Hi
Picked up a peach and a nectarine tree recently and would like to know if there is a minimum spacing to avoid any chance of cross-pollination? Also can they both be grown succesfully on Essex clay or do I need to fill the planting holes with anything special, currently intend to wait until the weather and hence the soil is a bit kinder?
Peach and nectarine tree spacing
Moderators: KG Steve, Chantal, Tigger, peter, Chief Spud
Unless you are intending to plant the stones and raise new trees from them, I don't think cross-pollination is a problem, as it doesn't affect the quality of the fruit on existing trees.
Our peaches crop heavily in thick clay, being trained fan-wise on south-facing walls. 70-upwards peaches last year on the oldest tree (4 years old). Brian puts plastic sheeting over them from Jan to April to prevent peach leaf curl. Our nectarine is newer and less vigorous and hasn't fruited yet. The apricot is incredibly vigorous, spilling out the top of the fruit cage in its second year, but although it had lots of blossom it didn't set.
Last year Brian used a paintbrush to hand-pollinate the peach blossoms, as they were under the plastic sheeting. This year he will hand-pollinate the apricot as well and see if that makes a difference.
They are fan-trained about 10 ft apart.
Alison.
Our peaches crop heavily in thick clay, being trained fan-wise on south-facing walls. 70-upwards peaches last year on the oldest tree (4 years old). Brian puts plastic sheeting over them from Jan to April to prevent peach leaf curl. Our nectarine is newer and less vigorous and hasn't fruited yet. The apricot is incredibly vigorous, spilling out the top of the fruit cage in its second year, but although it had lots of blossom it didn't set.
Last year Brian used a paintbrush to hand-pollinate the peach blossoms, as they were under the plastic sheeting. This year he will hand-pollinate the apricot as well and see if that makes a difference.
They are fan-trained about 10 ft apart.
Alison.
My husband wants a peach tree. We can now train it on a white wall but it's facing east. It gets all the morning sun and none of the prevailing wind, whereas a south wall with us would get the west prevailing wind.I could easily protect it with plastic or fleece. I wonder if it would be OK?