The article will help answer the questions, which varieties of peach to choose, how to plant a tree, take care of it, save it from pests and diseases. Sweet juicy peaches are to the taste of many. Therefore, it is pleasant to grow a tree and get a harvest of fragrant fruits on your site. This crop mainly grows in the southern regions, but there, too, when growing peaches, various problems can arise.
Peach varieties
Here are the best ones:
- "White Swan" … The tree is medium-sized, up to 6 meters high, with a spreading crown. Fruits are large, round, weighing 150-200 grams with a high sugar content. They ripen in the third decade of August. The variety is self-fertile, capable of withstanding prolonged droughts. Quite winter-hardy, withstands frosts down to -25 ° C. In spring frosts, flower buds are not damaged.
- Tree varieties "Fluffy early" grows up to 6 meters. The crown is wide-oval. Fruits weighing 70-100 grams, elliptical in shape with a rounded crown, in which there is a small depression. The variety has good winter hardiness, gives rich harvests every year. Of the shortcomings, only a satisfactory taste of the fruit can be distinguished.
- Fruits of the variety "Ambassador of Peace" beautiful, rounded, weighing 180-220 grams. The tree itself reaches a height of 5–6 meters and has a spherical spreading crown. Peaches ripen by the second half of August. The variety is self-fertile, frost-hardy, including highly resistant to spring frosts.
- Fruiting tree varieties "Golden Jubilee" begins as early as 3 years of age. The plant is also winter hardy, like its flower buds. The fruits ripen by the second half of August, are good in transportation and lie up to eight days.
- Peach varieties "Veteran" ripen by August 10. You can get up to 50 kg of fruits from one tree! The variety is resistant to clasterosporium disease, powdery mildew.
- Variety "Novoselovsky" for those who want to feast on ripe fruits already in the 20th of July and have a low-growing tree up to 4 meters high on the site. But the taste of the fruit is satisfactory. However, the variety is one of the most frost-resistant, which allows it to be grown in cooler regions.
How to plant a peach?
The choice of location is of great importance. Peach likes to grow in sunny places, in light soils, where the groundwater does not occur higher than 1–1.5 m. The tree should be planted in a place where it has not grown, including plum and apricot.
If the seedling is a peach with an open root system, it is very important to transport it correctly. To do this, the roots of the plant are wrapped in a damp cloth and placed in a cellophane bag.
- Before planting the peach, trim the dried root tips to healthy tissue.
- Dig a planting hole 80–90 wide and 60 cm deep. If you are planting several peaches, the distance between them should be at least three meters.
- Pour humus or compost in the amount of 20-25 kg and a complete mineral complex fertilizer with microelements in the amount of 200 grams into the depression.
- Add the top fertile layer of earth, mix it all with a shovel and arrange it in the form of a mound.
- Drive a stake in the center and place a seedling next to it.
- Spread out its roots and cover them with soil.
- Make a near-stem circle, along the boundaries of its diameter - a roller that will help to retain moisture.
- After that, pour the ground around the peach and, if necessary, add more soil, mulch this place on top.
As a result, the root collar of the peach should be either at the level of the soil, or destroyed by 3 cm. After planting, the top of the seedling is cut off and then a tree is formed in the form of a bowl or bush. After planting, the seedling needs to be watered every week, pouring 1–1.5 liters of water under it.
Peach care
It must be careful, only then can you wait for your own sweet fruits. In the first year after planting, the peach is not fertilized, they begin to do this in the second year. At the same time, it is necessary to limit the application of nitrogen fertilizers, since the peach is a vigorous crop, and nitrogen will accelerate the process. Phosphorus and potash fertilizers are applied in sufficient quantities, as they contribute to the better winter hardiness of the plant.
In autumn, they are scattered around the trunk circle, carefully buried in the ground with a rake or shovel. Application rate under one tree:
- 400 grams of wood ash;
- 200 grams of superphosphate;
- 120 grams of potassium chloride;
- 25 kg of organic fertilizers.
In addition to such dressings, it is necessary to give the tree liquid food 2 or 3 times per season. It responds well to manure infusion in a ratio of 1:10 to water, chicken manure in a ratio of 1:20. You can use inorganic dressings, then in 10 liters of water you need a solvent of 2, 5 tbsp. l. ammonium nitrate, 4 tbsp. l. potash and phosphorus fertilizers. This top dressing is poured onto the trunk circle in early April. The second time the nutrient solution is given to the plant in early May. If the peach needs a third feeding, then it is given in early June. It is very important not to fertilize the peach after the beginning of July with a nitrogen-containing fertilizer, otherwise the shoots will continue to grow, will not have time to ripen before the onset of cold weather and freeze in winter. It is also important to feed the peach when the soil underneath is wet, if it is dry, it will damage the roots and can destroy the tree. Usually the peach blooms profusely, but if there are many ovaries, they take nutrients from the tree and can weaken it. Therefore, some of them must be removed when they reach a diameter of 1 cm. In this case, first of all, shapeless, diseased or small ovaries are discarded. There should be enough space for the remaining ones, so a distance of 20 cm is left between them, and if the variety is large-fruited, then at least 25 or even 30 cm.
Peach, although it tolerates drought, is a rather moisture-loving crop, so one adult tree needs to be watered with 30–40 liters of water. It must be necessarily warm, warmed up in the sun.
At the end of autumn, the trees must be whitewashed. For this, the following solution is prepared: 100 grams of copper sulfate and 1 kg of lime are poured into 5 liters of water, then you need to add clay for the viscosity, stir the resulting solution thoroughly.
In order for the peach to winter well, the trunk circle must be insulated with mulch, using needles, sawdust, peat. Its thickness should be 30 cm. The stems and the beginning of the skeletal branches must be insulated with burlap or spruce branches. Do not use plastic wrap. If you insulate trees in this way, they will be able to withstand even frosts down to -30 ° C, but short-term.
Peach growing problems
Sometimes the tree begins to grow kosoboko. To correct this situation, you need to prune, and if you are still planting a peach, you need to find the right place for it. After all, it can grow unevenly due to the fact that it does not have enough sunlight.
If the tree is more than 5 years old, but there have been no harvests yet, although there is spring flowering, then you need to plant another plant near it for better pollination. Spring pruning of peaches, which should be done annually, can help. Good watering and fertilization can also correct the situation.
If your peach seedling does not take root, this may be for several reasons. Then it is necessary:
- observe the deadlines, since you need to plant a peach in early autumn.
- the seedling must be purchased in a reliable nursery and the tree must be zoned for your region;
- when buying, pay attention to the root system - a powerful, healthy, dry one will help the plant to take root faster;
- the correct location of the root collar when planting;
- after planting, you need to shade the plant, periodically water it in the evenings from a watering can, spray it if possible;
- you can add a root stimulant to the fossa and spray the plant with a growth stimulator 1-2 times (in the evening).
How to grow a peach from a stone?
If you live in the southern region, this is easy to do, after the fragrant fruits are eaten, you need to dig a trench on the site to a depth of 7-8 centimeters, put the seeds and cover them with light soil, not forgetting to water. But it is better to ask for seeds from neighbors who grow a peach and plant those taken from unvaccinated trees.
In the spring, about half of the seeds will sprout, they need to be watered, weeded, and sprinkled with peat for the winter. Those who have not ascended can germinate in a year. A two-year-old tree is planted in a permanent place, adding humus and mineral fertilizers to the pit. The place must be absolutely sunny and protected from the winds. Then in the third or fourth year you can enjoy your fruits.
Peach pests and diseases
The main diseases of the peach:
- curliness of leaves;
- clotterosporia;
- powdery mildew;
- stone fruit moniliosis;
- fruit rot.
To prevent their appearance and spread, it is necessary to spray the trees with a Bordeaux mixture with a concentration of 3%. This is done twice a year - in the spring before the buds open and in the fall, immediately after the leaves fall.
For the prevention and treatment of peach diseases, use the drug "Skor". It is relatively safe for the environment, people and low toxicity. To prepare a solution, dissolve an ampoule (2 ml) in 10 liters of water. This is enough to process 1 weave. To spray one tree, use 2 liters of the product. You can process peaches with them 3 times as much as possible, repeating the subsequent spraying no earlier than a month later, but usually one spring spraying is enough.
Biological products against peach fungal diseases are:
- Trichodermin;
- Planriz;
- "Gaupsin".
Against peach pests (aphids, ticks, flower beetle weevils, fruit moths, eastern moths) will help:
- "Gaupsin";
- "Lepidocide".
Processing is carried out in spring and autumn.
Learn more about how to grow peaches in this video:
