Causes of Small Peach Fruit on Young Tree

Q. These are my sorry peaches harvested last Saturday. This is their third year, and they seem to develop to only this size. We fertilize them twice a year with vegetable spikes, and our in-ground system has Dr Bensons added 5 times per year. Any suggestions?

A. Age of the Tree

First of all, this is only a three-year-old tree! Give it a chance to grow up. The third year it is in the ground you should start expecting some fruit to be produced that you can eat. But not much. Most of the energy is going into making it bigger, not into production. 

Think of a young child. Would you want an eight-year-old daughter to have children?

Expect it to start into production this year to a very small degree and next year when it is really starting into production.

Thin the Fruit

This means remove fruit so that the remaining fruit gets larger. Think of it like this. If you are earning $20,000 a year, which is better for your family? Two children or 12 children? The answer is obvious.If you remove some of the fruit from the tree, the remaining fruit will get more of the water, nutrients and minerals sent from the leaves and the roots. This means the remaining fruit gets a larger share of what the tree can produce. Remove fruit so that there is the distance of a fist between the fruit. Do not grow them in clusters but space them along the branches in production. This may mean you could remove two thirds of all the fruit on a branch. Do this when the fruit is about the size of a thumbnail.

Peaches before thinning

Peaches after thinning

Removal of fruit depends on its purpose after harvest and the variety. Do you want large fruit so that you have bragging rights or smaller fruit. If it's for canning, sometimes large fruit is not the best idea but medium-sized is better. If it's going to fresh market for eating then larger peach size is usually better. The more fruit removed, the larger will be the remaining fruit.

Watering

To reach their maximum size, don't allow the soil to dry while fruit is developing its size. This means even amounts of soil moisture all the time it's producing fruit.. A layer of 4 to 6 inches of woodchips helps to retain soil moisture and produces larger fruit. 

4 to 6 inches of woodchip mulch helps conserve water and makes larger fruit. Don't surround fruit trees with rock.

Fertilizer

Fertilizer alone will not make larger fruit. But if fertilizer is lacking it will affect fruit size.Fertilize at least once during the year of production. The best time is just before flowering.

Fertilizer can be applied in many forms including compost, granular fertilizer and fertilizer stakes. Here fertilizer stakes are driven into the ground with a hammer near the drip emitters.

Pruning

Pruning peaches and nectarines is different from pruning most other tree fruit. Fruit is produced laterally or along the edges of last year's growth. You want about 18 – 24 inches of new growth produced each year. Half of all of this growth is removed during pruning. Leave too much last year's growth and sending becomes a nightmare. Remove too much of last year's growth and food production will be small but they remaining fruit large. This is something you have to play with until you get it right. It will vary with each of the different varieties.

Six-year-old Peach tree showing its open center form after pruning. Fruit will be produced on the reddish growth from last year. This growth should be distributed throughout the canopy and be about 18 – 24 inches long. The next step after flowering is fruit thinning when fruit is thumbnail sized.