulted in new shoots growing and the trimmed branches dying back sometimes completely then sprouting from the base of that particular branch

Best of luck with them .

Cheers Ian

[Jan]

Thanks for the information, Ian. I'll know what's going on should they decide to die back on me.

Prunus persica - Peach, is my guess as to what they are. They are a wild roadside find (the stump damage is due to the grader slicing it off) but had pink flowers in season and small peach fruit on them. With a base like that it was worth a go. The smaller plant has grown from a root (?) after the grader assault.

Jan

[alpineart]

Hi Jan , i collected a few natives years ago that were planed off with a grader , makes for a unique trunk base .
I found peaches and nectarines need to be 2 man trees or at least on the larger size not only to keep them healthy but in proportion .treat them like a real fruit tree and prune once a year works best .

Cheers Ian

[Jan]

Thanks for the advice, Ian.

I have a small orchard so will apply the same treatment (including leaf curl treatment) to all the fruit trees, though I'll try to keep them a bit smaller as I have limited lift ability these days.

I will enjoy the pink blossom when they flower as my other blossoming potensai are all white flowers.

Jan