Peach Thinning 101 (No Pain No Gain!)

It may seem counterproductive to remove fruit from a tree in order to grow better fruit, but a little pain now will lead to big (sweet!) rewards. Watch to learn the reasons I thin my peaches each spring, plus tips on exactly when and how to do it.
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LEARN MORE:
Thinning peaches blog post
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How to winter prune a peach tree
• Prune Your Own Peach T...
Other helpful peach-growing articles and recipes
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[@christinecotton-vz4yu]

Last year we didn't get around to thinning, and we had a gazillion *tiny* peaches that were such a pain to can! Heading out today to do the painful work of thinning.

[@TheFruitGrove]

Did you do it? So painful, but so necessary!

[@christinecotton-vz4yu]

@@TheFruitGrove yes, I did! It was so sad to see the little pile of baby peaches. But eating some of our little two-bite canned peach halves is a good reminder of why it needed to be done.

[@livingbytheway]

Perfect! Gonna be thinning out my apples, nectarines, and peaches today. Well put together.

[@TheFruitGrove]

Thanks so much! Hope your harvests are amazing!

[@benc1927]

Thank you for this wonderful insight from such a beautiful young woman. The information you provided answered a lot of things we was curious about with our peach trees. We had a hail storm the other day here in Austin Texas and we lost a bunch of young peaches (and plums). I had already thinned some before the storm so I think now we are all set, looknig forward to a big harvest!

[@TheFruitGrove]

Glad it was helpful! I hope you still get some fruits after the hailstorm.

[@jeremiahsworkshop492]

I started 13 trees from seed 4 years ago. Redhaven, contender, harmony....variety peaches that i saved the seeds. Wanted to see what kind of quality would come about from seed grown. Hands down last year the quality was the best tasting and juicyness of any known varieties weve had. I thinned heavily last year (year 3). The peaches were massive and the flavor was uncomparable. The amount these things produced was nuts! The one had, and im not exagerating...close to a thousand baby fruits. If i didnt thin im pretty sure the tree wpuld have snapped. So since these arent grafted varieties we named the one tree which was the best, 'Halfys Eye'. We named our stray cat we took in Halfy (missing part of an ear). Shes got herpes of the eye and it oozes and turns red occasionally. So we named the juiciest peach after that. Lol. Not the greatest name if you know the story. But their ours. Good video 👍

[@TheFruitGrove]

That's amazing! I haven't heard of anyone getting good-tasting peaches from seed before. Congratulations!

[@VonFej61]

I thin my peaches to aproxmetly 6 inches apart at the size of a nickel. It was painful at first 😂

[@TheFruitGrove]

Always painful! As much as I thinned this year, I may need to a bit more next year so they grow a little bigger.

[@margotbecker9446]

Thanks--very clear and helpful.

[@TheFruitGrove]

You're welcome! Thanks for watching

[@WeCareWithMona]

Iam late at thinning peaches i did today and i have bunch of small green peaches. What do i do with them? Texas zone 8a

[@jmaiatrader2925]

I should of watched this video many years ago! I've got a peach tree that i barely look at it! This yr with the heavy rain, i got tons of small peaches! I'm just now figuring out why they were so small and not as sweet.

[@inka87871]

this is the beginning of june peaches are not ripe yet,did you eat them green 🤣

[@jmaiatrader2925]

@@inka87871 I noticed some of them were sour a bit tougher to bite through so I have them finishing ripening in the house! I guess I got a bit to excited to see peaches on tree 😆

[@TheFruitGrove]

Glad it was helpful! My peaches were a little small this year too with all the rain, even after thinning.

[@TheFruitGrove]

And mine were ready to pick in mid-may this year! Weird spring.

[@GardeningandMyDailyLife]

Bạn có cây đào 👍🌱.

[@carolmalignaggi669]

Thanks for the information. It's very helpful. What is that growing and flowering on the fence? It's very pretty.

[@TheFruitGrove]

It’s Bignonia, also called Crossvine. I think the cultivar I’m growing is ‘tangerine beauty.’ It’s native to the southeast US and it flowers for at least a month in the spring! I love it too.

[@MANNY100123]

My little galaxy donut peach I planted earlier this year somehow produced several little peaches but the tree is barely 3 or so feet tall and the branches are so very skinny! xD

[@TheFruitGrove]

But it's so gratifying when you get the first peaches!

[@sandybetts997]

Thank you, I do need to do that asap! I also noticed the beautiful climbing plant on your fence, what is it called?

[@TheFruitGrove]

It’s called Crossvine, or Bignonia (I think mine is ‘Tangerine Beauty’). It’s native to the southeast US and it’s my favorite spring flowering plant!

[@dirkjanrulez23]

my peach tree did well first 2 years. but past few years had really wet springs so now they are very heavily sick with the scary leaf curl fungus. trying different stuff to control it. lets hope it works soon.

[@neurocognitive]

I had the same problem with anEva's Pride, which I then sprayed with a cooper solution, but started late this last winter, so it didn't work well. Directions say spay 3x over the winter, and I only got 1 spray in. I also recently planted a Florida Prince Peach which is doing really well, but I noticed a few leaves with peach leaf curl. I decided to completely remove the Eva's Pride and the Florida Prince is doing much better so far. I also sprayed this tree. Fingers crossed....

[@TheFruitGrove]

I use a copper fungicide in the dormant season too for leaf curl. Sometimes it’s tough to fit in more than one spray if you have a short winter!

[@TheFruitGrove]

Mine is a Loring peach, which is supposed to be leaf curl resistant. Good luck with yours!

[@danielnomnom2646]

I have the same issue with peach leaf curl. We have really wet spring weather in North Idaho. I could never spray a tree enough to combat the curl effectively. I put a tent up over my peaches one spring and that gave me the best results but was very impractical. I gave up this year and cut down my 2 remaining peach trees and planted four curl resistant varieties. Guess it will be a couple of seasons before I know how these resistant varieties are.

[@neurocognitive]

Thanks for the reply. Next winter I'm planning on starting my spraying earlier. Hopefully I can get 2-3 sprayings in. Interesting about your Loring Peach. I'll have to look it up. I have a fair number of fig trees which I have propagated from cuttings, and spray them for fig bud mites each year. It gives you an appreciation for what farmers have to contend with that raise crops for a living. Thanks again!!@@TheFruitGrove

[@user-qy2mp2mn7e]

Hi

[@HaanaTukdi]

Thank you for the information. It is really helpful. We are in Sugarland close to Houston and our peach tree is in its 4th year and still no fruit.🥲🥲😥😥. We did put 10-10-10 fertilizer earlier this year. Do you have any other suggestions to help us ? We did prune it a little aggressively last year.

[@TheFruitGrove]

If you pruned aggressively, it might still be recovering. Hard winter pruning leads to more spring/summer shoot growth, which might be why it's not fruiting this year. I have a video coming out this Thursday about summer pruning fruit trees. I've taken to giving my peach trees a light prune in summer, which reduces the amount of pruning I have to do over winter.