Latest Prices for Peach Tree Saplings and a Detailed Guide to Planting Methods

The peach tree is a deciduous small tree in the genus Prunus of the rose family. It loves light and warmth, tolerates cold slightly, and prefers fertile, well-drained soil. Alkaline soil and heavy clay soil are both unsuitable. It does not tolerate waterlogging, and its root system is relatively shallow but has many fibrous roots and is well developed. Its lifespan is relatively short. It takes about 2 years from planting to fruiting, and enters full fruiting period at 5 to 6 years. Now let us take a look at the prices of peach tree saplings and the planting methods!

How much does a peach tree sapling cost?

The price of a peach tree sapling is about 2 to 4 yuan each, but prices vary greatly depending on variety, specification, place of origin, and so on. The peach tree has wide adaptability and can be planted all over the country. Cultivation and management are easy, and it has strong adaptability to soil and climate. Its main varieties include nectarine, flat peach, Shouxing peach, and ornamental peach. Both nectarine and flat peach are cultivated as fruit trees, while Shouxing peach and ornamental peach are mainly for ornamental use. The more important varieties include Yingshuanghong peach, Jinqiu Hongmi peach, Qiutong peach, Huangjin peach, Hongye Bitao, and Ziyeli, among others.

How to select peach tree saplings

1. Root system: A high-quality peach tree sapling should have a complete, dense, and evenly distributed root system. Peach tree saplings whose roots have suffered severe mechanical damage, or that have few or no lateral roots, are inferior saplings.

2. Plant shape: A high-quality peach tree sapling has an upright, unbent plant shape, reasonably distributed branches, 4 to 5 good branches within the shaping zone, good stem elasticity, no damage, plump terminal buds, and a thick, sturdy stem; otherwise it is an inferior sapling.

3. Axillary buds: A high-quality peach tree sapling should have more than 6 to 8 plump, well-filled axillary buds above the trunk-setting position and within the shaping zone.

4. Specifications: A high-quality peach tree sapling should reach a plant height of 1 m. Measured 8 to 10 cm above the graft union, the stem diameter should be 0.7 to 1 cm.

5. Graft union: For a grafted peach tree sapling, the joining part between the rootstock and the scion should be completely healed. For fruit tree saplings grafted by cleft grafting, the degree of healing should reach more than half. For fruit tree saplings grafted by bud grafting, if the degree of healing is poor, they should not be selected even if all other conditions are qualified.

6. Pests and diseases: Peach tree saplings with chlorotic or deformed leaves, such as shrunken or thickened leaves, as well as those suffering from leaf spot, canker, rust spots, hairy root disease, and various quarantine pests and diseases, should not be selected.

7. Bark color: Peach tree saplings with fresh bark color should be selected, preferably seedlings freshly dug from the nursery. Shriveled bark on the sapling indicates dehydration, and such peach tree saplings are difficult to keep alive after planting.

8. Variety: Peach saplings are grafted saplings, so peach saplings should be purchased from the main production area of the variety as much as possible, because only when there are large areas of mature fruiting trees can high-quality scions of the variety be guaranteed for use, thus ensuring the purity of the peach saplings.

Planting methods for peach tree saplings

1. Planting method: The row spacing for planting peach trees is 4×5 m or 3×4 m, with 35 to 55 plants per mu. Planting can be done from after leaf fall to before bud break. Continuous cropping is not allowed; otherwise, young trees will grow noticeably weaker, leaves will become chlorotic, new roots will turn brown and branch excessively, and gum will exude from the branches and trunk.

2. Reasonable fertilization: The peach tree's requirement ratio for nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium is about 1:0.5:1. For young trees, care should be taken to control the application of nitrogen fertilizer, otherwise excessive vegetative growth is easily caused. After entering the full fruiting period, increase nitrogen fertilizer application to strengthen tree vigor.

① Base fertilizer: It is better to apply it in autumn together with deep plowing. Applying base fertilizer early allows damaged roots to heal relatively quickly and can increase the accumulation of nutrients in the tree before winter. When applying in spring, it should be applied as early as possible, immediately after the soil thaws.

② Topdressing: Pre-flowering fertilizer is applied after the soil thaws in spring, mainly urea. Post-flowering fertilizer is mainly phosphorus and potassium fertilizer. Fruit-promoting fertilizer is mainly diammonium fertilizer. Post-harvest fertilizer replenishes tree consumption, mainly diammonium fertilizer, with a small amount of urea.

3. Tree pruning: The peach tree is a light-loving fruit tree with weak apical dominance, strong growth vigor, and a relatively short lifespan. Its budding ability and branching ability are both very strong, and it easily produces secondary and tertiary shoots. If pruning is improper, fruiting will be poor. Therefore, shaping or pruning mostly uses the open-center tree form without a central leader.

① Young tree stage: When pruning young peach trees, full use should be made of their characteristics, such as vigorous growth, strong budding and branching ability, the ability of early-maturing buds on vigorous branches to form multiple secondary shoots, and early flower bud formation. On the one hand, expand the canopy; on the other hand, cultivate strong scaffold branches.

② Full fruiting period: Pruning during the full fruiting period of peach trees is done by heavy heading back at the middle and lower parts of the tree body or fruiting branch groups, leaving 3 to 5 nodes or 1 to 2 nodes depending on branch vigor, to promote new shoots and form fruiting branches for the next year, using the three-branch renewal pruning method.

③ Growing season: During the growing season of peach trees, the quality and nature of branches should be judged according to growth vigor, thickness, position, and so on. Competing branches, thin and weak branches, densely growing branches, and drooping branches should be thinned out. Water sprouts and excessively dense branches sprouting inside the canopy should be thinned out.

Pest and disease control for peach tree saplings

1. Peach leaf curl

[Damage characteristics] Peach leaf curl mainly damages leaves, young branches, and young fruit.

[Control methods] ① In spring, when peach buds are swollen but have not yet burst, spray 5 degrees Baume lime sulfur mixture or 1:1:100 Bordeaux mixture. ② After diseased leaves are found, promptly pick and burn them before the ascus layer forms.

2. Peach scab

[Damage characteristics] Peach scab mainly damages fruit and can also damage twigs and leaves. When fruit is first affected, dark green round small spots appear on the fruit surface, then gradually expand.

[Control methods] ① Before bud break, spray 5 degrees Baume lime sulfur mixture to eradicate or reduce overwintering inoculum on twigs. From half a month after petal fall to June, spray 0.2 to 0.4 degrees Baume lime sulfur mixture every half month. ② In winter, combine with pruning to remove diseased branches, or eliminate and reduce overwintering sources of inoculum.

3. Peach anthracnose

[Damage characteristics] Young fruit affected by the disease turns dark brown, with development halted and shrunken and hardened. When slightly larger fruit is affected, dark green water-soaked spots first appear on the fruit surface, then expand and become sunken and dark brown.

[Control methods] ① In winter, combine with pruning to remove diseased branches and diseased fruit and reduce sources of inoculum. ② Before germination, spray 5° Baume lime sulfur mixture. Starting from when the fruit is the size of a bean, spray 600-fold organic sulfur preparation, or 1000-fold 70% thiophanate-methyl wettable powder.

4. Peach tree rot

[Damage characteristics] Peach tree rot mainly damages the main trunk and large branches, causing tree death. In severe cases, gum flows all over the body, the bark tissue rots, is moist and smells like distillers' grains, then later shrinks and is densely covered with small black dots.

[Control methods] ① Cultivate tree vigor and strengthen fertilizer and water management. ② Promptly scrape off diseased lesions down to the xylem, then apply 40% asomate or 50% tecloftalam, either is acceptable. ③ Promptly burn diseased and dead branches sawed off each year; they must not be piled near the orchard.

5. Peach gummosis

[Damage characteristics] Peach gummosis is an important disease of branches and trunks. In spring and summer, on current-year new shoots, centered on lenticels, variously sized raised lesions occur and exude colorless, translucent soft gum. In severe cases, the bark cracks, branches and trunk die, and the tree body weakens.

[Control methods] ① Strengthen soil improvement, increase application of organic fertilizer, and protect branches and trunk well. ② First scrape off the gumming parts on the tree body, then apply 5 degrees Baume lime sulfur mixture or quicklime powder. After 1 to 2 days, brush with 20 to 30-fold 70% thiophanate-methyl or 50% carbendazim solution.