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It’s hard. It’s sad. But you really do need to learn how to thin peaches.
It pays to be ruthless when thinning a peach tree, according to Jerry Parsons, horticulture specialist with the Texas Agricultural Extension.
According to Dr. Parsons, 92 percent of peach blossoms should be removed from the tree to avoid damaged trees and fruit.
Yes, it hurts. I mean, sometimes my peach tree is so loaded with blossoms I know I’ll have an amazing harvest. Remove some of that? Almost all of it? Wait a minute.
Let’s take a closer look at that number
Personally, I think removing 92 percent (and how do you know when you’ve hit 92 percent?) of your future peach harvest is a bit excessive.
But, then again, I don’t hold a Ph.D. and I’m not a Horticulture Specialist with Texas Agricultural Extension Service in San Antonio.
However, other experts claim the magic number to remove is two-thirds of the future fruit.
Why do we need to thin peach trees?
Many first-time peach growers find out the hard way why it’s important to thin the fruit from their trees. First, peaches are heavy. As they grow, if there is enough of them on a branch (especially toward the tips), the branch will sag. Big time. All the way to the soil in many cases.
If they don’t sag, they may snap from the weight of the fruit.
If you don’t thin the fruit, the peaches you’ll end up with will be substantially smaller, harder and not as flavorful. When you remove fruit, you are allowing what’s left to grow to its full potential.
“One more cautionary note: excessive fruit set can also result in alternate bearing in which a tree will produce little or no fruit in the year following a large fruit crop,” according to William Johnson, horticulturist with Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service.
Supplies you’ll need when thinning your peach tree
- Pruning shears (optional)
- Rake
- Trash bags or other containers
When to start thinning your peach tree
Ok, so let’s get to this heart-wrenching, but necessary process. There are several opinions on when the time is right to thin your peach tree. Following are the two most common.
When to thin the young fruit
The pros at the University of Florida took the photo at the top of this section to give you a crystal clear idea of the size of a peach ready to be thinned.
Many peach tree growers suggest letting the fruit get to the size of a dime before removing it. Others say the peaches should be about one inch across.
I go with the size-of-a-dime suggestion. This is because peach trees ‘favor” some of their youngin’ over others. Look through the tree and you’ll see what I mean.
Some of the peaches are larger than others and some are super tiny, right? The larger ones are Mom’s favorites so leave them be. The runts we will politely ask to leave (or remove them by force, whatever comes first).
Twist them off, being careful not to strip the bark from the branch. You can also use pruning shears.
After eliminating the runts, look for fruit that is being eaten by pests or perhaps looks a bit sickly and remove those. Finally, take off those peaches growing together (known as “double peaches”) and those growing from, or very close to, the branch tips.
When finished thinning, the peaches should be spaced roughly 6 to 8 inches apart, with none of them next to another.
Thin the peach tree when it’s blooming
As an alternative to removing the young fruit, some growers remove the flowers instead.
This might be a good alternative for those who live in an area where the last frost date is pretty much set in stone. In other words, their last frost date is consistent from year-to-year, or close to it.
The advantage to this alternative, according to the experts at the University of Florida IFAS Extension is that “Thinning flowers rather than fruit allows the tree to conserve more nutrients and carbohydrates so that they can support the remaining fruit better.”
Just follow the directions for removing young fruit and you should be fine.
Don’t neglect the cleanup
Finally, rake the peaches or blossoms from the soil around the tree and compost them or dispose of them.
Tip: If you have pets, be especially careful when cleaning up after thinning. Many pets are attracted to the fruit as well as the pit inside.
“Peach pits contain amygdalin — a substance that can create cyanide when digested by enzymes in the gut,”
–Joshua Drobina, BSN, RN, CSPI with the National Capital Poison Center
