Peach growing advice, hygiene, and what to know and do about leaf curl before it's infected. -by Mr. Swenson;
According to this permalink (and followed up by Joe)
Two very good posts, and today is December 15, so this is a reminder for those having peaches to pay attention to these cutoff dates.
Anybody growing peaches or ever had any and lost them?
I grow peaches. I never bought or grafted a peach tree. My wife cans peaches. I throw the pits in the compost. They grow into peach trees. One of them has produced many peaches over the years. It gets really bad peach leaf curl. I spray it heavily with compost tea-fungal type. It recovers. Some years, like this year, I get many good peaches. In others, I get none. It seems to be getting better over time. Last year I did two doses of compost tea, about a month apart. Good peaches.
My neighbor also grows peaches. She gave me some. They taste like nothing. I love peaches, but not her peaches.
JohN S
PDX OR
In a small local (Monroe OR) mail order catalog it used to say: "I've pretty much concluded that only fools try to grow peaches in this area." The nursery owner had stopped offering such an insult (or wisdom) to his potential customers in his catalogs of recent years.
But that's after I've already found out that I was a fool.
I had two nectarine trees. As I learned from the old HOS forum (thank you, Viron), leaf curl was not THE problem, as for my trees it was easily controlled with 2 winter lime sulfur sprays. My trees grew well for a few years, were healthy looking and productive for about 2-3 years, fruits were tasty, ... then they died suddenly, not unlike most of the Japanese plums I had. So I quit, or so I thought.
Inspired by discussions on the old HOS forum, I tried to grow in a container a genetic dwarf peach with an enticing name (which escaped me) bought from a prominent local nursery (Coburg OR), and the peaches turned out to be very bitter. So I quit again, or so I thought.
More than 10 years ago a neighbor asked me for tree care tips for his pit-grown baby peach tree. Of course then the tree was completely ignored, to this day. But that tree has been producing good peaches every year and shows no sign of diseases. About 6 years ago I grafted a bud onto a Lovell rootstock for my own backyard. I have been trimming the tree every year, but no sprays, no feeding other than leaf mulch and grass clippings. So far it only has shown very minor leaf curl once last winter, which quickly went away by itself in spring. The tree has been precocious and productive, fruits are tasty. So far so good.
This old fool might yet again find out about himself being a fool.
Peaches have been successful commercially in the Willamette Valley.
My Uncle grew peach acreage (Elberta, Dixie Gem) in the 1960s. Everything reeked of sulfur,
but the peaches were fine and bountiful. I don't recall any leaf deformities.
These peaches were still being sold (outside of Aurora) into the 2000s.
Another acreage outside of Canby, variously known as Peach Cove or Handley's Peaches, existed for decades;
the trees, kept small for U-oick, always looked healthy. This orchard was removed in 2024, reason
unknown to me.
Thanks for all the advice for growing peach trees in the northwest.
I'm intentionally going to drift off the main topic of health for peaches a tiny bit this time by talking about my first successful dormant graft for peach. This graft was done using a local variety that goes by 'Flory'. I grafted it into 'Toka' hybrid plum. Had it been a standard 'non-miniature' variety it would have pushed at least two feet longer than you see pictured here next to my golf ball. I still think I can share scions if I collect during the holidays for any of the above for free or to any of my other neighbors who I know that follow along.
Now back onto the health topic again about how hard it is to keep peaches here. I guess the problem is prevalent upwards of the coastal areas and parts of California as well. (think redwood forests and fog)
Add this miniature peach into the leaf curl lists of okay peaches. I did this recommendation on my own by my obsession of looking at homes of others and knowing my trees. If you were to search the forums using the varietal name then you would see the primary credit goes out to a young oriental lady with children and the picture of a swing set. When you ask them what they do to keep curl at bay and the response is I apply "nutrients" to my grass and pair of "peach trees" then you know the real cause of health is a fluke purchase of a naturally resistant variety.
How would I then be so lucky myself to have had 100% success on both scions?
Timing wise; How or when in the season did you do collect scion wood of from what your neighbor discovered for you ET?
By the way Toka and Beach plum were each tested as potential root-stocks in U cal Davis and were more successful than many other plums and I know you have established beach plums. So if you top work something like what you have the way I did please know that a cleft graft is way more hazardous, at least for cherry trees, so see the paper trail and choose limbs even smaller than mine and keep them dry for at least a year.
It's only available via a download but remember the search terms
Rooney said
Timing wise; How or when in the season did you do collect scion wood of from what your neighbor discovered for you ET?
It was not a dormant graft. In mid-August I cut a young twig from my neighbor's peach tree and did a T-bud onto a Lovell in a one-gallon pot, exactly like what I've learned from the old HOS bud grafting class.
@Rooney
Have you been talking to this guy?
What do you guys think of a Flory Peach tree?
byu/Vancouverdude87 inpnwgardening
I came across this variety online. It’s a very dwarf peach tree. I found a guy in the PDX area on Facebook Marketplace that sells them. They are said to be leaf curl resistant. Only grow to 4-5 feet tall. Maybe container friendly?
Some are learning about Flory, maybe on their own, or through my original forums post years ago about Flory and resistance to leaf curl being observed in the 'grotto' area of PDX. Which you should be able to find by searching for the word grotto.
Flory is distiguishable by those rich red flowers and that there are many flowers of which are double. I recently found information of a miniature Flory peach from a web site that credits first introductions of fruits. It was said to have been started in 1940 by a man Mr. Flory from California.
I sent you a PM yesterday similar to the one you sent only mine tests the posting of youtube shorts. Uploading it via the youtube app from my cellphone seemed as simple as still pictures here on Hos but the videos if they are 1 or more minutes can take at least 30 minutes of upload time.
Idyllwild
simplepress
jafar
Marsha H
Viron
John S
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