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vegasgardener

new potted dwarf Bonanza peach tree-looks good, need I do more?

VegasGardener
11 years ago

I have a newly potted Bonanza dwarf in it's pot for about a month and a half now. It looks great, leaves look abundant and great, no obvious signs of stress. It bloomed a full tree of flowers, which have now dried up and gave way to many little peach fruits, I believe. I have a few questions about the tree.

1. Need I do anything while the fruit are growing, such as fertilize? I have Miracle gro 24-8-16 that I used on my lemon tree that appeared to be showing signs of needing fertilizer. The plant looks great so I hesitate to do anything but water it as it's needed.

2.I can't tell how old this tree is. I assume a year old, since I got it from the nursery, but it's trunk is a good 1.5-2 inches around, but that is before the graft. not sure how that works. any way of telling how old it is? I am surprised it's flowering and fruiting the first year I have it.

3.if the peaches do continue to grow, do I need to get some netting soon to wrap around it to prevent the local wildlife from eating the peaches at some point? I do know the local birds eat our grapes if not netted.

The tree looks great. Today I followed thinning instructions i read, and thinned the peaches to 1 every 6 inches, and also removed the multi peach peaches.

I can take some pics later and post them up too.

Comments (12)

  • VegasGardener
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Some pics!

    fruit beginnings(yes those are close together lol...I missed those when thinning, but they made a good candidate for a photo lol) :
    {{gwi:87551}}

    tree :
    {{gwi:87552}}

  • VegasGardener
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Bumping these threads doesn't do anything huh? Any advice out there for this? thanks :)

  • blazeaglory
    11 years ago

    I think it looks good. I would think to fertilize now and let them grow? Dont over fertilize. I have heard that March and May are the times to fertilize but that is for in ground. Im sure a pro will chime in to correct me. That seems to be the time when we get the most posts...hehehe

    Any ways that looks really nice. How many chill hours does it need? I wouldnt mind growing one as well.

  • Kevin Reilly
    11 years ago

    Looks good. I see these dwarf Bonanza peaches for sale at OSH here in San Jose. Let us know how the fruit tastes....

  • VegasGardener
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Ok, I will just keep watching it. I generally look at my plants once a day or every other day at the least, so I should be able to see any issues early. I am also curious how it'll fare once we get our mid summer blazing vegas sun lol...the bonanza was chosen because of it's success in our Nevada extension success. I will definitely update this if my peaches mature enough to be eaten :) I'll only allow maybe 1 peach per stem to mature on this young plant, maybe less. I'd be more than happy to have just a few to eat this first year I have it.

    Once the peaches get a little bigger I'll put on a net. our local birds love the fruits!

  • blazeaglory
    11 years ago

    The first year I planted my Red Baron Peach tree it put out two flowers and grew ONE peach...lol I watched that thing for months. My little Boston terrier would sniff at it and nudge it wither her nose and I would have to tell her "Not yet!". Finally one day in summer it fell off and my Boston and I had the best tasting peach Ive eaten since I was 7 years old!

    So dont be afraid to thin your tree if it seems a little too full :) Let us know how it goes

  • bejay9_10
    11 years ago

    My Bonanza fruited well last year, which was planted in the ground. I encircled it with concrete reinforcing wire that topped it with about 6 inches to spare, covered with a piece of wooden lattice on top. This worked well to discourage birds, but most of all climbing raccoons.

    I tied computer CD's to my fruit trees last year, and the flashing in the sun, seemed to help - along with mylar balloons also tied to most trees - they dance with the breeze. It was quite successful, and will do so again this year. Am not sure if they will be helpful again, perhaps the birds and raccoons are wise by now, but have high hopes. Our harvest was great last year - of apricots, plums, almonds - for some reason, birds leave the boysenberries alone ??? - maybe the color has something to do with it - when red and unripe, they are very astringent, or perhaps when ripe - and purple, the birds can't see them as well.

    Bejay

  • VegasGardener
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    I'll probably tie some CDs to it regardless, it can only help, can't hurt right? lol..until I can get some netting for it. I have plenty of old CDs and CD "coasters" to use :)

  • timmers972
    11 years ago

    I bought 2 bonanza dwarf peach trees back in 2009. They are planted in the ground and have doubled in size since being planted. Currently they are about 4' - 5' tall. They are healthy, bloom like crazy, and every year for the last 3 years they've been covered with "would be peaches" HOWEVER the fruit NEVER develops into an edible peach. The fruit stays green and gets a bit bigger than a peach seed then JUST STOPS.
    Why? Is this normal?
    Granted, I probably shouldn't have bought peach trees at Lowes but I'd never seen a small variety and the tag on these said they wouldn't get larger than 6 feet (which was perfect for my yard). Why are they setting fruit but not producing mature fruit?

    Here's one of the trees (below). The other one is 8 feet to the right (not pictured).
    {{gwi:87553}}

    Here's how big the "fruit" is (below). It has been this size for a month with no sign of getting any bigger - just like last year, and the year before that (sigh).
    {{gwi:87554}}

  • fabaceae_native
    11 years ago

    I'll go out on a limb here (no pun intended), and suggest that the fruit may need to be thinned in order for the tree to bring them to edibility.

    I'm not sure where you are located either... Bonanza peaches are known to develop sweetness only in very hot climates.

    A note about thinning: most sources will say to thin to "one fruit per 8 inches", or something similar, but if you really want to get picky about it, apparently 35 leaves are needed to produce one good quality peach (good luck counting on a Bonanza!). Also, you're really supposed to do all this thinning stuff when the peaches are only the size of a large pea. It may not work for you now, if that's even what the problem is.

    Anyway, good luck.

  • econ0003
    11 years ago

    Timmers, my Bonanza peach tree is about the same age as yours. It is about 10 times smaller and has 10-20 edible edible peaches every year. Maybe your tree is getting too much water and fertilizer being too close to the grass. Maybe your tree is putting all of its energy into growing leaves and branches?

  • VegasGardener
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    well my Bonanza seems to be doing well still. After I thinned peaches, it seems to have approx 8-10 or so peaches that continue to grow. each peach is around half an inch wide, and look healthy. foliage looks good. I hope the peaches continue to grow bigger! If they grow a bit bigger, I'll take new photos.

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