I was recently asked how I get such nice peaches and for tips on winterizing / care… I kind of laughed as I don’t really do anything in particular. I thought my response was kind of humorous so, here it is for others to enjoy, and I guess perhaps it might help someone out there.

Denver Peach Tree Care

I have crazy gardens both year round hydro-ponic and seasonal outdoors. I have what seems to be a very productive garden, but I treat all of it more as an art than a science. Too many of my hobbies end up very science, numbers, and on computer screens. So when I got into gardening, I basically made a rule of no book learning, just experimentation. So any advice I give needs that caveat, it might not be the best way to do it, but it works for me.

• winterizing, um… I don’t do anything… I do put fruit spikes into the soil near the tree twice a year and one of those is in the winter.
• You might get some tiny fruit in the first year, but if you pick them all off the tree will put more energy into making roots and you will do even better in the future.
• peach care… I dug a big hole and put 3-year-old trees in the ground. I have a watering system that waters a bit daily

• I prune the tree more on bonsai aesthetics vs any advice about being good for fruit
  • I do prune any branches that look too thin to support fruit
• I occasionally thin the fruit, but I mostly leave that up to the squirrels

I distract the Japanese beetles by letting them eat all my roses, and some of my apples… So they really don’t have any time left to eat peaches. The squirrels sadly prefer peaches over apples, which is why I have two peach trees and one apple tree. When we have a boom havest I pull about 500 peaches and apples… Squirrels extract about a 20-30% tax on fruit…. Probably higher for the strawberries, which they seem to go nuts over, and I thought squirrels like nuts.

Occasionally I spray with a mint based organic bug spray, but I am not convinced it does anything, but it does smell nice which is a plus.

Anyways, happy to share anything that might help, but my urban farming philosophy can mostly be summarized as plants really want to grow, put them in the grown and give them water and sun.