An Ugly Tree

On Wednesday Sept. 7th I went outside to find one of the main branches of my peach tree lying on the ground.  It was too heavy with fruit and the wind from the night before ripped it right off. I was devastated.  There was a huge, ugly gash on my beautiful peach tree.  But more than that I was worried this gash could get infected and kill the tree.  I called a local orchard and asked what I should do.  The guy was so laid back.  He said, "Oh,that's no big deal.  We've got lots of ugly trees.  They still produce good fruit." He told me not to worry about it getting infected this time of year.  He also said that if the fruit was yellow near the stem it would ripen and be fine to eat but if it was still green I might as well throw it away because by the time it ripened it would be grainy and wouldn't taste good.

He also reminded me that it's important to "thin" the fruit on the trees every spring.  Not only does it help the peaches to get big but helps to not weigh the branches down to much.  He also said not to let the branches get too long.  He told me that fruit only grows on 2nd year branches and to keep that in mind when pruning.  i was very grateful for his help and advice and hope to take better care of my ugly tree next year.