Wild Peaches - Why were these good?

13 years ago

My father brought me peaches (mid September) he'd picked up from a tree growing in a fencerow. The owner didn't know it was there so he hadn't sprayed it and said my father was welcome to pick them up. They were the size of apricots, freestone, white peaches, almost yellow-green on the outside. They tasted ok but definitely not the best peaches I've ever had. I just thought it was odd that there was no insect damage and it made me wonder if there are heirloom peaches that can be grown without spraying at all. Why were there no worms in them? They were small but I think if they had been thinned out, they would be a little larger, right?. There were LOTS of them.

I assume the tree might have been a volunteer from thrown out scraps but have no way of knowing.

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Comments (4)

christie_sw_mo
Original Author
13 years ago
I've also been reading in the Organic Forum. Just wondering if anyone is able to grow peaches without spraying.
fusion_power
13 years ago
The exhaust of cars passing by on a road deters many pests that attack peaches. What it doesn't usually stop is brown rot which is a fungal disease. The very best smelling peaches I ever met were on a tree growing on the side of the road. They smelled so good that I dug up the tree and planted it in my orchard.

DarJones
Bob (Seattle, Zone 8a)
13 years ago
If it is a volunteer from a seed, it may just be that it's the nature of the plant to produce small peaches. We have a couple of volunteers in our garden and both produce very small but very tasty peaches.

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Freak in Istanbul
Scott F Smith
13 years ago
Volunteer peaches often seem to be these small white/green peaches, I don't know why. I have grown several of them in my orchard and the three different sources of seed I grew out were not bug-resistant at all. I have seen wild trees free of bugs and ascribe it to isolation from other trees the bugs like, not the variety itself.

I grow peaches organically but its a great deal of work, not recommended really. Surround early followed by spinosad later in the spring and summer and lots of regular tip pruning to control the bugs, plus varieties resistant to brown rot and Serenade and Saf-T-Side oil to also help on that front. Don't be lulled by how easy the first few years are, it takes awhile for the bugs and diseases to find your new patch of trees. And dig in.

Scott
Luciano Cortes
5 years ago
I grow most of my peaches from seed and do not spray them. They produce more than enough. The ones that get leaf curl, after some time the leaves fall off and they look healthy again. I don't know why people make a big deal out of leaf curl.