You may recall I am supposed to be weeding the gardens here at Struan Farm, and I am getting that done, I am. But it's been warm and sunny and it's also time to prune the peach trees, so I seized the moment, along with the loppers, secateurs and pruning paste.
We have five peach trees in our house orchard area: one Golden Queen (five or so years old), one two year old Black Boy, two young "Mrs. Preston's" gifted to us as seedlings, and one I can't remember that has been moved around twice by John now and is doing its best to recover with my tender loving care. On the other side of the drive we have a second orchard area with our Luisa plum trees, two Karen Jones' Piopio seedling peach trees, and one "June's nectarine" from Northland. So eight peach/nectarine trees in total. I spray them all with copper in autumn and spring and we're managing to keep leaf curl at bay, mostly.
Peaches are meant to be pruned heavily in a "vase" shape to keep light and air circulating through the tree to reduce disease and help the fruit ripen. I'm always a bit hesitant about over-pruning, although I've been advised while one might impact the next season's fruiting if one is overzealous, it's pretty hard to kill them. "The Art of Mindful Gardening" refers to the "Five D's:" Dead & Dying, Diseased & Deformed, and Direction. I'm not the best with the pruning saw, so try to do what I can with secateurs and loppers, bringing in John if more major surgery is required. At the moment that sort of exercise is usually restricted to the apples given the age of our trees, and done in winter. But I take the time to do the trees in increments, one step at a time. Yes, I'm mindful.
A few "before" and "after" shots. The changes are subtle, I agree. I don't get up there on a ladder and lop the tops off, which could be done.
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