A home-grown peach, sun-warm and juicy, is one of the garden's greatest pleasures. Yet hardly any fruit tree is pruned wrongly so often. Anyone who treats peach and nectarine like an apple soon harvests only a few meagre fruits at the outermost twig tips.
The reason lies in the growth: peach and nectarine bear on the one-year-old shoot. What grew last year bears this year, and never again at the same spot. Grasp this principle and the firm cutback turns from a source of fear into routine.
Why the firm cut is essential
Imagine every shoot bears only once, in the year after its growth. If you do not prune, the fruiting wood ages and pushes the new, productive shoots ever further outward. Inside the tree goes bare, outside the fruit hangs out of reach.
The firm cutback forces the tree to form fresh, long shoots close to the framework every year, exactly the ones that bear the following year. So you prune more off the peach than off any other fruit tree, and the tree rewards you with large, well-lit fruit.
The ideal fruiting shoot
Not every one-year-old shoot is equally good. The most reliable bearer is the medium-strong, pencil-thick shoot with mixed buds. The round, fat buds are flowers, the slim, pointed ones leaves. A good fruiting shoot has both.
The experts' trick is the spur cut: next to each fruiting shoot you leave, you cut back a second shoot to two buds. This replacement spur forms the fruiting shoot for the year after next, while the first one bears. So you do not migrate outward but stay put.
How to prune step by step
Prune at flowering
The best moment is at flowering, around weeks 11 to 16. Now the open buds show you which wood is alive, and you spot curled shoots of peach leaf curl at once.
Remove spent wood
Cut back or remove entirely all shoots that bore last year and have gone bare. They will not bear again and only cost energy.
Leave good fruiting shoots
Keep strong, pencil-thick one-year-old shoots with mixed buds. They stay long, for this year's fruit ripens here.
Set a replacement spur
Next to each fruiting shoot, cut back a further shoot to two or three buds. This spur supplies the fruiting wood for next year and keeps the crop close to the framework.
Thin out and thin the fruit
Take out thin, diseased and inward-growing shoots. And in summer thin the young fruit to about a hand's width apart, or they stay small.
It only bears on the young, long shoot. So prune boldly, leave good fruiting shoots long, and set a replacement spur beside them for next year.
The core rule for peach pruning
Frequently asked questions
Why do you have to prune peaches so hard?
Because peach and nectarine bear only on the one-year-old shoot. Without a firm cutback the fruiting wood ages, the tree goes bare inside and the fruit hangs only on the outside. The cut forces fresh, productive wood close to the framework.
When do I prune peach and nectarine?
Best at flowering, around weeks 11 to 16. The open buds then show you the living wood, and you cut out shoots affected by peach leaf curl at the same time.
What is a replacement spur on the peach?
A shoot you cut back to two or three buds next to a fruiting shoot. It grows out and forms the fruiting wood for next year while the long shoot beside it bears. So the crop stays close to the trunk.
Which buds carry the fruit?
The round, fat buds are flower buds, the slim, pointed ones leaf buds. A good fruiting shoot has both, so there is a leaf beside each fruit to feed it.
Do I have to thin the fruit?
Yes, or it stays small. In early summer thin the young fruit to about a hand's width apart. Fewer but large and aromatic fruits are worth more than many small ones.
