Fruits & Nuts - Peach
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  (March) I have some young peach trees that have peaches but they rot or have worms before I harvest them. What should I be spraying with to have perfect fruit?

  I will warn you, that peaches are the toughest of the home fruits to grow. Brown rot is a disease that can destroy the fruit in a day or two, and fruit worms are also an issue. If you are willing to make the effort, find a general purpose fruit spray with both a fungicide and an insecticide in it. Spray when two thirds of the flower petals drop and roughly every two to three weeks throughout the season. I often think it is best to go to the local farmers market or u-pick fruit operation for top notch Arkansas peaches.

  (October) I have a thriving peach tree that is about three years old. It has thousands of blossoms in the spring and produces hundreds of small peaches-so many that I thin them out a little. However, the fruit never matures. The peaches achieve the size and looks of green walnuts and develop little glassy drops of sticky liquid on them and fall off the tree. What can I do to cause the fruit to mature next spring?

  Peaches are not an easy fruit for home gardeners to produce. You are being attacked by the plum curculio, but if the insects didn't get them, the diseases would--unless you follow a spray schedule. This fall, after all the leaves have fallen off, spray the tree with a dormant oil. Be sure to get rid of any fruits which may have remained attached to the limbs, or that have fallen on the ground underneath. These mummified fruits are loaded with problems for next season. Then prepare to spray next season. You can get a spray guide from your local Cooperative Extension Service. Get a complete tree fruit spray--with insecticide and fungicide, and begin spraying when two-thirds of the flower petals fall, and then about every two weeks throughout the season. That is the only way you can be assured of harvesting quality fruit.. You will need to thin again every year, if you get heavy fruit set. I find it easier to let the fruit growers grow them and get them at the u-pick farms, or the farmers markets!

  I have a question concerning Indian peach trees. I purchased some from a man at Clinton. I have eaten them before, but never grown them. How do you take care of them? Are they self-pollinating or do you have to have two? I was going to give one to my son and my sister, but I might need to give them two.

  Peaches in general are self-fruitful, so one tree should be enough for production. The Indian peach is an old-fashioned variety, with many fans. It can have the same insect and disease problems as other peaches, so a thorough spray schedule is advised. You can get a copy of the spray guide for home orchards from your local county extension office. Make sure you plant the peaches in full sun and well-drained soil. Prune them every year in late February.

  I am planning on planting some peach trees. I would like to know the best time of year to set them out? I want a variety starting with early peaches and ending with the latest harvest period. I have been told that the haven varieties would be some good ones to consider, I live in western Little Rock on a hillside and I think the hill would be a good place to grow fruit.

  The absolute best time in my opinion to plant trees of any sort--be they fruiting or ornamental, is fall--from late October through early December. As they are going into dormancy, they have all winter and early spring to get their root system established and are stronger for their first growing season in the ground. The only limitation with fall planting, is sometimes variety selection is down. If you can't find what you are looking for, then early spring is your next best bet.

  Could you tell me why our peaches didn’t ripen this year, instead fell off the tree? They were not wormy, and did grow fairly large. Could we water too much? It was the first time for peaches on this particular tree.

  Over watering is possible for every plant, whether containerized on in the ground. Peach trees will not tolerate wet feet, and you can lose the whole tree, not just the fruit crop. Peaches are difficult to grow without a complete spray program, for both insects and diseases. It is possible, that although you didn’t have worms, you had brown rot, or another disease. Another possibility is poor germination in the spring, especially associated with a late freeze. Your local county extension office has a spray schedule available for home fruit production. Get a copy of it and be prepared for next growing season.

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