Hi Rob,
I'm getting some of these in for the first time too so, while I don'[t have any practical experience, I have been doing some poking around on this. There is an article by Dr Steve Miller who worked on these with the breeder, Ralph Scorza, but I found it more academic than practical. Maybe the most informative is the picture in the Good Fruit Grower: goodfruit.com/.../Upright-peach-plantings-are-productive/ Here is the Miller article: ars.usda.gov/SP2UserFiles/.../Peach%20training%20Acta%20592.pdf

Dave

Thanks Dave! Those look really helpful. I'll have to sit down with them tomorrow and go through them in a little more detail. The picture definitely gives me a good preliminary idea of what I should be aiming for.

Rob

Call Adams and ask.

Good idea. Thanks harvestman.

Dave, based on the Miller article it sounds like they haven't really figured out what pruning system will work best. At the end he recommends letting it grow into its natural shape for a few years and seeing how it does.

Rob

In the end, with peaches its all about maintaining plenty of fresh green shoots throughout the bearing area of the tree, removing enough to ensure the remaining ones have all the space they need and reduce the need of thinning.

I have maintained peaches in a narrow central leader and the main thing is to make sure the upper wood doesn't starve the lower wood for light. Once the interior of scaffold branches loose new growth you often can't renew it in peaches and trees start to have dead spots in their centers. For me, summer pruning is essential to accomplish this.

I've had Crimson Rocket for six years, and I didn't know much about pruning for the first few years. I just topped it to a manageable height, cut out the really low branches, and thinned out the rest. It's hard to avoid some crossing branches because of the way it grows. Because it grows like a column and not an umbrella, the upper branches don't shade the lower branches much. Just try to keep it like a column, but thin it out. It's worked out pretty good for me.

Kellascat--
Can you tell us more about your experience with CR?
How is the fruit flavor and quality? Disease resistance?
I'm very interested in getting one in the next year or two.
Rich

I only have Crimson Rocket (2 of them) and Sweet N Up (3), a semi-upright variety, so it's difficult for me to compare. I've had problems with peach scab and leaf curl, but only because I was learning how and what to spray. This last year I ended up with a good healthy bunch of fruit. I can say that CR has been a little better than SNU as far as diseases, but that may be because SNU has a couple more weeks to get infected. It really does form a tight column and you could probably plant them pretty close together.
I like the quality and taste of CR very much.

Thanks kellascat! That's very helpful. It's also nice to know that they do well in this area and taste good.

Rob