Broken limbs on my peach tree

[Leela]

Went out this afternoon and noticed that the peach tree branches were drooping. I knew it was really heavy with fruit, but I see now that there are two branches that are broken. One of them is about 4+" in diameter and the other is a bit larger. The tree is about 18 - 20 years old. After doing some reading online, I realize that I should have pruned them so they didn't spread out so much. Too late now. This has never happened to me before. It's been pretty windy the last couple of days.

I'm wondering if it's worth trying to mend one of the limbs (they are broken fairly close to the trunk). One looks like it's too broken up to fix, but the other is mostly broken at the top, with the majority of the branch intact but bent down.

It's been a great tree and I don't have that many, have planted many others and lost them to frost, gophers (before I started planting them in cages) and hired people weedwhacking (before I started putting construction cones next to them at weedwhacking time). I lost another apricot this past winter and the pomegranate bush died too.

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[CAgdma]

Two things:

First, get some boards and prop up the limbs so they don't tear any more.

Second, on the one that you think you can save, get some electricians tape and, after you have propped up the weighty branch, try to match the bark back together, and then tape it shut.

And then....in the late fall, winter....prune! Peaches are borne on second year wood....that means that the NEW branches this year will bear fruit NEXT year,,,but you have to keep pruning out the old third and fourth year wood, without destroying the initial scaffolding.

BTW, plums and cherries and apricots and apples all have "fruit spurs" which bear fruit year and so when you prune, those spurs should be preserved.

 

[Running Dog]

Apple trees the same?
I have new trees that their branches are very long. I got these trees bare root early this year.

 

[summerthyme]

RunningDog... it's not the "length" of the branches so much as the angle of the crotch where they meet the trunk.

You REALLY do need to get a good book (or print out some web info) on pruning, because pruning is more than half the key to getting good fruit for a long time. It's possible your trees should have been pruned back when you planted them, but it's not that critical... you can "catch them up" next winter. (most of the semi dwarf trees I've purchased from mail order nurseries were "pre pruned" before they shipped them)

Most folks prune in late winter or VERY early spring. You can prune any time the trees are dormant, and if you don't have weather which is likely to cause damage (heavy snows or icing) you could prune early in the winter instead. I wait until late winter just in case there will be broken branches or other damage to correct.

I'd prop those heavy peach limbs up, and any others which are too heavily laden with fruit. At the least, you can save the peaches on those branches if you can keep SOME sap going to the branch. Once you've harvested the fruit, then you can tie the branches up and give them a chance to heal, or prune them off... figure out a pruning plan to try and "reshape" the trees a bit.

I found that taking a paint stick or spray can and marking most of my planned "removals" before getting the pruners out helped me visualize what needed to be done, especially on "recovery" pruning of badly overgrown trees. Once you get the main stuff removed, then you can snip the branches which didn't look to be "extras" at the time.

Summerthyme

 

[Leela]

Thanks for the advice. I got DH, DS and DD out there tonight when I came home from work and we propped the broken branches up as best as we could (including one of the others). I wrapped thick black plastic tape around the breaks. When the peaches are all gone I'll cut the limbs back so we can mend the tears better, the branches are so heavy it's almost impossible to lift them up.

We have never had the tree so laden with fruit, it's like 3 times as much as usual (not so with the other trees).

 

[summerthyme]

One last thing.... this is why you MUST thin the fruit! I suspect next year you won't see a peach off that tree (pretty normal, for most fruit bearing trees, but especially if you let them bear that heavily)

Picking off half- or even more- of a very heavy fruit set benefits everything- less damage to the branches, better sized fruit, better chance of them not developing issues (molds/bruising/insect damage) from the fruit pressing against each other, and you can sort of "short circuit" the worst of the biennial bearing traits.

For apples, you usually thin when the fruit is the size of a large marble (3/4" to 1"). I suspect peaches are the same, although my only peach tree bloomed for the first time this year, in the middle of a week which got down to the low 20's every night. No peaches...

Summerthyme

 

[blueberry]

This morning I found two limbs on the ground from one of my pear trees. Like yours, this tree has three times as much fruit as normal, and the limbs are starting to break. As much as I hate to thin fruit, I know I have to do it.

 

[ShepInTheValley]

I have tons of plums on the trees this year. I have one small tree I just got from the nursery and planted 2 yrs ago and one branch is hanging down to the ground -- tried staking it up but then found a 2nd branch completely split

Think I should remove a bunch of the plums since it's still such a young tree?

Also - is there a particular tree pruning book you'd recommend?

 

[summerthyme]

Shep... definitely thin some of the fruit. It's better to get a smaller crop of fruit than lose a tree!

I can't find my copy right now, but Lewis and Nancy Hill have a very good, illustrated book on pruning out there. Maybe you can find it on Amazon... they cover all species of fruit trees and bushes...

summerthyme