I am new to fruit tree growing. I have a 3 year old peach tree (with two peaches on it!). Last year I pruned it in August. Is it too early to prune it now? I'm trying to keep it small, around 8 feet tall. The weather here looks dry for the next couple of days, should I wait until we have an extended dry spell in the forecast?
Thanks in advance for the help!
-Sarah
If you prune when the terminal bud is fully formed (it will turn a brownish color and will no longer be soft), you will reduce the likelihood of sprouting from the end of that branch. Not that those sprouts are terrible, but too many of them will reduce light/airflow down the road. I summer prune cherries now, then pears, then apples and finally plums in mid-August. I don't have much experience with peaches, but the same general concepts for pome and stone fruit probably apply.
Having said that, backyard orchardists in California often summer prune several times in a season due to their long season and excessive vigor on stone fruit trees. Pruning once yearly after the terminal bud matures works best for me, but my trees aren't especially vigorous.
Suerte.
Good info, ‘Aloha’... Don’t know how authoritative I am on the subject, but I’ve done a lot of pruning 
If you summer prune, you’re often causing multiple ‘shoots’ to form instead of ‘one.’ I like that, because such ‘shoots’ often form fruiting wood or spurs. Also, removing ‘water suckers’ allows energy to go into the stems or branches you’d rather have.
To me, ‘tip pinching,’ or removing the terminal bud helps guide a younger tree and keeps from wasting it’s energy on wood you’ll remove later. But I never remove much wood from a tree as young as 3 during the summer - as I would from a tree 8 to 10 years in.
With it’s energy underground while dormant, what’s removed with winter pruning is usually ‘replaced’ by spring growth. Removing the bulk of unwanted growth from a young tree also eliminates it’s ability to store that energy come Fall … while removing larger amounts from a mature tree can help to lesson it’s viger and balance it’s growth.
There’s a fine-line between the benefits of serious summer pruning of a young tree - compared to a mature tree. If it were mine, I’d ‘tip pinch’ in order to create more fruiting wood (I think that works for peaches), to create a stouter frame (shorter branches), and to slow up (or stop) the unnecessary growth of sucker shoots. Then let the tree collect and store it’s energy for winter, and do any follow up sucker or branch removal then -- or as another member has suggested - after it blooms, and prior to some dry weather 
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