I was curious about my fruit trees. I have apple, peach and necterine trees. The apple tree is full of blossoms and the peach and necterine hardly have any. Are they late bloomers?
I'm not sure about CO, but here in MD the stone fruits are all just about done flowering. How old are the trees? Have they been well taken care of? How long since they were pruned, if they are older?
Did they start flowering and then stop? (that happened to a lot of our farmers - when we had COLD weather AFTER warm..)
We got our trees last fall at the tree farm. They all had fruit we ate off of them when we purchased them. They are not to old maybe 2-3 years. We have not pruned them yet. The peach tree is a bit bigger then the apple and necturine. They all look healthy and beautiful. Lots of foliage. The peach and necturine had a couple of blooms I have not seen anymore though. The apple tree is loaded with blossoms. When do you prune ?
Peaches generally flower before apples. Peaches & nectarines will only flower and fruit on last years new growth, meaning if your tree didnt put out much new growth or they have been pruned off they wont flower much. Ideal time to prune a peach/nectarine is after they bloom. Cut out areas that have dead growth.Open center pruning is the best for peaches. Apples and European pears on the otherhand should be pruned while dormant- preferably in late winter before budswell. Central leader pruning is the best for apples and pears. This is a good time to do a spraying of dormant oil as well. Unlike peaches, apples and pear can produce in the same spurs year after year- which is important not to damage when you harvest your fruit.
Here in Western Maryland.. my peaches are just starting to flower, but still have a good ways to go before full flowering. Pears are also getting ready to bloom, the flower buds are swollen, but not open yet. Apples are just starting to break dormancy. Had some flower bud damage on earlier blooming pears, as the weather was warm, and then a Noreaster dumped snow, and cold! Temps are the biggest factor on when your fruit tree break dormancy, and bloom!
Last edited by DeepCreekLake; Apr 28th, 2007 at 01:24 PM.
Shows you the difference in Western Maryland....we aren't far away but you are up way higher than me....Dad's peach trees flowered already and their all gone now.
This is good info for me because I have 2 small peach trees.......one is about 4 years old, the other is 3 years old.
Wow... I was thinking, "shows the difference in eastern & western Maryland"...you all are on the same side of the state and have as much difference as DeepCreek & I do!
I've got a TON of 1/2" peaches. Also a ton of little fruits on my cocktail trees...but I don't know which graft is which!
Yes, you can drive 20 mins from here and be in another growingzone. We are really growingzone 5 here, but most growing guides state us as 6. Nearby cumberland is probably a 6. Altitude does make a difference. I know sometimes I drive to Cumberland area, and it feels like a different world both on temps, and how green everything is already. Eastern shore is a whole different ball game they have a much longer growing season, which is why you probably see all those melons for sale that way- here the season is hardly long enough to grow decent melons.
On pruning- Plums, apricots, peaches, nectarines, all grow on last years new growth. When you are pruning a young tree, you want to set up a framework first. Then let your fruiting branches come from those. Its also not uncommon for some cultivar of fruit trees to take a year off, especially if they yielded heavy the year before. My white lady peach just started bloomed for the first time this year, hopefully will be able to taste a few this year. White peaches are good eatin!
Last edited by DeepCreekLake; Apr 28th, 2007 at 03:15 PM.
Apples I've had in the past did that. Fruit one year and not the next. I read that when it flowers knock off about 1/2 of the flowers and then you can get a harvest every year. I've never tried it though.
Gardening in March
Gardening in April
Gardening in May
Shop at Amazon and Support AGF
Are you shopping online? Click this link first and A Gardeners Forum will receive a commission for your
referral at Amazon.com (shopping through this link to Amazon will not have any impact on your prices at Amazon).