Peaches
When we bought the property, there were two peach trees growing in a rather shaded corner at the edge of the treeline, opening onto the area that we will be turning into an orchard. The former owner, when asked by two excited buyers how the peaches were, confessed that she had never had much luck with peaches.
In the first summer, we could see what she meant. The trees had small green peaches in July, and small dessicated brown ones in October. After some reading, we figured on a fungal attack. Pretty much all the experts in the area will tell you that it is not possible to grow peaches without spraying, thanks to the fungi that will attack the fruit and turn in brown and mushy long before it ripens.
Over the winter, we started piling wood chips in a wide circle around the base of one of the trees. We’d picked up some unusual varieties of garlic from the farmers market in November, and planted a couple cloves in a wide circle around the same tree. When spring came, we planted some mint and comfrey - mostly just as a place to toss some in and get in started on the land. Ditto a false indigo plant, which didn’t do all that well.
The second tree - we just never got around to doing much. We did manage a bit of garlic, but that was it. Just ran out of time. As the summer progressed and the mosquitoes got worse, we kind of abandoned that area. Just too much to do, and we hadn’t figured out what organic sprays to use to avoid fungal damage - probably copper, but we gave up on it this year, figuring we’d do some more research and get a schedule together for next year - or possible give up on peaches all together.
A few weeks ago, we finally wandered over there again. The tree we hadn’t done much with looked pretty much like last year. It had a couple of small brown peaches, pretty much dessicated.
The second one, with the mulch and mint? It grew so many peaches that some of the branches broke!
Even with the broken branches, we managed to get a nice little harvest of peaches. Next year we’ll give it a good pruning to prevent any more breakage and continue with the mulching. Who knows?
