How long do peach trees take to grow

Growing your own peach trees (Prunus persica) gives you the chance to harvest the freshest peaches possible. The amount of time it takes for them to reach their fruit-bearing years and how long they will continue to fruit can help you make the decision whether or not to plant them. Should you choose to do so, you need to live in the right climate; peach trees grow in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 5 through 9. Your area should also get enough chill hours to match your peach variety's requirements, which are usually between 600 and 900.

Tip

Peach trees start producing fruit after 2 to 4 years. They reach their peak yield by the eighth year and their production starts to decline after that.

Planting Peach Trees

Planting a young peach tree or a peach pit will not give you fruit the first year. You must wait 2 to 4 years before it starts to produce fruit, according to GardeningKnowHow.com. Before this time, the tree will be too small to support full-sized, harvestable fruit. During the first, nonproductive years the tree's energy is concentrated on the tree's growth. In some instances, your tree might not bear fruit as expected for a number of reasons, including over-fertilization, poor pruning, colder temperatures, few chilling hours and the residual effects of an earlier crop.

These problems are easy to fix by doing the following:

• Add phosphorus to offset high-nitrogen fertilizers, which encourages a tree to focus on producing new shoots and not fruit. Lawn fertilizers, which are high in nitrogen, can affect fruit production when scattered around the base of a tree.
  
• When pruning make sure to remove the whole branch. This encourages the tree to fruit. 

Producing Peach Fruit

Once a peach tree begins to produce fruit, it will continue to do so for an average of 12 more years. During each of these production years, your peach tree may yield about 66 pounds of fruit with each harvest, depending on the variety you planted. According to StarkBros.com, the average yield of peach fruit per tree size is as follows:

• Miniature: 1/4 to 1 bushel
• Dwarf: 1 to 3 bushels
• Standard: 3 to 6 bushels

Total Tree Life Span and Growth

If well-maintained and healthy, you can expect a tree to live for about 15 to 20 years, according to the University of California's The California Backyard Orchard. In comparison to other trees, this is a relatively short life span. The fourth through eighth years in the life a tree are peak production times. After the eighth year, the trees produce less and less peach fruit with each subsequent crop to the point that by year 12, you may want to start thinking about planting new trees.

During the years that a peach tree lives, it does a lot of growing. According to Harvest to Table, the sizes of peach and nectarine trees are as follows:

• Standard: 18 to 20 feet tall and wide
  
• Semi-dwarf 8 to 12 feet tall and wide
  
• Dwarf: 5 to 6 feet tall and wide
  

To ensure that you can reach the branches for harvest and tree care, keep regular peach trees pruned to 15 feet high. Also, plant dwarf trees if you're short on space in your yard.

Every year, the Environmental Working Group publishes a list of the "dirty dozen" produce items that contain the most pesticide residue, and peaches are usually on that list. If you want to enjoy this delicious fruit, why not consider growing organic peaches? You don't need the tropical temperatures necessary for citrus fruits like lemons, and you can opt for flavorful thin-skinned types that are too delicate to make it to supermarket shelves.

There are dozens of peach trees varieties, even dwarf cultivars that you can grow in a container, so you can grow a peach crop for cobblers, jams and jellies, smoothies, or salsa.

When grown from seed, peach trees take at least three to four years to produce fruit. Purchasing a young tree means you can enjoy a harvest sooner. Plant your peach tree during late winter or early spring, during its dormancy period.

All parts of the peach tree, except for the edible fruit, are toxic to humans and pets.

How to Plant Peach Trees

The best time to plant a peach tree is in the late winter or early spring while the tree is dormant. That way it has the entire growing season to get established.

Select a cultivar suited to your climate and plant it in a sunny, sheltered location. A slightly elevated site is better than a depression where frost settles.

For a bare-root tree, make sure that the hole you dig is large enough to give the roots plenty of room to spread. Water it deeply and consider mulching around the root zone to seal in that moisture.

Stake the tree immediately after planting. Slightly angle the stake away from the tree and drive it six to eight inches into the undisturbed soil, never into the root ball. Secure the trunk to the stake with an elastic tree tie.

Peach trees are self-fertile, so you don't need to plant more than one to produce fruit. If you want to start a mini orchard, make sure they have the proper spacing to prevent them from shading each other at maturity. Plant standard peaches 18 feet apart, and dwarf peaches five feet apart.

Peach Tree Care

Light

Peach trees need full sun. Those grown in shade lose their vigor, making them susceptible to pest and disease problems.

Soil

Peach trees need good drainage, and like their soil on the sandy side. Adding an organic mulch around the tree, like leaf mold or compost, helps suppress weeds and keeps the soil healthy and slightly acidic.

Water

Keep peach trees evenly moist, especially in the first two years as they establish themselves.

Temperature and Humidity

Peaches like moderate temperatures and generally grow best in USDA growing zones 5a to 8a. However, you can select more cold or heat-tolerant varieties to expand the growing zone to include zones 4 and 9.

Peaches need at least 600 chilling hours at 45 degrees Fahrenheit or lower to trigger fruiting. Extended temperatures below zero may damage the trees. Peaches tolerate humid conditions, but excessive wetness can encourage fungal diseases.

Fertilizer

Apply a balanced 10-10-10 fertilizer around your peach trees each spring. Start with one pound for each new tree, and add one pound each year, up to 10 pounds, for standard mature peach trees.

Peach Trees Varieties

There are hundreds of peach cultivars to choose from. While peach trees can produce clingstone or freestone fruits, most varieties sold for home gardens are freestone. You can also choose between yellow or white flesh and early or late-bearing peach trees.

• 'Halehaven' is a very sweet midseason variety. Even the skin is said to be sweet, and the trees are vigorous.
• 'Carolina Belle' produces large-sized, freestone, creamy white fruit that ripens from July to August.
• 'Reliance' is an early season producer good for colder growing zones.
• 'Contender' is a cold-tolerant variety that produces medium-sized, freestone, red fruit that is non-browning.
• 'Galaxy' and 'Saturn' are both donut-shaped peaches that have sweet white flesh.
• 'Bonanza' is a dwarf peach tree that only reaches six feet tall but produces full-sized fruit.

Peach Trees vs. Nectarine Trees

Peach and nectarine trees are the same species—Prunus persica. The nectarine fruit is fuzz-free and somewhat smaller and sweeter than the peach. Peach trees may sometimes grow nectarines, and nectarine trees may grow peaches. Professional growers control their crops by graftingbranches that previously produced nectarines onto peach trees. Fuzziness is a dominant trait, but if your peach trees decide to go rogue and produce a nectarine crop, consider it a two-for-one bonus.

Harvesting

A young tree (not grown from seed) starts to bear fruit two to four years after planting. Following their showy pink spring blooms, peach trees will develop many tiny green peaches in the early summer months. In addition to the natural fruit drop that occurs at this stage of development, you must also thin the crop, or you'll face the disappointment of walnut-sized fruit at harvest time. Remove all but the largest fruits from each branch, leaving at least six inches between fruits.

How to Grow Peach Trees in Pots

Dwarf peach trees make great container specimens. Choose a container at least three feet across. Never let your peach tree container dry out and protect it from hard freezes in a sheltered area like a garage or shed.

Pruning

It may seem strange removing healthy branches from a thick, bushy peach tree, but proper pruning is vital for managing the fruit size and ensuring enough light is received on fruit-bearing branches. When pruning a peach tree, the finished look of the branches should have a herringbone pattern with an open center, like a vase.

While pruning should be done in late winter, you can also do some light summer shearing if the tree has vigorous shoots that shade fruiting branches in the tree's interior. The amount of light that you allow to reach fruiting branches following pruning is important for the development of next season's flower buds.

Click Play to Learn How to Prune Peach Trees

Propagating

The easiest way to propagate a non-grafted tree is through softwood cuttings. Take a nine-inch cutting in the spring when growth is soft and green. Dip it in rooting hormone to help the cutting take, plant the cutting in a sterile potting medium, and keep it moist. Roots should form in around a month.

How to Grow Peach Trees From Seed

Peach pits will grow outdoors with little intervention. Plant the seed outdoors about three inches deep in the fall. Cold winter temperatures will allow the embryo to mature. The seed will germinate in the spring, and you can transplant your young tree to its permanent location.

Common Pests and Diseases

The most significant peach tree pest is the peach tree borer. This clearwing moth resembles a wasp and deposits its eggs on tree bark in the fall. The grubs hatch and burrow into the trunk, where they feed on the trunk and roots. Look for a jelly-like sap at the entry hole, and impale grubs with a wire.

In terms of diseases, a fungus can cause peach tree leaf curl, leading to leaf browning and deformity. Use a copper-based fungicide in late fall or early spring to prevent and control this issue.

FAQ

• Why is my peach tree not bearing fruit?

  The tree might still be too young (it can take a young tree four years or more to produce fruit). If the tree grows vigorously but produces mainly foliage and no peaches, it could be too much nitrogen or over-pruning. Another possibility is that there are not enough pollinating insects, which might be the case if a wide-spectrum insecticide was used nearby that killed bees and other pollinators.
  

• Do I need two peach trees?

  Peaches are self-pollinating or self-fertile so you only need one tree for fruit production.

• Why is my peach tree dropping fruit prematurely?

  It could be part of the natural process when the tree has too much fruit and it sheds some, or due to a late frost or unusually cold temperatures. Insects or diseases can also lead to premature fruit drop.
  

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