Growing Peaches, Nectarines, Apricots and Plums are Easy with These Tips!

Ever wonder where to get some tips on how to grow peaches, nectarines, and plums in your backyard? This blog is a great start! I will be going over different tips, tricks and information to help anyone start growing tasty fruit in their backyard! Feel free to check out my YouTube video for more information.

Peaches, nectarines, and plums are delicious fruits that are a must-have in your backyard. Even if you have just two trees, they will produce enough fruit for your family to enjoy all summer long, and you will have a lot of fruit to give to your family and friends as well.

The first thing you want to do when it comes to growing peaches, nectarines, and plums is to select the variety. You have to determine which zone you live in and get the varieties that grow well in your zone. This is because it all depends on chill hours. These fruits need to go dormant over the winter in order to set flowers and fruit the next season, and that depends on the number of chill hours that they get during the winter.

The chill hours are the number of hours you get in your region that goes below 45 degrees Fahrenheit between 32 degrees Fahrenheit and 45 degrees Fahrenheit all winter long. Some of these varieties require 300 to 400 chill hours, so make sure you have enough chill hours in your zone to support the varieties that you're growing. We are in zone 9, so I'm growing varieties that grow well in zone 9.

The next thing you want to look at is whether you want to grow freestone or cling stone. Freestone peaches are when you cut them open, the flesh does not stick on to the pit. The clings don't stick onto the pit. Both varieties have excellent flavor, but if you want to be processing a lot of peaches to bake or to can them, it's better to have a freestone variety so it's easier to get the pit out.

There are also yellow peaches and white peaches, and they're also yellow nectarines and white nectarines. I personally prefer yellow peaches and white nectarines. These nectarines are delicious. They are like honey, and when you bite into them, they are pure sugar. It's a treat eating them. We actually have them for dessert after dinner every night.

All of these fruits are considered stone fruit because they have a pit in the center. All of these fruits include peaches, nectarines, plums, apricots, plumcots, blue oats, and apriums. Some of these varieties are hybrids of apricots and plums.

Peaches and nectarines are self-fertile, however, apricots are not. So you must plant two apricot trees to have a better yield or you can get one tree that has two different grafts on it.

Now, let's move on to some tips on how to grow these delicious fruits successfully.

Tip number one is full sun.

All of these stone fruits love sun and they require 12 to 14 hours of sunlight in the summer. That gives them the classic taste and the nicest fruit you can ever have. So, plant them in a space in your backyard that receives full sun.

Tip number two is watering.

Cherries love water. They love the moisture in the ground. However, peaches, nectarines, and plums like the soil to dry out just a little bit before you start watering again. They love well-drained soil. It depends on the type of soil you have to determine how much you need to water.

Tip number three is fertilizing.

We are organic and we do not use chemical fertilizers and chemical pesticides, so we use organic fertilizer. The fertilizer I use is organic chicken mineral fertilizer with the NPK ratio of 4-4-2.

I apply four to five pounds of this fertilizer per tree per year, usually in the winter. This is because the fertilizer will mix well with the soil during the winter rains and break down, making the nutrients readily available to the tree in the spring and summer when it needs it most.

One of the most common pests that attack peaches is the peach twig borer, a little worm that enters the peach from the top and burrows its way down into the pit. However, keep in mind, we do lose about 20-30% of our fruit to pests, even with these organic options.

Birds also love peaches, so the blogger uses reflective tape and owl and hawk decoys to deter them. However, it's a constant battle, and they still lose some fruit to birds.

Tip number four is pruning and thinning.

Pruning should be done during the winter to see which branches to keep and which ones to get rid of. The main rule of thumb is to keep three or four main branches and keep the center open, which encourages light and prevents mold and fungus. During the summer, you can lightly prune to acquire the desired shape, but you should never prune too much during the summer and should avoid taking off branches that produce fruit in the spring. Thinning is also important, and at least 40-50% of peaches, nectarines, plums, and apricots should be thinned out so that the fruit is at least four to six inches apart from each other.

Finally, harvesting is the favorite tip of all.

The fruit should be harvested when it has a reddish-yellowish hint to it, and letting the fruit ripen on the tree longer will make it sweeter. If you want to harvest earlier, you can let the fruit ripen in brown paper bags, but if you let it ripen on the tree, the taste will be incredible.

In conclusion, growing organic peaches using these tips may not be foolproof, but it's worth it in the end to have delicious, healthy fruit without ingesting harmful chemicals. By fertilizing, managing pests, deterring birds, pruning and thinning, and harvesting properly, you can grow a healthy and abundant peach tree.

Happy Gardening!