Newbie with small peach tree

[mitzi56]

Hi, I have been reading about some issues that occur with losing peaches, such as june drop, infestations and weather conditions, being as my peach tree is about 6 ft high and giving a lot of peaches most times,( like.this year). I'm hoping to get at least one peach to maturity. Could my tree still be too small? I find occassional peaches that had obvious insect damage and simply toss them. I made sure this year that I put black cow around the tree for fertilization and have been watering it almost daily as the heat here is very high. If I do find several insect holes in my new small peaches, can I treat the tree with any safe bug preventative like murphys soap or ivory soap?

[rainbowgardener]

Hi and welcome to the Forum!

We have a whole Forum section on growing fruit, here:

https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=20

There is a professional orchardist, JONA, who hangs out there and is very good at answering fruit tree questions.

My suggestion would be that you repost this there, with some pictures of your tree. Best wishes!

[applestar]

I'll move this to the Fruit Forum

[rainbowgardener]

OK, thanks, but mitzi should still post some pictures with it.

[JONA]

Hi mitzi
Your tree at six foot should be able to carry quite a nice little crop.
Main thing is to not overload it.
Once you are pretty certain it has finished its natural drop I would suggest that you space the fruit out to singles and leave six inches or so between fruits. This gives them a good chance to size up well while giving the tree plenty of chance to grow on well.
By the way.....if your tree keeps growing well but dropping its fruit too heavily...then tying down fruiting branches to a lower angle can usually slow the growth down enough to a level that retains the fruit. Often its excessively strong growth that causes lower fruit production.
As to damaged fruits. a picture or two of the damaged fruit would be helpful in that direction.
One thing would help....as your tree is still small, can you get netting over it?
Birds can cause a lot of damage on such a young trees fruit.

[mitzi56]

Thanks for all the replies and I will repost my question where u guys suggested and add pictures as soon as I can

[mitzi56]

Thanks for all the replies and I will repost my question where u guys suggested and add pictures as soon as I can

[rainbowgardener]

You don't need to repost, applestar moved your original post into the Fruit Forum. That's how JONA saw it and responded. You just need to post a couple pictures. Thanks!

[mitzi56]

3 fruit on this branch

IMG_2196.jpg (34.91 KiB) Viewed 1228 times

,

a small peach on ground

IMG_2200.jpg (61.04 KiB) Viewed 1228 times

,

my small peach tree

Ok so here are a few pictures of my small peach tree with approximately 15-20 peaches that were on it, (maybe less by now). I did put the bird netting on it and also am trying the silver tape on each branch that has fruit ( supposedly also deters birds)
Today I only found one peach on the ground with no bug holes (after inspecting it carefully). The fruit are about an inch and a half to 2"'s right now. This has been the size the last few years when I lost every single one for unknown reasons. I did however see some bug holes last year, and this year saw one on the ground with a bug hole. But today the one u see is a healthy fruit and probably just a natural fruit drop. If I lose all of them again, I would like to know why. Of course I will post pictures if I see anything unusual on the fruit as I find them. Thanks for the help.