Peaches

[Victor Martinez]

If they're in good condition, I could help you get rid of them. :)

Victor, mostly vegetarian but definitely not vegan.

[cat daddy]

Are you giving this advice as specific to peach trees in Central Texas, or as a general rule of tree pruning? I would think the commercial grower would not do anything to jeopardize his current and future crop or orchard.

[jangchub]

I know, but not all the new growth will be in the form of water spouts and it will be the new shoots which will produce the fruit next year. I have nothing to lose by trying this rehab project. The tree is producing beautiful baseball sized fruits with rot. I may have to wait two seasons to really reap the benefits of doing this hard prune, but I truly believe it's the only thing I can do.

In the meanwhile, when the fruit trees go on sale in February I'll buy some and plant them in other spots.

[jangchub]

Mostly vegetarian? Vic, c'mon. Pregnant or not? :) At least eat a big animal which feeds many and try to avoid shrimp because many of those are killed. None of it is good for ME, but His Holiness says to at least eat a large animal which feeds many. He has to eat meat from time to time for health reasons and he eats large animals when he does.

You will be the first to know when I see the furniture. I'm already tired of it, but my husband will kill me! I won't even say how much this stuff cost us.

[Victor Martinez]

What I mean by mostly vegetarian is that I don't eat animal flesh regularly. Once a week or so, it depends. I'm not dogmatic about it either. I don't do dogma.

When I do purchase animal flesh, I choose, if available, those that are raised and killed humanely and as organic as possible. I do love shrimp though. :)

I don't see why anybody would *have* to eat meat for health reasons. The only essential nutrients meat provide are certain aminoacids, which are available from non-meat sources.

:) I'd love to have leather furniture, but with all our cats it would be impossible to keep it looking good for long. They are very good at scratching only on their furniture, but they do have claws and the do use them for traction when racing like wildebeasts in the Serengeti.

Cheers.

Victor, off to yoga

[sherwindu]

My time frames may be off slightly if the original poster lives in Texas, but the principal is still the same. Light pruning is ok in the warmer months, but heavy pruning will just encourage the tree to put out more growth. As I mentioned, this new growth will not be of a desirable nature. Heavy pruning should be done when a fruit tree is either entering or already is in a dormant state.

Sherwin D.

[sherwindu]

Why not wait until the tree goes dormant? You may have to trim off most of the additional growth the tree puts out because it is not growing in a favorable direction, that is straight up. Branches should go off at an angle for best fruit production.

Try and buy a semi-dwarf peach tree, or even a full dwarf for other fruits like apples. Then you won't have to hack the hell out of them later.

Sherwin

[jangchub]

My reasoning is that I am either going to remove the tree completely, or I'm going to prune it hard. The tree will send out new shoots, of course there will be water spouts, there already are. The foliage on the tree is prolific, as is the fruit production, but only because we had a cool winter.

I'm going to give it an intermediate prune this week and this way the tree will give me new shoots for fruit in spring and in Feb (when we prune our fruit in Texas) I'll do a heavier prune. I do know I will have to use some type of fungicide, but it won't be anything toxic to insects or animals. I have some research to do.

Thanks for your patience with my notions. victoria

[dr-solo]

[sherwindu]

I would qualify that statement to say small amounts of pruning are ok, but heavy

pruning will stimulate the tree to put out lots of new growth, usually in the form of water sprouts.

Sherwin