It's been quite a journey. It began with an 'Avalon Pride' peach-leaf curl resistant peach tree, planted in 2006. The peach tree cost about £26.00I don't know anyone else who has grown a peach tree successfully AND organically outside in the North West of England. In the first year (2007), I spent a good while fretting about frost protection. The peach tree lost it's blooms and succumbed to peach leaf curl, even though it was supposed to be peach leaf curl resistant.
By the second year, I left the tree to it's own devices. The blooms stayed on. I planted garlic round the base (which is supposed to deter fungal diseases) and hoped for the best.
To my delight lots of fruitlets appeared. I made the mistake of thinning them. (We had about twenty originally and I took about a dozen off). Don't follow the advice you get from gardening books too slavishly!
We were left with FIVE fruits, and here is a picture of one of them. They're about half the size of the ones you see in the shops, so here's hoping that in a week or two, with some sun - they might even be ready to eat. Anyone else with a peach tree out there? Let me know via the comments box...
I know a peach tree, fairly informally you understand, and not one on our land, but in the garden of a friend in Bournemouth. He has it fan-trained along one of his border fences and as far as I know he just lets it get on with life and manages to harvest a reasonable crop, but then he is about 250 miles south of you, which must help.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment Heskie, I think it's really great when someone responds and yours are always enlightening. Yes, I understand that the wall helps a lot. The theory being that it absorbs heat during the day and gives it out again so that the peach thrives better and stands more of a chance of ripening. Also I believe some organic growers suggest building a little roof over the wall to guard against rain splash and fungal diseases. I've never done this and we don't have a wall, but as is often the way with nature, I've found leaving something to it's own devices sometimes sorts things out. The things I seem to fret over in the garden don't do well and the moment I let it go and get on with something else, they're off growing well! Live and learn eh?
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