How can i grow a peach tree in Washington?

Question

I have a Peach Tree in my back yard that grew alone, i would like tree to keep up but in a different location. How can i change it to a different location with out hurting it?

Answer 1

Your Answer:

It rarely matters what state you live in because transplanting is done all the same no matter where you live. (Unless maybe if you lived in Florida or Alaska where the extreme weather has to factor in.) There are a couple of things you want to make sure... that there is adequate sunlight to the place you are moving it to. Peach trees need at least 6 hours of direct unfiltered sunlight. If they get less than that they get weak and eventually will get diseased and die. They also will not bear fruit or will have very little fruit at best. So direct sunlight is key.

So if the new spot you have in mind will give it the minimal amount of direct sunlight here is what you do.

Right now (summer) is the worst time of year to transplant as the hot summer days stress small trees. So what you want to do is follow this (protocal) program to get the best success for your tree:

You want to first strengthen it by following a program. Watering and Feeding. Start watering right away by running a slow hose for a half hour every two or three days when there is no rain. You want to soak the roots. Do this at least twice a week. Tomorrow go to Walmart or Home Depot garden center (or similar) and buy some basic tree or plant food (fertilizer). Nothing fancy- just the basic stuff- get the slow dessolving pellet type. Feed the tree according to the fertilizer's direction (start right away). While you are there buy a roll of burlap if you don't have any around. Also buy a couple bags of composted manure because when its composted type it doesn't burn the roots of the tree. (sometimes they refer to it as "manure with humus" -you will need this later on. )

So for a few weeks you are just feeding and watering it. Then after about 4 weeks prune it back. The pruning will help the tree to minimize the amount of limbs it has to feed which means its not putting all that food into its farthest leaves and branches and makes the feeding requirements less. It also will help you with lifting the tree out of the ground if there are no bulky branches in the way. Depending on how small the tree is it should not be more than 36-40 inches wide in diameter. Make sure you also prune off any wimpy tiny branches that might easily break off when you are lifting the tree. Wimpy meaning twig like branches. After you prune it - you want to give it two or three more waterings and then stop watering. (You especially DO NOT want to water one or two weeks before transplanting! This will make the soil on the roots muddy.

Usually its theend of September to Early October is when you want to transplant it. It actually really depends when you get frost there but right around the time of the first frost is a good time- (from a few weeks before or few weeks after is the best time). This is because the tree is starting to go into a dormant state as it loses it leaves.

First figure out how wide your root ball will be. For a peach tree it should be about 2/3 the size the diameter of your pruned branch diameter. So lets say you pruned a diameter of 36 inches for your branches. You want to make your root ball roughly 22- 24 inches diameter. Now go to the location you want to dig the hole for the new tree spot. You want to pre-dig there a hole that is one third more the size of your root ball. Both in height and width. So roughly it will be about 34 -36 inches accross and it should be about 30 inches deep. Put the soil in a pile next to the hole but you also want to put it in a spot that it wont get in your way when you are moving the tree.

Work in the composted manure around the edges in the new hole. Most of it will be at the bottom of the tree. If you have any garden compost or some old composted leaves in a pile that stuff usually becomes the best compost to mix in to the bottom of the new hole. Make sure the leaves are broken down into humus. Mix it all together in the hole and (make sure you don't put too much at the bottom other wise the root ball will sit too high in the ground). You want the tree to sit about an inch higher than it was when you took it out of the ground because the soil will settle over the next 6 months.

You will need a wheelbarrow to move the tree from one location to other so maybe if you don't have one you can borrow one from a neighbor. When you dig the tree out you want to dig about 1/3 the way in from the branches you pruned back.

Transplanting works best with one of those flat square shovels. If you are using a curved shovel try your best to dig the hole mostly straight down. Angling only slightly inward toward the tree. You want to wear heavy shoes because you may have to stand on the shovel in order to cut through the peach tree's roots. Its ok to cut the roots. This will stress the roots but remember you were watering them and feeding them and they are now loaded both with food and water the two things it needs to stay healthy and happy until next spring. So when you are actually cutting around the tree you want to make an imaginery circle that is evenly away from the tree trunk at the same radius. This will give you a perfectly round diameter that will become the root ball.

I recommend that you do the transplanting when you have a few days of no rain. Because water will make the root ball extremely heavy. Its much easier to lift it up when there is no mud. Chances are you will need to wrap the root ball with the burlap that you bought. You want to keep the dirt from falling off the roots so even before you lift it out of the ground try to get a friend to lean the tree to one side and put the burlap underneathe it. You have to cut the burlap with a sharp knife like a box cutter type. I find it works best if you cut it a foot or two longer than you think you need it to be. Make sure you lean the tree in the opposite direction now and put more burlap on the other side of the root ball. Wrap the whole root ball and if you have to use some twine or heavy string to tie the burlap in place. You may have to tie it around the root ball about 4 times to get it to stay in place around the burlap.

Always Remember..... its critical that the root ball holds together so don't drop the tree hard or lift it up too fast . Make sure the burlap is holding it all in place and take your time with this part because very often people rush this and mess up the root ball. Keeping the root ball together is the most important aspect to transplanting the tree. Its more important than feeding the tree or even watering it!

Now ask your friend to help you lift the tree into the wheel barrow. You want to lift with one hand on the tree trunk closest to the root ball. The other hand can be under the root ball or grabbing onto the burlap if you tied it off good. Careful putting it into the wheel barrow too, as it often seems the wheel barrow likes to fall over during this step! So have your sister or brother (or another friend) hold the wheel barrow.

Drop the tree slowly- with the burlap still on- into the new hole. You have to lean the tree again to get the burlap off and cut the string with your box cutter knife very carefully without cutting roots or tree bark etc. Remove ALL burlap from the hole because it will get mildew if you leave it in the ground and the mildew will kill the tree. Use the dirt that you dug the hole with to fill in around the root ball.

You should make sure the tree is standing up straight and once the tree is mostly filled in with dirt double check that its straight up. Finish filling in the top with dirt and if you have to gentley step on the tree roots now to help lean the tree staight up. Make sure you do this gentley. Now water it for a good hour with a slow flowing hose.... Mission accomplished! Water it if there is no rain for more than 3 or 4 days during the first month or two. Don't feed it again until 10 months later because you don't want any new food to burn the roots. They are all a little tender from the transplant and it takes about that long for them to get strong and vibrant again. BTW, The composted manure will be gentley feeding them until then (and for years to come too).

Good Luck!!!

Source(s):

Tree seedling growing is a hobby. I also experiment with growing many in containers. I also used to rent an apartment on a Peach/Apple Farm too for about 7 years.