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Peach Bonsai Die back
Posted: January 29th, 2012, 12:33 am
by AGarcia
Hello,
THe following Peach tree was collected a couple of years ago. Early last year it was carved and potted up later. All the branches seemed to respond but after a while the top ones started to die back.
Has anyone had much experience with prunus bonsai in the warmer climates? Maybe some root rot or a tendancy to direct the energy to the lower branches?
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Regards
AG
Re: Peach Bonsai Die back
Posted: January 29th, 2012, 7:54 am
by alpineart
Hi AG , mate i have tried Nectarines and have had a very similar issue , They grow well after the first season collected and cut back , then over winter they die back and re-shoot lower down , then die back again . I have basically given up on them as bonsai for this very reason . Some stone fruit don't like being trimmed during the growth season , i learned this from an old timer way back in the times i was taught to prune fruit tree's .
Hope this helps . Cheers Alpineart
Re: Peach Bonsai Die back
Posted: January 29th, 2012, 9:15 am
by bodhidharma
These trees respond better to hard pruning after fruiting. The also suffer with pear slug and other malaise's. Worth persevering just for the flowering. try picking the fruit as it forms and then prune it. Gives the tree more energy to grow.
Re: Peach Bonsai Die back
Posted: January 29th, 2012, 9:28 am
by kvan64
Hi Agarcia.
I live in the hot warm climate of Brisbane and have collected tons of peaches and have tried to use them as bonsai and have wondered about the same thing. These are the one I've collected:
http://ausbonsai.com.au/forum/viewtopic ... i&start=15
Well, just like Alpineart suggested. They don't like hard pruning during growing season. Since it is fruiting variety. Chances are they were on rootstock. Thgrafted tree is most likely weaker then the rootstock and very easily die back when the rootstock tends to shoot up like crazy lower down. My solution was to either allow the grafted section to grow more freely to gain health and trim the rootstock harder to weaken it (farmers wouldn't allow the rootstock to shoot at all to avoid killing the grafted section). Another option is ...let the grafted section die as deadwood and use the rootstock only.
Since the rootstock was control in a fruiting tree, it is likely that the anything higher then 10cm from the roots is grafted.
Cheers
DK
Re: Peach Bonsai Die back
Posted: January 29th, 2012, 10:39 am
by AGarcia
Hello all,
I think this is a self sown peach as it was growing wild in the neighbours corner (along witha couple of saplings) and there is no obvious graft union.
Yes, the dark pink flowers are quite striking. I have been cutting the long shoots back to keep the energy balanced. It flowered last season but no fruit.
Anyway, I will post more pics in a few months time to show how it goes.
AG
Re: Peach Bonsai Die back
Posted: January 29th, 2012, 10:44 am
by waltersh
I've had this happen with a Peach of mine too, but not a Mango I chopped at the same time, it's still happily going, but the mango was originally a grafted tree, so that might have something to do with it

Re: Peach Bonsai Die back
Posted: January 29th, 2012, 11:46 am
by witchstreet
AGarcia, my Peach has gone this same way. Thanks for putting up this post as now I have some idea as to what's wrong.
