Too late to thin peaches?

16 years ago

I know I should have thinned my peach tree many weeks ago, but I didn't. You know how it goes - I just never quite got around to it. Anyway, I'm wondering if it's too late here in zone 5, MA. It's a Reliance. It's loaded with fruit, but they are all small. They are starting to turn color, but still hard. Is it worth thinning at this point, or would that just be a waste of all the energy the tree has already put into growing all those fruits?

Thanks!

-Diggity

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Comments (5)

jellyman
16 years ago
Diggity:

I think you already know the answer to this question, but I'll say it anyway: The time to thin peaches is when they are very, very young, when you can identify those that are fastest growing and insect free. It's also nice and cool at that time of year, but it's not now.

You won't get any state fair peaches this year, but next year, if you remember this experience, you might.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA
diggity_ma
Original Author
16 years ago
Hi Don - Yup, I know. Truth is, with a few vacations, the yard and vegetable garden to take care of, not to mention that pesky thing called "work" I just never got to it this year when it should have been done.

The first time I had a moment to thin peaches (and remembered to do so), it was already too late, as they were already about 1.5 inches across. I've been stuck in a quandary ever since. Now I CAN'T overlook them because there are so many, and they all stare at me every time I walk past, with neglected, dejected looks on their peachy little faces.

So tomorrow morning - finally a Saturday when we're around the house and don't have much in particular to do. Tomorrow morning, while it's fresh on my mind. Tomorrow morning - probably about 3 weeks or so from harvest. Do I thin 'em out tomorrow morning or try to make up in quantity what I sacrificed in quality?

Thanks!
-Diggity
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Last night I finally completed thinning on peach trees. It only took b/t 15-20 man hrs, but standing there with your arms extended, reaching all over is back breaking work. It just reinforces in my mind, why I will never use a ladder. I tried to thin off a ladder once, fortunately it was a pear didn't need much thinning. I can't imagine thinning peaches off a ladder. If your trees are too tall, cut those buggers back to a height you can reach. I have one peach tree that is really out of reach and doesn't have any low wood. I plan to replace it. I recently had this same question about thinning out smaller fruit. In other words does fruitlet size take precedent over fruit placement, when thinning? The answer is fruitlet size is more important. Early fruitlet growth results from cell division. However, late fruit swell results only from cell expansion. So by keeping the larger fruitlets at thinning, they have more fruit cells and therefore more potential to increase in size during the final fruit swell. Here's a few summary points to keep in mind about thinning: -Early thinning promotes larger fruit. -Thin fruit to approx. one per 8-10" of branch space (Thin early varieties a little heavier, and later varieties a little less.) -The fruit need not be evenly spaced. Instead keep the larger fruitlets, as long as they are not so close they'll crowd each other at harvest. In other words, if you have a 16" shoot, leave two large fruitlets somewhere where they won't crowd each other. -Get rid of any fruit in crotch angles (As it grows it will get squeezed and be hard to pick. Picture it as a 3" fruit.) -Get rid of all Siamese twins. -Get rid of at least one of all regular twins. -Thin fruit more heavily at the interior of the tree. -Get rid of all exteme low hanging fruit in the interior (It's low quality anyway.) For a little more in-depth approach at thinning, see the link below. Here is a link that might be useful: How to grow big peaches
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jakejones
16 years ago
I have been thinned Asian pears repeatedly this summer. I wish I had thinned more earlier. In any case, I just kept thinning. I'm getting some small ripe ones now-- they said 6 to 12 inches and I erred too much towards the 6". In the future, I will be more balanced, but it was just too hard this year as it was by great lengths the best fruit set I have ever had.

I would thin now, otherwise you will get very little good fruits. I just thinned some more of my Asian pears today. And in fact, I doing the taste test, I found some are already ripe.

Gardening teaches discipline and the need to make sometimes hard decisions. It would be good to thin now to help get the need for it deep into your skill base.

Go out, thin them, live with the results.

Hope you understand the friendly spirit I write this in....
diggity_ma
Original Author
16 years ago
Sure Jake, I understand. Gardening is all about learning. I have a big vegetable garden that I put a lot of effort into, but I tend not to think too much about the fruit trees. Recently I started pondering on why that is, particularly when growing fruit trees can be so rewarding. I resolved to "do right" by my fruit trees... prune them more regularly, fertilize, plant more of them, perhaps cultivate a legumous understory. It was about then that I realized I had missed the spring peach thinning.
D'oh!
Off to a bad start. :-)

So based on you folks' good advice, I went out on Saturday morning and thinned the tree. I'm glad I did. Once I rolled up my sleeves and got in there, I discovered the peaches were a bit further away from ripeness than I thought they were, so I'm sure it was the right thing to do. I took pretty near 100 peaches off the tree, which amounts to a thinning by about 2/3. It was pretty drastic, but there are still about 50 peaches left on the tree, and even if they are only moderate in size, that will still be a take I'd be really happy with.

Thanks!
-Diggity
diggity_ma
Original Author
16 years ago
Update, we picked peaches this weekend and they were great! I mis-estimated the count above - there were closer to 100 peaches left on the tree after thinning, for a total yield of 30 pounds or so. The tree is only 4 years old, so I'm quite happy with that. We made 10 jars of jam, froze lots of them and kept plenty for fresh eating. They are delicious!

I should have thinned them early in the summer - next year I definitely will - but early August was better than never. I'm glad I took you folks' advice and thinned them out. Thanks!

-Diggity

Too late to thin peaches?

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Too late to thin peaches?

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