How to Plant a Peach Tree

• Purchase a young peach tree and plant it in spring, in an area with 6+ hours of direct sunlight per day.
• Set aside a 5 ft patch of ground, breaking up the soil with a spade and adding peat moss and compost for nutrients before planting the peach tree.
• Water the peach tree if it looks dry and let rainfall sustain it otherwise; apply a mild pesticide a week after planting and nitrogen fertilizer twice a year.
• Prune your peach tree in the summer and late winter, and make sure each fruit is spaced 6 to 8 inches apart; harvest the fruits when they’re ripe.

Getting Started

Purchase a young peach tree at a nursery or tree farm. You certainly can try to grow one from a seed or pit, but that is much more time consuming and a bit more difficult. A peach seed will grow into a flowering peach tree in about 3 to 6 years; if you buy a peach tree at the nursery, aim for one about a year old – and the reward will be much more imminent. If you do end up purchasing a young tree, look for a dormant one with few to no leaves. These are best purchased between fall and early spring. If you try to plant an active tree with green leaves and full branches, it may put too much strain on the tree, and it is likelier that the tree will fail. As for using a peach seed, make sure it comes from a delicious, juicy peach, so your future peaches have the traits of “their mother” (although you should keep in mind that there is no guarantee that it will share these traits). When you find a tasty peach, set out the pit to dry for a few days. When it’s brittle, crack it open to reveal the seeds – they’ll look like almonds.

If you live in a colder climate, select your peach variety carefully. Talk to your local nursery about what type of peach would grow the easiest. In the USA, peaches grow well in zones 5-9, but are best in zones 6 and 7. “Frost” and “Avalon Pride” are two varieties that can withstand a bit of cold weather. And if you’re looking for a smaller variety that you can grow on your deck or patio in a pot, “Pix-Zee” and “Honey Babe” are good choices. They only reach about 6 feet (1.8 m) tall.

Aim to plant your tree in spring. The best time to plant a peach tree is in spring while the tree is still dormant. Do not try transplanting an active peach tree in summer as this may harm the tree.

Select an area for planting a peach tree. Peaches love sun – at least six hours of direct sunlight each day is good. They also like it hot, so the warmest place in your garden (like next to a south-facing wall where it can receive plenty of reflected heat) is great. Look for a spot that has well-drained, sandy, moderately fertile soil, is elevated to give your tree proper airflow (and to reduce the risk of frost) and, as mentioned above, will also provide direct sunlight the majority of the year.

Prepping and Planting Your Tree

Prepare a section of ground that is 5 feet (1.5 m) or more in diameter. Thoroughly break up the soil with a garden tiller or garden spade. This amount of space makes it easy for the roots to spread out, helping the tree grow. What’s more, grass is greedy – making sure it’s not around the base of your tree will prevent it from inhibiting your tree’s growth. Go 12 inches (30.5 cm) deep into the soil for the best support for the peach tree's roots. Spread the roots away from the base of the tree, but be careful not to bend them.

Add peat moss and organic matter such as compost to the prepared soil. Mix it up well, loosening the soil. Then, water the area where you will be placing the peach tree. Just a bit more than a light sprinkle will do; you do not want to saturate the dirt. If the pH of the soil is too low (you want the pH to be around 6.0-7.0), mix a few limes into the soil.

Plant your peach tree in the middle of the prepared soil. Place the tree in your hole on a small mound of soil, and fill the hole back up. Pat the soil around the peach tree gently with a garden spade to secure it. If you have a grafted tree, position the inside of the curve of the graft union away from the sun.

Keeping Your Tree Healthy

Care for your peach tree. Check your peach tree each day and water it lightly if it appears wilted. General rainfall is all a peach tree needs, but if you live in a particularly dry area, it may need a light watering. Apart from this, to take care of weeds and nutrition, an organic mulch will likely do the trick. Just make a circle of mulch over the root zone that’s a couple of inches (5cm) deep and 3 feet (0.91 m) (1m) or so in diameter. With the right amount of rainfall, you can literally just sit back and watch your tree grow.

Apply a mild pesticide to your peach tree after about a week to prevent insects and disease from damaging it. You may also want to consider deterring insect borers by wrapping the trunk with scraps of garden row cover. To keep rodents at bay, you can surround the tree with a cylinder of mesh hardware cloth. Use a lime-sulfur spray to raise your tree’s chances against peach leaf curl, the most common disease culprit.

Add a nitrogen fertilizer about twice a year to your peach tree. After six weeks or so, 1 pound of nitrogen fertilizer spread evenly over the area will help your tree flourish. After the initial year, you can decrease the amount to ¾ of a pound. After the third year when the tree is mature, add 1 pound of actual nitrogen to the soil. This is best done in the spring. To make your tree hardier, don’t fertilize it within 2 months of the first frost or when the fruits are maturing.

Reaping Your Peaches

Prune your tree. You want it to take on an open center shape. After the first year and in the summer, cut the shoots that are forming on the top of the tree by two or three buds. In a month, check the tree for progress. If you have three wide-angled branches spaced equally apart, cut back other branches to keep these as your three main branches. A year from then, again in summer, prune any shoots growing below these main branches. From then on, remove any shoots in the center of the tree to help it keep its shape. Prune the tree in late winter or early spring to shape the tree. Cut off any branches that are rubbing against others as well as any that might be growing up into the open center of the tree. Pruning annually encourages production, not diminishes it. It encourages new growth, allocating more resources to the parts of the tree you want growing. You'll get 10 to 18 inches of new growth each season.

Thin the fruit. After the tree blooms, which will take about 4 to 6 weeks, thin the fruit by spacing them out 6 to 8 inches apart. This ensures that the fruit left over becomes large and juicy. You also want the sun to be able to reach all branches and fruit – if some fruit is flowering in the shade, thin it – that way you can allocate the nutrients to the fruits that will grow faster. You always want an "open canopy" for your fruit. Try to have every branch have access to plenty of sunlight. Remove dead, dying, and crossing branches and blooms to give your fruit the best chance.

Harvest when the fruits are ripe and mature. Watch the fruits on the top and outsides of the tree – they'll likely be ready for harvest first. When there are no longer any bits of green on the fruits, they're ready. They should come off with a slight twist. Peaches are notorious for bruising easily, so be careful when you pick them. They can store in a resealable bag in the fridge for up to 5 days. Or, of course, you could make peach jam.