Comanche Peanut Program and Peach Tree Pruning
The Comanche County AgriLife Extension office will be holding a peanut meeting for growers on Thursday, March 6th at 12:00 PM at the De Leon City Auditorium. We will be discussing results from variety trials and other management factors that may be of importance to producers this coming year. We will have State Peanut Specialist Emi Kimura, State Peanut Breeder John Cason, and Dr. Luis Ribera, Extension Economist discussing “Peanut Opportunities and the Economic Outlook for Peanut Production.”
We will be offering 1 IPM CEU for the event and there is no charge to attend. Please call the office at (325) 356-2539 to pre-register if you are interested in this program so we can have a head count for lunch.
Peach Tree Pruning It is that time of yeardreaded peach tree pruning, the reason I am not much of a peach producer. Late February is the suggested time to begin pruning. Why prune at all? Pruning helps to keep the peaches within reach for easier harvesting. Pruning will also open the center of the tree, allowing air circulation and sunlight into the tree; this helps to prevent disease and accelerates fruit growth.
Here are the four steps to prune mature peach trees as recommended by Texas AgriLife Extension Horticulturist: Step One Remove all hanger shoots, rootstock suckers, and water sprouts in the lower three feet of the tree. This stripping of lower growth clears a path for herbicide applications and allows air circulation.
Step Two Remove all shoots above 7 feet other than red 18–24-inch fruiting shoots. Cuts need to be at selected points where the scaffold and subscaffold limbs extend upward at a 45–50-degree angle. Cuts which leave limbs sideways at a 90-degree angle should be avoided.
Step Three Remove all shoots which grow toward the inside of the tree.
Step Four Remove all old, gray wood in the 3-7-foot fruit production zone. Be sure to leave all the one-yearold, 18-to-24-inch red bearing shoots; these will be about the diameter of a pencil. If these shoots are over 24 inches, cut off about 1/3 of this fruiting branch.
Amazingly, proper peach tree pruning will normally remove about 40 percent of the tree each winter. This seems like a lot, but it is necessary to reduce the number of fruit on the tree and it will stimulate strong canopy growth. This new growth will be next year’s fruiting wood.