Ok, I have one peach. Each year it puts on peaches but they stay small and hard. Been trying to prune it correctly and spray it. Would live to have some homegrown peaches. Any tips?

If it puts on too many pulling some off will help get the remaining bigger. Sound like you got something going on with soil. Too much fertilizer will cause a fruit tree to produce less fruits. It's tricky to get right, but you have to figure it out to make it produce. What's your soil like?

The weirdest thing I ever heard was from radio personality Jerry Baker that gave gardening advice. He said if you had fruit trees that would not produce to take a newspaper and beat the base of the tree until the newspaper is gone. He said it would stress the tree and it would produce.

I believe that Jwalker and his wife have an orchard - I would think he could give some insight.

My advice would be pull up the peach tree and buy your peaches from me, its just not worth trying to take care of it. My daddy used to tell everyone with one peach tree that. But if youre bound and determined to grow a peach, here you go, starting today. Prune your tree, do notjust let it grow wild. In 3 weeks spray with dormant spray and copper. Middle of march put 3lbs of fertilizer around it, 3-4 feet away from the tree, under the drip line. When they bloom, spray bloom spray, 2 applications. Middle of april, fertilize again. As soon as your blooms shuck off and you have peasize peaches start spraying with captan and pesticide every two weeks(you can get a fruit tree spray at Lowes tgat will have both in it). When your peaches get quarter size, thin them down to 6-8inches apart, no thicker. When peaches are gone bore spray. When leaves fall off dormant spray again, you do that twice a year. This is what i do, more or less. Do not skip the fertilizing, spraying when peaches are there or thinning. If you have any questions, PM me.

Sounds like I would just buy from JW!

Whew. I had no idea it was that intense. How in the world did peaches ever produce before all this? Guess the “species” have been manipulated soo much they require that amount of care?

Im sure we messed them up somehow. But if you want big pretty peaches that arent wormy and last more than 24hrs sitting on your table, you just about have to do all that. Im not sure there was ever a time that peaches, as we knowthem, didnt require about this much attention. My daddy worked in my pawpaws orchard when he was a kid and they did it all then. That was 65yrs ago. But if you dont mind your peaches being small and wormy and rotting the day after you pick them, i reckon you can just plant a peach tree and let it fend for itself. But likely your peaches will fall off before they ever get ripe. You gotta love it to be a peach farmer

This, they used to just stay small and hard. If you want fruit stand type peaches you gotta put in the work!

That's my parents philosophy. They have one peach, one apple and two pear trees. They've had an "orchard" my entire life. The term orchard is only appropriate here, because there are trees planted. To my knowledge, they've never raised and apple or peach to eat. They always fall off. Always have lots of pears, but I think you could produce pears in any climate, soil, or planet.

Yall have described my peach crop to a T

Dang after reading all that is required I am amazed anyone growing peaches can make any money.

Feast or famine, like most farming ventures lol

A little thread derail…but early colonial Americans weren’t very interested in actually eating their fruit, apples were produced for cider and peaches were produced mainly for brandy so I doubt cosmetic looks of their fruit was that important. I visited Monticello several years ago and picked up a book on Jeffersons farming methods, Jefferson actually used hogs in fall to root out plum curculios (insect that is basically a cotton weevil for peaches). Anyway there was a visiting Frenchman quoted in the book who said it was culinary step up when Americans actually started eating their fruit instead of drinking it!