I have written before about the process of hand pollinating peaches. Peaches flower early in the year, at a time when few pollinating insects are about, and as ours are grown under cover it is even less likely that insects will find them. To secure a crop, these need to be pollinated by hand –… Continue reading Pollinating and protecting peach blossom
Tag: peaches
Peach Blossom
The peach blossom has just started to open in the polytunnel where we have a mystery peach tree. I have no idea what variety it is – it certainly is not the sort that I bought, as the fruit is quite different and ripens at the wrong time of year, and, given that there are… Continue reading Peach Blossom
Winter work
The blog has been quiet for the past year, largely because we did little in the garden. The only crops we planted were chillies and tomatoes in the glasshouses and polytunnel and a bed of potatoes outdoors. We tended the fruit trees and the soft fruit, but otherwise took a year out. Now we have… Continue reading Winter work
Time for tickling
It is that time of the year when the peach blossom has burst forth. Peaches and cherries produce arguably the most attractive display of spring. Aside from admiring them, during flowering one must pay a little attention to pollination, or the crop is likely to be rather meagre. Although we have a veritable hoard of… Continue reading Time for tickling
Tidying up the glasshouse fruit
Our two main glasshouses, which are mounted against a more or less south facing wall, are used for various fruits. In the summer they house part of our tomato crop as well as, variously, aubergines, cucumbers, tomatillos, peppers, and such like. Amongst the permanent planting, we have one vine in each, two figs in one,… Continue reading Tidying up the glasshouse fruit
When is a Peche de Vigne not a Peche de Vigne?
A couple of years ago we bought a young peach tree, a Peche de Vigne, from Dobies and planted it in the polytunnel. The first tree was damaged and a replacement was sent later in the year. I have been really looking forward to trying the fruit and this year it bore for the first… Continue reading When is a Peche de Vigne not a Peche de Vigne?
Thinning the peach bush
Following successful hand pollination, our young Peche de Vigne was carrying a large amount of fruit; far too much for the strength of the branches and too much for the tree to bring to perfection. This is quite normal, and, unless the set has been particularly poor, peach fruitlets need to be thinned each season… Continue reading Thinning the peach bush
Sowing this week
There was little time for sowing this week, but we did plenty of planting out. One has to be careful with tender plants like tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers. We usually plant these in the glasshouses and polytunnel around the first week of May. The weather has been mild, though, and the temperature has not dropped… Continue reading Sowing this week
Pinching out the fan trained peaches
Some weeks ago I wrote about disbudding the peach bush growing in our polytunnel. At the time I mentioned that those in the glasshouse would need doing soon and that I would show what was needed for fan trained specimens. Well, I pinched out the unwanted shoots a few weeks ago and was only reminded… Continue reading Pinching out the fan trained peaches
The prospect of peaches
I do tend to waffle on about peaches rather a lot, but, although they are something of a labour, a perfectly ripe peach has to be one of the most delicious of fruits. A few weeks ago I was busy hand pollinating the peach blossom – see previous post tickling the peaches. On a good… Continue reading The prospect of peaches