Any garden needs care, and a peach culture is impossible without an annual thorough pruning in the summer. Peach can not be attributed to the fruit trees that will grow in your garden without any problems. And these are not only diseases and pests. It is pruning peach in the summer that is necessary and important for him, because it is one of the fruit trees, which in the summer months actively forms numerous shoots that thicken the crown. Yes, and overloading the crop to the branches of peach is not needed. These features determine the tactic of a gardener working with this tree.
But first, let's talk about shaping peach in the spring.
Young Peach Crown Formation
The first operations to form a peach crown are best done after planting. Choose three, rarely four branches at a distance of 10-15 cm from each other, which form the same angles with the main trunk, approximately equal to 45-50 °. The first is left uncut, at a height of 40-50 cm from the ground.
The branches that are unnecessary for the crown are removed onto the ring, that is, they cut it off, I try not to leave sticking stumps. What does pruning a tree mean? For those who are going to make peach shaping for the first time, I’ll explain.
Look carefully at the point where the branch joins the tree trunk. You will see a thickening or rush. Specialists call it a ring. It is in the thickening or ring that contains a large number of cells that can quickly tighten the resulting wound. That is, the place of circumcision will quickly grow. Trim the branch on the top edge of the ring. In this case, the peach will not get sick and will avoid gum disease.
The central vertical branch is called a conductor. Peach, yes, and any fruit tree is fruiting on horizontal branches. Therefore, when forming the crown, the conductor is cut out over the upper branch.
Future skeletal branches shorten: the first (and if there are four in the crown, then the second), leaving 30-35 cm, the second - 20 cm, the third - 10-15 cm. Thus, by trimming the excess, we form the most common crown for peach - improved bowl.
On each main skeletal branch, branches of the second order are laid: the first at a distance of 40-50 cm from the trunk, the second at 20-30 cm from the first, but from the opposite side. The shoots of the continuation of the skeletal branches are shortened only for subordination or change of direction of growth. All other shoots are removed to the ring.
Let me explain a bit what the term “subordination” means. Observe subordination when deleting branches - this means that each branch growing higher should be thinner. That is, it should, as it were, obey in thickness than the one that grows lower.
In the third year, pruning is already carried out for fruiting. They begin it by removing vertical ones, that is, growing at an acute angle or inside the crown, onto the ring. Branches of the third order are chosen. The shortening of the shoots of continuation of all branching orders is carried out only for their subordination.
The remaining mixed and summer branches are trimmed as follows:
- shorten by 4-6 groups of buds in varieties with densely spaced fruit buds located closer to the base (Redhaven);
- shorten by eight to ten groups in varieties with more rare and even distribution of the kidneys (Rochester, Rot-Front, Champion).
They are left after 10-20 cm, and between them, also the same. They cut it short - for two or three kidneys. The purpose of the latter is to have a reserve of branches, allowing to keep the fruiting of peach in the same volume of the crown. The remaining branches are cut.
As soon as the length of the continuation shoots, that is, the new twigs of this year, decreases to 30 cm, anti-aging shaping is performed. First, cut branches that obscure the center of the crown, sick, damaged and dead. They also remove weak fruit branches up to 20 cm long. Skeletal and semi-skeletal branches are cut into 2-3-year-old wood with a transfer to the outer branch.
With the next decrease in growth, anti-aging pruning is done on 4-5-year-old wood.
Summer pruning peach
Why am I focusing on summer pruning? In young trees, strong shoots sprout on the inside of skeletal branches in the summer. So that the center of the crown is not obscured, their growth is kept by constant pinching, and at the end of May - beginning of June they cut it into a ring. The wounds quickly heal. If this is not done, then during the spring clipping many wounds will form, and gum-curing begins. That is, in the summer, be sure to regularly monitor the growth of young peach shoots, the need for their nipping. Removing branches will have to spend at least 2-3 times in the summer.
If this is done regularly, and not occasionally, then the skeletal branches of the peach will remain bare over time, the fruits will grow smaller, and the tree itself will quickly grow old. Harvest the first 5-7 years and that's it.
The formation and proper pruning of peaches in summer and spring largely determine the yield and quality of the fruit and the life of the tree. Everything will be fine if the shaping operations are carried out correctly, with knowledge of the structure of the peach crown, the relationship of its individual parts.