A Detailed Guide to Peach Tree Planting Methods and Key Technical Points

Peaches are very delicious, sweet and juicy in one bite, and are deeply loved by people, so peach tree cultivation is becoming increasingly popular. Different fruit trees have different planting methods, so let's talk about how peach trees are planted.

Peach tree planting methods

1. Seed selection: Use naturally ripe fruit, that is, fruit harvested in early October of the same year. Remove the peel and bury it shallowly under the soil (at a depth equal to one times the fruit diameter, or bury it together with mung bean sprouts; it may be buried slightly deeper, and after sprouting, cut off the bean sprouts, but never pull them up, as this easily damages the seedling roots).

2. Soil selection: Sandy soil (coarse and fine mixed at 3:7) with good drainage; loam + garden soil (or fermented soil is better) in a ratio (sandy soil, loam, garden soil) of 3:2:5.

3. Watering principle: Water thoroughly at one time (with a small amount of water droplets leaking from the bottom of the pot). Tap water needs to be left standing in a container in advance, and the upper 80% of the water should be used. Rainwater does not need this; frequent watering with rainwater can appropriately reduce fertilizer use.

4. Making fermented soil: Dig a pit outdoors, 30-50 cm wide and half a meter deep (the specific dimensions can be arranged as needed).

5. Kitchen waste: Eggshells, fish bones, beef and mutton bones, and leafy vegetable stems are best, as they are rich in organic matter. After putting in the waste, bury it with soil to about 90% (for a one-meter-deep pit, bury with 80 cm of soil), tread it firm, then water with about 1-2 L. Dig it out for use the following year; it works well as a base fertilizer.

Establishment of a peach orchard

1. Site selection: For peaches, it is best to choose sandy loam with good drainage and loose soil texture, with a south-facing slope being best, but continuous cropping is taboo, meaning land that has already been planted with peach trees cannot be planted with peach trees again.

2. Soil improvement before planting: Before planting peaches, deep plowing and soil improvement must be carried out. Sloping land should be changed into terraced land to thicken the soil layer, and then planting holes or planting trenches should be dug according to the spacing between plants and rows. The hole depth and width should be 2.5—3 chi, and each hole should be pressed with at least 100 jin of residue fertilizer, pressed in 3—4 layers, to achieve looseness and air permeability and improve the soil's physical and chemical properties. Flat dam land and clayey soil also need improvement, using deep furrow and high bed cultivation, with drainage ditches more than 2.5 chi deep. Inside the bed, improve the soil along strip-shaped trenches, with a trench depth of 80CM and a trench width of 70CM, pressing in garbage and residue fertilizer in three layers.

3. Planting time: Both spring and autumn planting are possible, but autumn planting is best. In autumn, temperatures are high and there is more rain, so the root system recovers easily after damage, and the following year the seedling stagnation period can be reduced, with buds sprouting neatly. Planting from October—December is appropriate.

4. Planting density: Generally, this should be determined according to variety characteristics, terrain, soil conditions, training system, and cultivation method. Varieties with strong tree vigor can be planted more sparsely, while varieties with weak tree vigor can be planted more densely; flat land has greater planting spacing than mountainous land; fertile soil has greater planting spacing than barren land; planned dense planting orchards have greater planting density than fixed planting orchards; “Y”-shaped training has greater planting density than open-center training. The general spacing between plants and rows is 3×4 m2 or 3×3 m2, with 56 plants or 74 plants per mu.

5. Planting: Before planting, prune damaged roots and overly large main roots, then straighten the plant, spread the root system, cover with 5-10CM of soil, tread it firm with the foot, build a soil ridge around the seedling into a round disk, then irrigate thoroughly. After the water infiltrates, cover with a layer of fine soil, and optionally another layer of grass, which can reduce water evaporation and help survival.

Peach tree planting method

Use alternating row spacings of 3 meters and 2 meters, with a plant spacing of one meter. Plant about 270 plants per mu.

1. Use a single-trunk spindle tree shape, with a crown diameter of 1 meter and a tree height of about 3 meters. This provides good ventilation and light penetration, improving the fruit set rate and fruit quality.

2. The large rows (3 meters) are suitable for machines and vehicles to enter the rows for spraying, fertilizing, harvesting, weeding, and other tasks, saving a large amount of labor and making management convenient.

3. After reaching full production, side branches do not need to be propped up with supports every year. Winter pruning saves labor and is easy to master.

4. It is conducive to early and high yield. In the second year after planting, the yield per plant can reach 15 jin, and the yield per mu can reach 4000 jin; in the third year, the yield per plant reaches 30 jin, and the yield per mu reaches 8000 jin; in the full production period, the yield per mu exceeds ten thousand jin. In contrast, the traditional open-center tree shape takes 5 years after planting to reach the full production period.

Soil management of peach trees

1. Intercropping: In young orchards, vegetables can be planted in summer and green manure in winter, which can both increase orchard income and improve soil fertility; adult orchards are not intercropped;

2. In summer, cultivate and loosen the soil and weed;

3. In autumn and winter, deeply plow and expand the holes, increase the application of organic fertilizer, and improve the soil's physical and chemical properties.

Fertilizer and water management of peach trees

1. Fertilizer and water management of peach trees in the first year after planting: The first year after planting is key for peach trees to grow and take shape. In fertilizer and water management, “light fertilizer applied frequently” should be achieved. From March—June, apply fertilizer about once every half month, for a total of 8 applications. The first 6 applications are one carrying pole of clear manure water plus 2 liang of urea applied to 4 trees, to promote more branch growth and leaf development and rapid shaping. The last 2 applications are one carrying pole of clear manure water plus 2 liang of potassium dihydrogen phosphate applied to 4 trees, to promote branch maturity and flower bud differentiation.

2. Fertilizer and water management in the second year after planting and thereafter: Peach trees are more tolerant of barren soil than citrus, apples, and others, but after entering production, fertilizer should be applied at least three times each year.

3. Fertilization methods: Soil fertilization methods include ring fertilization, trench fertilization, and hole fertilization. Young trees use ring fertilization, large-area adult trees use trench fertilization, and mountainous land uses hole fertilization. Generally, fertilization holes are dug along the drip line of the tree canopy.

Correct pruning methods for peach trees

Peach tree pruning is divided into summer pruning and winter pruning. Generally, the principle should be to give priority to summer pruning and supplement it with winter pruning.

1. Summer pruning

① Bud rubbing and sprout removal: Rub off water sprout buds inside the canopy, competitive buds below the pruning cut, twin buds, and overly dense buds; this is called bud rubbing. When buds grow to 5 cm, breaking off the tender shoots is called sprout removal. Generally, for twin branches, “remove one and keep one.” Through bud rubbing and sprout removal, useless new shoots can be reduced, light conditions improved, nutrients saved, the retained new shoots promoted to grow robustly, and the amount of winter pruning reduced. This is especially important for young trees and vigorous trees, but this work is often easily overlooked.

② Pinching: Pinching is removing a small section of tender shoot together with the tender bud at the top of a growing branch. It can stop the branch tip from elongating further, direct nutrients toward making the branches substantial, and promote flower bud differentiation. Pinching peach trees is an indispensable technical measure during the growing period. The vast majority of branches need pinching: pinching at 50CM is appropriate.

③ Twisting shoots: This is twisting upright water sprouts and other vigorously growing branches 180 degrees, turning upward growth into downward growth, but not twisting them off. The main purpose is to weaken growth vigor, promote the conversion of water sprouts into fruiting branches, and also achieve the effect of improving light conditions. This work is a remedial measure for incomplete bud rubbing work, and should especially be adopted for vigorous trees.

④ Propping, pulling, and hanging branches: This is mainly to open the angle, moderate tree vigor, promote early fruiting, and prevent the lower part of the main trunk from becoming bare and branchless. Propping, pulling, and hanging branches are generally carried out in May.

2. Winter pruning

① Pruning young trees: Mainly long pruning, making full use of summer pruning techniques to take shape as quickly as possible. Long branches retained for fruiting are generally not cut short, and more fruiting branches are retained to moderate tree vigor and increase the fruit set rate. The extension branches of scaffold branches are cut short leaving 50-70CM. For especially vigorous trees, attention should be paid to letting them bear more fruit. For example, reverse branches, upright branches, and drooping branches should all be allowed to bear fruit, so as to moderate tree vigor and increase yield per plant. Experienced fruit farmers often say, “Pruning to suppress the tree, the tree is not afraid; using fruit to suppress the tree, the tree obeys.”

② Pruning during the full fruiting period: At this time, the main branches gradually open up, tree vigor gradually moderates, the canopy is relatively stable, branch growth decreases, water sprouts decrease, fruiting branches increase, the proportion of short fruiting branches rises, the contradiction between growth and fruiting intensifies, and inner and lower branches are prone to die. At this time, the pruning amount is heavier than in the young tree period. Scaffold branches should be retracted and renewed, using a combination of thinning and retraction, removing weak ones and keeping strong ones. If the inner canopy is already empty, attention should be paid to cultivating regenerated branches from the second side branch to fill the space and increase fruiting positions. Once peach trees enter the full fruiting period, attention must be paid to cultivating renewal branches from the base. For moderate trees, diseased and weak branches should be thinned. Generally, the unsubstantial apical portions of long and medium fruiting branches are cut short. Short fruiting branches and bouquet-like short fruiting branches are thinned. Vigorous branches should be left long and pruned long; robust fruiting branches about 1 chi long should not be cut short at all.

③ Pruning during the aging period: At this time, the tree body is almost entirely short fruiting branches. At this stage, scaffold branches should be heavily retracted and pruned back to 2-3-year-old positions. Attention should be paid to cultivating water sprouts from large wounds to re-form the canopy, achieving the goal of renewing the canopy.

Pest and disease control of peach trees

1. Bird feather moth. Also known as red silk worm or hanging silk worm, it damages flowers and small fruit. It reproduces rapidly in June—July, and in severe cases can cause all flower buds and small fruit to drop. For control, 90% trichlorfon at 800 times solution, derris extract, or corresponding concentrations can be used, spraying before flowering, once every few days, 3—5 times per flowering cycle, stopping only when young fruit turn at the stalk and droop.

2. Black-spotted brown leaf roller. Commonly known as the fruit-boring worm, its larvae bore into the fruit core and feed on the flesh, causing fruit drop or making the fruit lose edible value. Control methods include paying attention to removing diseased fruit, picking off and deeply burying damaged fruit; using black light traps to kill adults; and spraying with 90% trichlorfon.

3. Anthracnose. This disease mostly occurs in orchards during the fruit ripening period. During storage, disease is mostly induced by wounds. It is a fungal disease. Affected fruit surfaces have dark brown round spots, and the internal tissue of the flesh rots, with an alcoholic smell. The pathogen overwinters in rotten fruit, spreads through wind and rain, and invades through fruit wounds. Control methods mainly involve doing a good job of orchard sanitation, removing and deeply burying diseased fruit and fallen fruit; minimizing mechanical injury to fruit during harvesting and transport; and spraying double-strength 150 times Bordeaux mixture in diseased orchards, once every 10—15 days, for 3—4 consecutive times.

4. Red spot disease. It mainly damages leaves and is a fungal disease. Affected leaves initially have very fine small yellow spots, which later expand into lesions. The center of the lesion is dark reddish brown, and the edge is bright red. It causes a large amount of leaf drop and seriously affects fruit yield and quality. The control method is the same as for anthracnose.

After reading the above peach tree planting methods, do you already have some understanding? Peach skin is thin and attached to the flesh, and some people do not like to peel it when eating. Therefore, when applying pesticides, it is not advisable to use highly toxic drugs or drugs with an excessively long residual effect period. By reasonably adopting scientific methods, I believe the peach trees everyone grows will be healthy and flourishing.