A Detailed Guide to Scientific Peach Tree Planting Techniques, Beginners Can Learn Too
SummarySoil: Ideally choose neutral to slightly acidic soil. Temperature: Areas with an average annual temperature of 12-17°C allow normal growth and development. Light: Peach trees love light; insufficient light causes fewer and poorer-quality flower bud differentiation, flower and fruit drop, and so on. Propagation: Can choose cuttings, grafting, sowing, and other methods. Fertilization: Mainly quick-acting fertilizer, generally topdressing 2-3 times per year. Management: From November to December each year, deep-dig around the tree canopy and apply base fertilizer. Pruning: Reasonable pruning prevents excessive vegetative growth.
Every spring, the peach blossoms in the peach groves all bloom at once; at a glance, clusters of delicate pink flowers are extremely beautiful and spectacular, attracting many tourists to come and see them. Peach trees are not only beautiful, but also bear very delicious fruit. So how should peach trees be planted well?
Scientific Peach Tree Planting Techniques
1. Cuttings
Use hardwood cuttings in spring and softwood cuttings during the rainy season. Cuttings must be vigorous and plump. Hardwood cuttings are mainly taken in spring; cut the cuttings diagonally at about 20 cm. To prevent disease infection and promote rooting, the lower end of the cutting is best treated with a fungicide, 50% carbendazim at 600-1 200 times dilution, and quickly dipped in indolebutyric acid at 750-4500 mg/L before inserting. Spacing is 4cm×30cm, and the insertion depth should preferably be 2/3 of the cutting length.
2. Grafting
For propagation, rootstocks are mostly mountain peach or peach seedlings (own-root stock); both branch grafting and bud grafting have relatively high survival rates.
Branch grafting: carried out in March when the buds have begun to sprout. Cut grafting is commonly used, and one- to two-year-old seedlings are best for rootstock.
Bud grafting: carried out in July-August, mostly using the “T” shape. One-year-old plump seedlings are best for rootstock.
3. Sowing
The flowering period of peach is March-April, and the fruit ripening period is June-August. Harvest ripe fruit, pile and mash it, remove the flesh, dry it, and collect pure seeds for autumn sowing. Before sowing, soak seeds for 5-7 days. Autumn-sown seeds sprout early the next year, with a high emergence rate, rapid growth, and vigor. For sowing the next spring, the seeds need to be stored in moist sand for more than 120 days. Use drill sowing, with a row width of 10 cm and depth of 1-2 cm, then cover with 6 cm of soil after sowing. Sow 25-30 kg per 667 sq m. When seedlings are 3 cm tall, thin and set the seedlings, with a plant spacing of 20-25 cm.
Peach Tree Planting Conditions
1. Soil
Peach trees have strong adaptability to soil and can generally be planted in most soils, but grow better in neutral to slightly acidic soil. When soil pH is below 4 or above 8, growth is seriously affected. In terms of adaptability to soil texture, cultivation is better in sandy loam with good drainage, strong permeability, and relatively fertile soil, showing early fruiting and good quality. If the soil is too fertile or the texture is too clayey, it tends to grow too vigorously, fruit later, have low early yield, and poorer quality, with a bland taste and small fruit.
2. Temperature
Peach trees have a relatively wide temperature adaptation range. From plains to altitude, except for extremely cold and extremely hot areas, areas with an average annual temperature of 12-17°C can all grow and develop normally. The most suitable temperature for peach growth is 18-23°C, and the suitable temperature during fruit ripening is around 25°C. If the temperature during the peach tree growing period is too low or too high, it will affect normal growth: if too low, the tree develops abnormally and the fruit is not easy to ripen; if too high, the branches and trunk are easily sunburned, and fruit quality declines; southern variety groups are more tolerant of high temperatures.
3. Water
Peach originated in continental plateau zones and is tolerant of drought. Too much rainfall easily causes excessive vegetative growth of branches and leaves, poor quality and small quantity of flower bud differentiation, poor fruit coloring, bland flavor, declining quality, and poor storage tolerance. Because each variety group has formed different water requirements through long-term exposure to different climatic conditions, southern variety groups tolerate humid climates and perform well in the south, while northern variety groups cultivated in the south are prone to excessive vegetative growth, fewer flower buds, poor fruiting, and low quality. Therefore, when selecting cultivars for cultivation, attention should be paid to the type of variety group to avoid trouble in production.
4. Light
Light is indispensable for plant photosynthesis. Peach trees are especially fond of light. With insufficient light, shoots elongate, flower bud differentiation is reduced and of poor quality, and flowers and fruit tend to drop. Therefore, when choosing greenhouse cultivation for peach trees, if artificial light is too weak, supplemental artificial lighting should be used to ensure normal growth.
Soil Management
1. Reasonable Fertilization
After many years of practice, the demand of peach trees for nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium is as follows: for every 100 kg of fruit produced by a mature tree, about 0.5 kg of nitrogen, 0.3 kg of phosphorus, and 0.6 kg of potassium are needed, a ratio of about 1:0.6:1.2. When applying base fertilizer in autumn, peach tree roots that are cut can heal in a relatively short period and send out new roots, which is beneficial for nutrient storage. Autumn base fertilizer can be applied before leaf fall together with autumn plowing.
Peach tree topdressing is mainly quick-acting fertilizer. The timing and frequency of application should be flexibly controlled according to the growth of the peach tree, generally topdressing 2-3 times per year. The first time is before flowering, when the root system begins activity in early spring, to ensure good peach flower fertilization and increase the fruit-setting rate. The second time is before the pit hardens, applying nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium fertilizers together to promote embryo and pit development and fruit growth and enlargement. The proportion of the two topdressings is: for early-maturing varieties, the earlier stage is heavier than the later stage; for late-maturing varieties, the later stage is heavier than the earlier stage.
2. Other Soil Management
After planting, deep-dig around the tree canopy from November to December each year, to a depth of 20-30 cm, and apply base fertilizer together with the deep digging.
Pruning of Peach Trees
After peach trees are planted, proper pruning is also very good. Many people generally like to train peach trees into a natural open-center shape. The trunk-setting height is about 60 cm, leaving 3-4 main branches, with 1-2 sub-main branches kept on each main branch as appropriate, and as few small branches as possible on the main and sub-main branches. Pruning periods include winter pruning and summer pruning.
Although young fruiting trees have already borne fruit, they grow vigorously, with many excessive vegetative branches and dense shoots, so summer pruning measures such as bud removal, pinching, and shoot twisting are needed to suppress the strong and support the weak and maintain tree balance. For peach trees in full fruiting period, because of many years of fruiting, tree vigor has tended to moderate, excessive vegetative branches and secondary branches are significantly reduced, and the proportion of medium and short fruit branches increases, so shortening should be the main method, and overly dense branches and strong terminal branches should be removed to improve light conditions among shoots, and weakened branches should be renewed in time.
Peach trees are very easy to grow, with strong vitality and easy growth. However, they should not be planted blindly; you should understand the living habits of peach trees and scientific planting methods. The above are some peach tree planting techniques and methods summarized for everyone, and we hope they can help those of you who want to plant peach trees!