Tropic Beauty Peach Tree, Newly Planted - Question

[laraklopp]

Hi!

We planted a Tropic Beauty Peach Tree (15 gallon) about 2 weeks ago. It is dormant (leaves lost), but has buds all over it. The main trunk branch is about 6 1/2 feet tall, there are smaller upward-reaching branches which take it to about 7 1/2 or 8 feet tall. The small reddish branches are all pretty short (because it was in a nursery, I suppose), but it has many of them.

My question is, will it be safe to let it set fruit this summer? It has two blossoms already (!!) ... I know our mangos need to wait, but they are much smaller for the most part. This seems like a much sturdier tree, and it'd be great to see if it produces peaches this spring/summer, but I don't want to stress it if that would cause the tree problems down the line.

Thank you again for any advice!

Lara

Here is a photo (the shield is to protect it from our salty sprinkler water.)

[achetadomestica]

Peaches are heavy feeders and have a short life 10-12 years.

That tree should have 25-50 peaches this year and not miss a beat.

The peaches will form on the brown/reddish new growth branches. Depending on
the weather start hitting it with fertilizer by February 1st. You should get a nice bloom
soon. I had a freind who really pumped his trees and the trunks were as big as my thighs
in 3 years. He was getting 200+ peaches per tree. The squirrels were really happy

[laraklopp]

Wow, thank you! That's a lot of information.

I'm new to this - when you say "depending on the weather" I assume I shouldn't give it too much fertilizer if it's still going to be cold, but once it's warm, I can feed it?

What is the best fertilizer? I've been using Avocado/Citrus Fertilizer for my newly-planted Avocado and Mango trees. Do you know what your friend used?

Lara

[Jagmanjoe]

I would be curious as to where you purchased it.  We purchased one like that from Home Depot last spring and it had buds all over it.  We transplanted it and while we did not get a lot of peaches, the ones we did get were incredible.  Unfortunately we had recently purchased the property and did not realize how wet our back yard gets.  Just poorly perking soil and the tree got real wet feet.  We have been hoping it would come back but no luck so far.  Still hoping but I would like to get another just in case and create more of a mound to plant it on in hopes that helps.

[laraklopp]

Jagmanjoe,

We bought it from Rockledge Gardens, a nursery in the Cocoa area. I want to check Home Depot and Lowes to see if they have different varieties, we still have a couple of tree-possible spaces left.

We have very sandy soil (we're about a mile from the beach), and it drains extremely quickly. The bigger problem I've found is that, due to where we are, our sprinkler water is very high in saline. I had it tested and it was like 2900 parts per (million?), which they said was about as high as they'd seen. It decimated my newly planted mangoes and avocados at first, but I moved the avocados to little spaces out back that don't get sprinkled, and put up those shower curtain liners to protect the rest of the trees that I couldn't move.

I'd love to get a few delicious peaches this year! I find it so exciting to get fruit off a tree that I planted. The only tree that has yet produced is a Barbados Cherry, which has given about 10 cherries this year, and a calamondin, which had fruit on it when I bought it, set a ton of fruit, and now is sad and leafless. That's part of why I worry about letting the trees set fruit too soon.

Good luck finding another peach tree and helping it stay dry!

Lara

[achetadomestica]

Peaches are not picky. I give my tree allot of worm manure and I also use
Diamond R  8-4-8 with Micros. A fifty pound bag is around $16. Peaches especially need
Zinc. I also hit my trees with foliar spray like Sounthern Ag citrus spray. In rainy season
I fertlize once a month smaller amounts or use a slow release. With our weather last year
my tree had 2 seperate flushes and I got about 25 peaches and then 25 more about a month later.
I have a Florida Glo that has white fleshed free stone peaches. They have melting flesh and the
best peach I have ever eaten. The only bad thing is the peaches are small.

On a different note when I moved in I had a deep well that also had very high salt content.
I killed a couple mango trees and had issues with allot of my trees. I switched to a shallow well
now but my peaches and citrus didn't seem affected by the water?

[laraklopp]

achetadomestica,

Thank you! I will find those fertilizers and foliar spray. I remember seeing the Florida Gro peach listed as being somewhere near here, though I can't remember where. I will have to look it up and see if I can find one, that sounds delicious.

I figure I don't need to protect all trees from the saltwater, but I doubt it hurts to. Luckily I think I protected my mangos in time. They're pretty sad now, but I had two that were worse, and smaller, which I moved to my backyard and they didn't grow or change for a while, then they got healthy new growth which has stayed healthy. Since I put up the shower curtain barriers, the mangos out front haven't gotten worse, and one new one I planted hasn't shown the same signs of damage.

That's interesting about the citrus. I'd like a citrus as well, in our final space. Does anyone know when Lowes and Home Depot get their peach trees in, in the Melbourne/Brevard area?

Lara

[Dangermouse01]

If you can wait until April, the Brevard Tropical Fruit club is planning to have their tree sale this year (at the Melbourne Auditorium).
In years past, some of the peach trees offered have been:
Florida Grande
Florida Prince
Tropic Beauty
Tropic Snow
and Tropic Sweet

[Galatians522]

Jagmanjoe,

We bought it from Rockledge Gardens, a nursery in the Cocoa area. I want to check Home Depot and Lowes to see if they have different varieties, we still have a couple of tree-possible spaces left.

We have very sandy soil (we're about a mile from the beach), and it drains extremely quickly. The bigger problem I've found is that, due to where we are, our sprinkler water is very high in saline. I had it tested and it was like 2900 parts per (million?), which they said was about as high as they'd seen. It decimated my newly planted mangoes and avocados at first, but I moved the avocados to little spaces out back that don't get sprinkled, and put up those shower curtain liners to protect the rest of the trees that I couldn't move.

I'd love to get a few delicious peaches this year! I find it so exciting to get fruit off a tree that I planted. The only tree that has yet produced is a Barbados Cherry, which has given about 10 cherries this year, and a calamondin, which had fruit on it when I bought it, set a ton of fruit, and now is sad and leafless. That's part of why I worry about letting the trees set fruit too soon.

Good luck finding another peach tree and helping it stay dry!

Lara

That level of salinity is very harmful to peaches. Irrigation water with a salinity of 2000 parts per million (about 30% lower than your water) killed a majority of the the peach trees in this study. You may want to consider a different plant or a different water source. Rain barrels?

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/030442387790019X&ved=2ahUKEwiNgp-rh4buAhUNrFkKHfzvDSMQFjAZegQIPBAB&usg=AOvVaw1f1EA3KNaEUjrVrFGzfWbN

[laraklopp]

Galatians522,

Thank you! Yes, I worry, so I put up shower curtain barriers around my trees, so they no longer get hit with the sprinkler water. Either I water them by hand with tapwater, or let the rain do it, but they're now not getting that salty salty water. I think there are few trees other than Palm Trees that like it.

Dangermouse01,

I'm excited to see what they have there! Where is it located? Is April a good time to plant peaches?

Lara

[Galatians522]

Galatians522,

Thank you! Yes, I worry, so I put up shower curtain barriers around my trees, so they no longer get hit with the sprinkler water. Either I water them by hand with tapwater, or let the rain do it, but they're now not getting that salty salty water. I think there are few trees other than Palm Trees that like it.

Dangermouse01,

I'm excited to see what they have there! Where is it located? Is April a good time to plant peaches?

Lara

The best time to plant is when the tree is dormant, but potted trees can be planted anytime.