Peach Tree / Bush maintenance

[Mark the Bodger]

Hello,

I have recently been tasked with looking after my mother in laws garden after my father in law passed away.

He had around 15 fruit trees in his garden of which the family would like me to care for, trouble is I don't know what most of the trees are and what to do with them.

Just for starters tho, he had a peach tree / bush in the greenhouse which is about 2 foot tall and a foot or so wide.

1, Do I need to cover this up with fleece over the winter?
2, Do I need to do any pruning?
3, Do I need to do anything else with it?

All jor any answers will be greatly recieved.

Many thanks.

[orangepippin]

Is it in a pot or in the ground? It sounds very small, do you think it is very new, or has it been top-worked in some way?

There should be no need to prune it.

[Mark the Bodger]

It is in a pot and he got it the start of this year and managed to produce 2 peaches. Don't think it has had any work done to it at all, I just don't want it to die off in the winter.

[orangepippin]

It is unlikely to die-off in the winter, peach trees are quite hardy. However I would expect a new peach tree to be at least 4ft-5ft high, so perhaps something is not right somewhere ... or perhaps he has cut it back to begin training it as a fan?

[Dusty Rhodes]

The hardiness would depend on what variety it is. Look for a tag and see if your MIL can help id the variety. Be wary about covering it up...mice,voles,etc. like to make homes under cover and will sometimes chew the lower trunk bark.

[Mark the Bodger]

Thank you for your advice and sorry about the late reply.

I can't find a tag unfortunately but I have taken a photograph for you to take a look at.

Hope this will help in what to do wih the plant now.

Thanks in advance.

Mark

[orangepippin]

Even allowing for the time of year this looks in very poor condition. Unless it is some kind of genetic dwarf it should be much much bigger than this. It's difficult to tell but the leaves look dried out rather than merely fallen because it is autumn. There is no sign of any growth over the season. You might get somewhere by re-potting it but I fear it has probably had its day.

[starloc]

I had one of these once it didnt last long about a year or so and i just dumped it to one side as i couldnt be bothered with a peach tree that grew one or two peaches, they are very miniature peach trees, mine was about 2 foot tall , looked more like a citrus callamondin tree loads of tiny branches , they have loads and loads of buds very closely packed on the branches , it looked like it had been treated with a growth hormone to stunt growth and cause bud growth

They also do a slightly bigger one, about 3 1/2 foot tall, again with tiny buds all over, very close together ,

They do the slightly bigger one as you need to buy the size you want as they dont seem to grow at all.

Mine cost about £30 ,but the £5 one that is 5 foot high from Aldi gives more fruit, grows more and looks like a tree

There quite safe outdoors all year long, but if you keep it indoors October to April you will virtually remove any chance of leaf curl

Just dont forget to water it, they dont recover.....the roots dont seem very tollerant to underwatering