peach
When to prune peach trees?
- Botanical name
- Prunus persica
- Family
- Rosaceae
Peach trees are pruned from July to September. They are planted from October to March. They are harvested from July to September.
Peach trees are woody perennials. The edible part is the fruit.
Peach trees through the year
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this week
Pruning
Planting
Harvest
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- pruning
- planting
- harvest
In short
Pruning
from July to September
weeks 30 to 37
Planting
from October to March
week 44 to week 13 of the next year
Pruning cut
in summer
Spacing between plants
4 m
First crop
after 3 to 4 years
Harvest
from July to September
weeks 30 to 37
Growing conditions
🪨
Soil
loamy
☀️
Sun
full sun
💧
Water
little water
❄️
Frost
overwinters outdoors
📏
Height
4.6 to 7.6 m
🐝
Pollination
no pollinating variety needed
⚠️
Toxicity
toxic to cats and dogs, toxic parts: stems, leaves and seeds
Pests and diseases
Listed here is every problem for which the sources name this plant as a host. The problems are not listed in order of how common they are.
Aphids
pest- Signs
- Colonies of small aphids sit on the shoot tips and the underside of the leaves. The leaf curls and puckers, and sticky honeydew is left on everything below. The viruses they carry are more dangerous than the feeding itself.
- Prevention
- Go easy on nitrogen, because soft sappy growth is what aphids are looking for. Encourage the predators (ladybirds, lacewings, parasitic wasps). Use a reflective mulch, which puts them off settling, and a strong jet of water to knock the colony off the tips.
Bacterial canker of stone fruit
disease- Signs
- On the trunk and branches there are sunken, dead patches of bark, oozing sticky gum in spring. The leaves carry small holes, as if the leaf had been shot through. The branch above a canker dies. Many a tree shows only leaf and shoot symptoms and never gets a canker on the trunk.
- Prevention
- The bacterium enters through wounds and through the leaf scars at leaf fall, so stone fruit is pruned in summer, when the tissue resists best, and never in winter. The same timing also protects against silver leaf.
- What to do
- The source states that for the home garden there is no product against this disease. What is left is cutting: take the cankered parts back to healthy wood, disinfect the tools as you go and remove the prunings from the garden.
Brown rot (monilia)
disease- Signs
- A brown rot spreading across the fruit, with light brown cushions of spores on it, often in concentric rings. The fruit drops or stays on the branch as a dried mummy.
- Prevention
- The fungus overwinters in mummified fruit and in cankered wounds in the bark, so collect and remove every rotten and mummified fruit and cut out affected twigs. The infection enters through a wound, so a net against birds takes away the main door. In a cluster it passes from one fruit to the fruit it touches.
- What to do
- For the home garden there are no fungicides against brown rot. What is left is picking off and removing the mummies as they appear and choosing less susceptible varieties.
Peach leaf curl
disease- Signs
- In spring the young leaves thicken, pucker and redden, a whitish fungal bloom appears on them and then they drop. The tree pushes out new leaves, but that drains it and the crop is smaller.
- Prevention
- The infection happens in rain on a bud that has barely opened, so keeping the shoots dry in spring is the key. For a tree against a wall or a fence, build a shelter of sheeting over the top and the front, down to a good hand's width above the ground, and leave the sides open for the pollinators. Put it up after leaf fall in autumn and take it off in the middle of May. The same shelter protects the blossom from frost at the same time.
- What to do
- The source states that for the home garden there are no fungicides against leaf curl. What is left is a dry bud in spring, infected leaves picked up as they fall and good care so that the tree recovers.
Spotted wing drosophila
pest- Signs
- A ripening, still firm fruit gets tiny puncture holes and collapses within days. In the flesh there is a white larva. Unlike the ordinary fruit flies this one attacks undamaged fruit that is not yet overripe, so it is not a sign that the fruit has already spoiled but the reason it spoils.
- Prevention
- Pick as the fruit ripens and leave no overripe, damaged or fallen fruit on the plant or under it. Pheromone traps hung on the shady side of the bush or the tree do not put the population down, but they tell you whether the fly is already about and when it is time to protect. In a garden beside a wood or scrub hang them at the boundary first, because the fly overwinters in the wild.
- What to do
- Once the fruit is set, protect it with a very fine net, the mesh under one millimetre, because an ordinary net against birds does not hold the fly back. On top of that, strict hygiene: remove and dispose of every overripe and fallen fruit.
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Related plants
The plants below are in the same botanical family (Rosaceae).
Sources about the plant: ASPCA Toxic and Non-Toxic Plants, Clemson Cooperative Extension, GBIF Backbone Taxonomy, Iowa State University Extension, NC State Extension Plant Toolbox, Penn State Extension, Royal Horticultural Society, Virginia Cooperative Extension, Wikidata. Checked between 14 and 28 August 2026. The problem descriptions also draw on: EPPO Global Database, University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension, Utah State University Extension.