Tobey:

My vote is to buy bare root trees for planting early next spring. That's the cheapest route and results in the best tree including best root system.

Even if you put them in your greenhouse they'll need a chilling cycle where they drop their leaves. I've got a greenhouse full of fruit trees. The season is longer than outside but not that much.

How big is your greenhouse and have you thought about growing in there?

I have three greenhouses but the biggest is 20' by 80'

Tobey,

I like in KS as well and have planted lots of peach trees. There is no need to pot them up in your greenhouse, unless you want to grow peaches in there. Peaches will overwinter just fine in KS, even brand new peach trees.

As far as I'm aware there is no such thing as someone selling a 5 or 6 year old peach tree, unless it's some kind of specialty nursery. Even if someone were to offer a 5 or 6 year old peach tree for sale, I wouldn't want it. The tree would be so big, it would take a back hoe to dig it out and probably still languish from transplant shock. A well managed peach tree will have trunk growth of about 1" per year, so a 6 year old peach tree will have about a 6" diameter trunk. Of course potted trees will grow a fraction of that rate, but a 5 or 6 year old peach tree in a pot would be root bound unless it was very carefully managed.

Most reputable mail order nurseries sell one or two year old peach trees. I prefer the smaller younger smaller trees (for peaches) so I can train the scaffolds to my own preference.

I've planted most peaches in the spring, but that's simply because most mail order companies ship them in the spring.

Mail order trees are by far cheaper than potted trees. My 3 favorite mail order nurseries for peaches are Fruittreefarm.com (i.e. Cumberland Valley nursery), Vanwell nursery, and Adams County nursery.

Fruittreefarm.com has the smallest trees, but also the cheapest prices.

May I ask what part of KS you are from, and what you sell out of your greenhouses?

Olpea,
Thank you for your response! I am looking for Suncrest peach trees since the blooms are frost tolerant and more times than not my Elberta gets frosted out. Thank you for the nursery info, I will check them out!

The greenhouses are my brothers, he is just getting started a nursery business in rural Burns Kansas. He is currently selling various types of heirloom and hybrid tomatoes, both sweet and hot peppers, cucumber, squash, melon, broccoli, cabbage, sweet potato slips,eggplant, herbs, and various flowers, flowering hanging baskets and some water plants. He is working toward verging into rare flowers and water plants in the future. All plants are non GMO.

A larger peach tree is only likely to be worth more than a smaller one if if the size of the roots coincide with the size of the top, which isn't likely to happen when ordering peach trees once the diameter gets beyond an inch.

Olpea does start his trees low to deal with KS wind and I start them high to deal with east coast grey squirrels, coons and deer. Maybe the larger diameter trees aren't as reliable at low branching when cut low but the mail order trees I get are one year trees no matter what nursery I order them from.

I'm not sure why a one year old tree of thin diameter would be more cooperative this way, but maybe upper branches pull stored energy higher into the tree. It seems more likely that the tree with the more massive root system would tend to give you the fastest start, whatever the diameter of the trunk.

I know that I planted a couple of big trunks with most roots cut off last year and the Adams peach trees I planted nearby with thinner trunks and more root grew better and will likely give me bigger crops sooner.

" the mail order trees I get are one year trees no matter what nursery I order them from"

Hman,

Somebody from Cummins once told me they sell only 2yr peach trees. He said they couldn't size them enough in 1 year.

Last spring I had to order a 2 yr peach from Grandpa's Orchard (i.e. Matt Moser sales) because I wanted to try a Vinegold and that was the only one I could find. The scaffolds are too high for me so I plan to just cut the tree down after I get a graft started from it.

Tobey,

My most frost resistant peach so far is Redskin, which ripens just a tad before Elberta.

I haven't tried Suncrest. It's supposedly very susc. to bacterial spot, which is a problem here. I'm trying to minimize planting peaches which are susc. to bac. spot. I got through picking O'Henry about a week ago and several fruit had spots (along with a fair amount of foliage).

Olpea, I haven't bought peaches from Cummins for about 20 years- I only go to smaller nurseries for unusual varieties and have had to go to CA to get the unusual peaches I've desired recently.

I size up trees in my nursery for two years after planting them on my land and then sell them as 2" caliber bare roots with a ton of root. Actually I sell them installed and they can often handle a small crop the first season.

If you ever need to replace a lot of older trees and have a 2 or 3 year heads up, you should try this if space is ever an issue.

What is the typical max size of a peach on Lovell when bound by a 20 gallon pot?