Growing Your Own Peaches

Over the course of the summer, as our orchard was open and we were selling our peaches and nectarines, we had a lot of questions regarding peach, and apple, growing.

While I did my best to provide information to those that asked, it is quite a lengthy subject and it is quite a lot of work.

Consequently, I have decided that I will post a page, each month, as I go through the process of maintaining our orchard and making sure we have the best quality produce we can for next season.

Some of the products I use are restricted use, many of them are expensive. Where I can I will provide suggestions for alternatives.

That said, I am going to be explaining what I do. That may, or may not, suit your operation or be deemed the best way to do things. It’s just what I am doing in any given month. It is also very important to realize that treating the orchard based on a calendar month schedule is not perfect as the orchard needs to be cared for based on the growth stage of the trees.

The information I will be passing on I have received from two retired orchard owners, E.J. Smith and Bill Forgie. They both were orchard owners near me in Southern Middle Tennessee. I have also received a significant amount of information from Dr. Lockwood and his colleagues at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Further, I have read information from other universities and groups around the country. It can be overwhelming so I have tried to distill it down into something I can cope with and, hopefully, you will be able to as well.

Where possible, I will include photos, original documents and short (very short) videos.

I hope you will find this useful in your endeavor. Much of this information pertains to other stone fruit in addition to peaches. Pome fruit like apples and pears, have additional concerns but where I can provide common information I will indicate so.