With good care, you can enjoy productive peach trees with tasty fruit. Place them in a location with at least 6-8 hours of daily sun and moderate temperatures. A new tree needs about one inch of water (two gallons) per week; for mature trees, give them this amount every 10-11 days. Adding organic mulch will help with temperature and moisture management, but keep it separated from the trunk to discourage fungi. Also, remove the smallest peaches a month after blooming so the others can grow larger.

The most common pest is peach tree borers, and diseases include brown rot and peach leaf curl. Apply pesticides and fungicides regularly instead of waiting for problems to develop. Remove fallen leaves, branches and fruit as they make the area more susceptible to pest damage.

A peach tree will take three to four years to go from seed to fruit, but the seeding process requires relatively little work. During the fall, place a pit about three inches deep in the ground soil and let it sit for the winter while it undergoes stratification. The seed will germinate in the spring. You can simulate these conditions indoors by removing the kernel from the peach pit, adding it to a sealed plastic bag with moist potting soil and putting the bag in the refrigerator for 2-3 months. When the roots exceed half an inch, move the seedling to a container or the ground.

These trees like well-drained soil and plenty of space. Most peach trees should be planted in the ground, but smaller varieties like dwarf peach trees make good potting candidates, though you will need at least a 25-gallon container.

You should plant or repot peach trees in late winter and early spring when the trees are dormant. Peach trees need 600 hours in temperatures below 45 degrees before they bear fruit, so choose a place that is warm but not too warm. Space larger varieties about 20 feet apart and smaller varieties about five feet apart.

Apply a slow-release fertilizer in the spring for the healthiest peach trees. Use one pound of fertilizer per tree year up to 10 pounds. In most situations, a balanced fertilizer will be sufficient. Consider a high-nitrogen fertilizer on young trees to encourage overall growth and a high-phosphorus fertilizer on mature trees for better fruit production.

In the late fall, remove any remaining fruit from your tree, water it less and add mulch to reduce stress on the tree. While peach trees are cold-tolerant, you should fully cover the tree with a burlap or cloth sheet when the temperature falls below 27 degrees. Remove the cover when the temperature rises back above this level so the tree has airflow.

Pruning your peach trees once a year will boost production and give them proper shape. For the first three years, prune in the early summer, cutting away dead and diseased branches for better airflow while also removing center shoots. On older trees, do the pruning in mid-spring.

Peaches are ready to harvest when they have a bright color, are slightly soft and easily come off the tree when you twist them. They ripen in stages, so don’t try to pick them all at once. Peaches last 3-5 days in the fridge but can be frozen for up to 12 months.