3-4 year old peach tree... no fruit

[deezdrama]

The ol'lady wanted a peach tree several years ago, ive forgotten now what type I got but thought it was of the self pollinating type. Elberta or georgia belle... I think it may be one of those two.

Anyway I planted it in a full sun area and it has really grown in the past several years but has never grown any fruit.

When we first got the tree before planting...It had a dozen or more fruit on it that never ripened after planting....and no fruit since.

Its grafted onto a different root system.
Ive never topped or pruned it and its getting very tall. Is it too late to prune the center out? Any ideas why it hasnt grown fruit? Do I need another tree for pollination? There is plenty of bees around.

Thanks

[PaulF]

You don't list where you are. That may help get the right answer. Three years is a good time to prune, but if it after bud break it may be wise to wait until next year. After last frost and before flowering is a good time. Look for some how to prune peaches on the net. It seems to be quite severe, but that is the best way. One main reason for no fruit is if there was below freezing temp while you had blossoms and they froze off. Planting while there were fruits would put the tree in stress trying to establish a root system and grow fruit at the same time.

Did you have blossoms this year? If not it may be next year.

[deezdrama]

I'm in central illinois/ US

I think I do remember seeing a few blossoms last year and then getting a cold spell.

this year weve only been without frost danger nights for maybee 2-3 weeks now. No blossoms yet. Should I prune it now or wait untill winter? Would pruning it now stress it and keep it from producing?

[PaulF]

The best time for pruning peaches for you would be late March or early April, but the second best time is now. If you had no blossoms, you will not have fruit. I would worry that you have a non-productive (or low productive) tree called a mule. Prune it and see what happens. If next year you still have nothing, be prepared to start over. I have purchased several really nice, inexpensive peach trees from Stark Bros. They have many, many varieties that do well in your area. All mine, both in central Iowa and southeast Nebraska have produced fruit in two to three years. By the third year by the bushel. Good luck.

[CharlieBear]

Best time to prune peaches in most parts of the country (there are exceptions) is between july 15th and Aug 15th if you want to limit excess growth. It is the hardest time to prune because you are dealing with leaves and sometimes cutting off unripened fruit. Therefore, most people prune in very late winter to very early spring before the buds swell. That is great on one and two year tree as it will also tend to promote more growth. That tree really needs to be pruned to open bowl. Peaches need lots of air flow. Another reason you might not get fruit is lack of pollination. Either it was too cold for bees to fly at the time the peach blossoms opened or you do not have any honey bee keepers close enough to you. If that is the case then you should consider getting mason bees. First they fly at lower temps that honey bees. They are often better for early blooming things like peaches, but will likely have gone into hibernation before say squash blooms. Note that the general rule for pruning no mater when you prune is no more than 30% of the tree/year with the exception being dead wood.

[TFA303]

deezdrama,

Thanks for posting - I have exactly the same problem, except that my two peach trees have TONS of blossoms, but no fruit. I'll be considering the pollination problem, as my area has lots of wasps but few bees.

[NesOne]

Oh man, I would have so much fun pruning that tree! lol. I would prune it now, remember fruit grows on 1 year old wood, so the sooner the better.

[PomeKing]

maybe your tree needs to be grafted into a self pollinating variety .. I can help you about grafting you can see a lot of photos here
https://www.facebook.com/graftingInCyprus?ref=hl

[evian]

We have a peach tree that was grown from a pit. For the past few years it has flowered and has tried
to bear fruit but the fruit would only grow to the size of an olive and would fall off. Last year it had a bad
case of red leaf curl. But with fungicide and cutting away the diseased parts this year the tree has only
a few infected leaves.

I just started my hand in gardening and trying to help the peach tree to bear fruit. I read pruning would help with the fruit bearing process. Someone had pruned the tree before. I pruned more this spring.
Also there a lots of ants running up and down the tree and not sure if they add to the fruit bearing
problem. I tried applying vaseline at the base of the tree (see on image below) to discourage them.
It helped to reduce the number of ants but it is time consuming to reapply vaseline every few days.

Please advise what are the next steps I need to do (or not do or do better at) to encourage the
peaches to grow to full size (like the ones in supermarkets) next year. As of now the tree is pretty
with pink flowers in the spring and lush green tree in the summer (see image 3847 below).

Thank you
Evian from New Jersey

attachment=0]IMG_3847.jpg[/attachment]

side view 2016

[ButterflyLady29]

Those additional upright "branches" near the bottom of your tree look like watersprouts. If that is what they are they won't produce fruit and will steal nutrients from the branches that do produce fruit. They should be removed but wait at least until the tree is dormant. Pruning this late in the year will cause new growth that will be damaged when the weather turns cold.