Grow your own peaches

branches to about ¾ of their original length, making diagonal cuts on the branches.You’re reinforcing the branches so they can hold more fruit later.

Prune the tree the following March or April depending on whether the previous winter started late or early. Prune too early and the tree is vulnerable to a cold snap. Prune too late and the fruit will be smaller.

Now the tree will have a lot of smaller branches shooting off from the larger base branches. Prune to leave 3-5 scaffold branches at the base. The branches don’t have to be at the exact same height but try to make sure they form an X when viewed from above.

Trim back the smaller branches on the scaffold branches. Each scaffold branch should have 20-25 smaller branches.

When the tree blooms in the spring, pinch off all of the flowers the first year. The branches are still too weak to support any peaches.

The second year of pruning is different: You are pruning to create the main fruit-bearing branches and to give the tree a wider shape. Leave 200- 300 blooms. Once the blooms fall, you will get small peaches; leave 100- 150 peaches evenly distrusted across the branches.

Fertilization also changes. Add ¾ of a pound of fertilizer for each year until the tree is 5 years old. Fertilize in early spring before blooms and early summer before peach production.

In the third year, the tree becomes an adult and bears full-size fruit. Prune only to maintain its shape. Watering is more important. Overwatering will dilute the peaches’ flavor and underwatering will result in undersized fruit. Water only if the land is extremely dry and peaches are visible.