Peaches or apricots in the poly tunnel

[pongeroon]

Hello everyone:-)

Does anyone know anything about this? Not much headroom, only about 7ft. Would it be feasible to keep it in check with pruning? Would leaf curl be more or less of a problem? I once knew someone who put a 5 litre pot containing a peach tree into her poly tunnel , forgot about it, and got great crops, it grew huge once the roots broke the pot. She didn't feed it or anything, just the odd splash of water now and then.

[Geoff]

No experience but both the books I have mention Peaches, Apricots and Nectarines ("The Polytunnel Book" Joyce Russell; "How to Grow Food in your Polytunnel All Year Round" Mark Gatter & Andy McKee) if you can get sight of copies.
Some quotes:
Apricots do very well in polytunnels.
Growing any fruit tree in a polytunnel is a considerable investment of space, although you will be repaid in spades at fruiting time.
(under Apricots) remember that the eventual height of the tree will be around 2.4 metres (assuming you use a dwarfing rootstock).
(under Peaches) provided that you do not use overhead watering, peach leaf curl is much less likely to occur in polytunnel plants, but choosing a variety with some resistance to this (such as 'Avalon Pride' on a dwarfing rootstock such as St Julien A) will help

[pongeroon]

Thanks Geoff, that's helpful. I'm not totally sure whether its the right thing to do as yet. It's the eventual height that I am a bit concerned about. A Pixy rootstock would result in the smallest tree I think, but the varieties on this rootstock seem to be a bit limited, although I haven't done that much searching yet. Good to know about the leaf curl issue, though.

[Johnboy]

Hi Pongeroon,
I used to grow both Apricots and Peaches in my original tunnels pre 1995
and they were grown as cordons at quite a low angle and with suitable training the system worked extremely well with a minimum of pruning.
The Apricots gave masses and the Peaches were more limited but well worth growing. The joy of tunnel grown Peaches is that you limit the amount of fruits and pick when they are really ripe.
Very well worth the effort if you have the room.
Best of luck with your project should you go ahead.
Sincerely,
JB.

[glallotments]

We have a peach tree in a large pot outdoors that fruited in it's first season and again last year. Not loads of fruit but it's only a baby and I was happy to get any fruit at all here in Yorkshire. I must steel myself to remove some fruitlets this year. The peach should have been a nectarine but my order was messed up and we found furry peaches ripening where there should have been smooth nectarines. The company then sent me a nectarine telling me to keep the peach too. I also added an apricot to my collection. All are varieties that should crop outdoors here with some blossom protection. All are in pots. It's the first year really for the peach and apricot so I wonder whether they will produce fruit?

[Johnboy]

Hi Sue,
You may have blossom on both but do not be too disappointed if you do not manage any fruit. Certainly with the Peach I found it best to limit the amount of fruit and go for quality rather than quantity. With the Apricot
it grew rather like a tall step-over with the main stem virtually parallel with the ground and gave more fruit than I could cope with.
Again the joy is picking fruit that is ripe and therefore very sweet rather than the picked-early Apricots offered for sale in supermarkets.
A ripe Peach with a croissant and a large bowl-mug of freshly made coffee
is a breakfast to be savoured in UK.
JB.

[pongeroon]

Precisely the reason I would like to grow them JB. I love the apricots and peaches we have had in southern France and Spain, but I never buy them in the UK because they just don't taste good. Have you any suggestions for good flavoured varieties?

[glallotments]

The peaches we have had were delicious. The peach is Avalon Pride but I don't yer know whet the apricot Flavourcot and nectarine Fantasia taste like.

I haven't needed to hand pollinate the peach yet but I guess I may have to this year! The rees are a reasonable size and in dwarf rooting stock JB so should be mature enough the fruit.

[FionaMacD]

Hello, I'm new to the forum and hope someone has the information I'm after... Although I've been vegetable gardening for years on a hill in the north of Scotland (persistence required in buckets), a few months ago I invested in a polytunnel. I've now been given a Nectarine tree which stands at about 7ft already. Obviously due to high snowfall and generally very low winter temperatures, the polytunnel is the only place for it but have noticed that some books state that you should rub off the fruit buds in the first year and not to let it fruit properly for at least three years. Can I presume that that's for smaller trees or am I stuck with an expensive giant that won't produce for years and takes up a lot of space?
Any help or any other tips would be very welcome.

[siarartist]

Hi, I am wondering how to best manage my peach tree in order to get the most/best fruit. It has been in the ground in a large polytunnel for the past few years but this is the first year that any fruit has appeared. It has suffered a bit I think due to the poly tunnel cover being blown off two winters ago and so went from very hot to very cold and now back to hot again. There are lots of fruits appearing, which is really exciting, but I am not sure how many to allow to mature. Any suggestions?

[robo]

I know nothing about growing peaches in this country, but in Spain we are surrounded by them, for the first three years after planting all the fruit is removed as soon as it sets on the fourth year and onwards all fruit is removed except for two peaches on each branch they still harvest millions ,we manage to get the misshapen the ones that are seen as the wrong shape for the shops or ones that have been damaged by hail stones our friend lost 10,000 last year when we had a storm the day before picking

[mariakatosvich]

It's the eventual height that I am a bit concerned about. A Pixy rootstock would result in the smallest tree I think, but the varieties on this rootstock seem to be a bit limited

[Westi]

Hi mariakatosvich!

I have 2 dwarf peaches about 2 foot tall. I only got them this spring, as the ones I ordered last year set bud that didn't burst open, so the company replaced them this year. They are supposed to be 3 years old & probably are as they have set loads of fruit considering their size. The fruit are supposed to be full size & look like they may be as had full size peach trees that succumbed to peach leaf curl & their fruit were not that much bigger. One has 14 peaches & the other many more! They are in pots by the back door so protected by the roof eaves from future leaf curl, but you'd have no risk of that in a poly tunnel. They also have a wonderful red leaves.

The company advertise in the papers, 'You Garden'.

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Too late for this year though, but continue your research or contact these guys & ask them to set a couple aside for their next season.

Westi