Peach tree pruning and fruiting advice, please.

[marchogaeth]

I used some T&M vouchers to buy myself a dwarf, standard peach tree.

What arrived is this:-


The stem is much, much shorter than I was expecting and also you can, hopefully, see that it is pretty flat. My first thought was that I'd been sent and espalier trained one.

My second the was about T&M and unprintable (I've got two fig trees, one is a replacement for the first one and neither of them are what I ordered and the replacement one was three months later than it should have been as they forgot me!)

My third one was I'll ask the Vine.

So first question:- Should I grow it as an espalier (rather not) or should I try and prune it into more of a ball?

Second question: I assume I need to take out the three "little branches" you can see in the above photo and then prune a few of the others to buds that will grow into the space I want filling.

Finally, it is covered in flowers (it is in the tunnel which is due to be its home). I am fleecing it up at night as we are (finally) down to 0C at night but should I let any of these set fruit and if so how many, please? Finally (part 2) what if any feeding should it have?

Thanks in advance people.

PS The vouchers were because they messed up last year's plant order - that has just started arriving!

[starloc]

I wouldnt do anything to it, its supposed to be very miniature and probably will not get much bigger, I bought one like that and although it now has a few more branches its not much bigger after 4 years ,

the usual type peach trees like peragrine on st julian rootstock grow much faster than these miniature ones

If its in a polytunnel i wouldnt bother fleecing it, I now leave most of my peach trees outside and they are fine in the cold with no protection, I would pollinate it with a paintbrush unless there are lots of bees around , leave the fruit to form, it will probably thin itself out and drop lots of them, later in the year, thin them out if needed, or the fruit will be small

I feed my ones in pots with a sprinkle of sulphate of ammonia and a sprinkle of sulphate of potash round this time of year and a few times in the year with standard miracle grow, and every couple of years a sprinkle of lime to make sure the stones form correctly

[marchogaeth]

Thank you very much. My soil is very acid (pH6 and lower) so I will check the pH for peaches and adjust accordingly, probably this year. Fertilizer sounds like pee early on (presumably before flowers appear) and then comfrey if I want to be organic. I'll give it some seaweed for now as it is already flowering.

Presumably I should take out anything dead or rubbing? Two of the smallest twigs look dead but I won't rush. Looks like I will have to live with its odd shape!