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Peach trees in the UK

janntimsonjanntimson Posts: 54
in Fruit & veg
I've read that this can be done but best to fan train it onto a wall? I do have a south facing wall. Most of it is wooden fence but there's a small patch that's brick and it could be trained half on this bit and half on the fence but it would probably look better further down the wall where it's entirely fence. Does the warming effect of training it against a wall come from the brick or does it come from the way it is trained against the wall? Has anyone actually had luck growing a peach in the UK this way? TIA
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  • valerierobertsvalerieroberts Posts: 726
    Mine grows on a south facing wall. The wall keeps its heat and keeps the peach tree warm through the night. Warms with the sun the next day etc. The other problem you will have is peach leaf curl. This a devastating disease and I have only managed to combat it by having a veranda built over it. Valerie 

  • janntimsonjanntimson Posts: 54
    valerieroberts said:
    Mine grows on a south facing wall. The wall keeps its heat and keeps the peach tree warm through the night. Warms with the sun the next day etc. The other problem you will have is peach leaf curl. This a devastating disease and I have only managed to combat it by having a veranda built over it. Valerie 

    Apparently there's a variety called Avalon pride which is highly resistent. I think if I went for it I'd go for this but I'd be interested to hear from people whether it's genuinely disease resistent... 
  • mrtjformanmrtjforman Posts: 331
    the problem with peaches is that most varieties need a pollinating partner. I started with 2, then 1 died so now I have 1 left that has never produced fruit and probably never will  :/
  • josusa47josusa47 Posts: 3,530
    In the 70s, I lived in a rented house which had a well-established peach tree in the garden, not against a wall or fence, but in the middle of the lawn.  I couldn't tell you the variety.  Most summers it ripened a few fruit of a respectable size and the flavour was good, but they weren't all that sweet.  This was in Sussex by the sea.
  • Butterfly66Butterfly66 Posts: 970
    We have one in our unheated greenhouse cultivar Peregrine. Fruits like mad - small but very juicy. Fruited in its first year and we got 5kg off it last year (3rd summer). We had intended to keep it in a pot and move it outside each summer but never did so last spring we planted it in the greenhouse bed (as I’ve kept as as a bush shape, I might live to regret this space wise).

    We pollinate our peach by hand - not an onerous job. I just dab each blossom with an old bristly pastry brush and go from flower to flower. No finesse about it but it seems to work. Spend about 5minutes each day whilst it’s in blossom and just go over all the flowers - there a mass of flowers so don’t worry about doing any more than once or missing the odd one - the blossom doesn’t last long. @m@mrtjforman Even if yours is too tall to do much, I would recommend doing the blossom you can reach and seeing it it works for your variety.

    I suspect it would be just as happy outside, we keep the greenhouse doors open during the day in Jan/Feb (Or at least some days when I remember) as apparently the cold helps reduce pests and helps set the blossom. 
     If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”—Marcus Tullius Cicero
    East facing, top of a hill clay-loam, cultivated for centuries (7 years by me). Birmingham
  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,385
    janntimson said:
    valerieroberts said:
    Mine grows on a south facing wall. The wall keeps its heat and keeps the peach tree warm through the night. Warms with the sun the next day etc. The other problem you will have is peach leaf curl. This a devastating disease and I have only managed to combat it by having a veranda built over it. Valerie 

    Apparently there's a variety called Avalon pride which is highly resistent. I think if I went for it I'd go for this but I'd be interested to hear from people whether it's genuinely disease resistent... 

    Avalon Pride is indeed peach leaf curl resistant and I have been growing one outside for about 20 years.  Each year many of the young leaves do get the problem but this cultivar recovers every time and goes on to produce cricket-ball sized peaches.  It is reliably self-pollinating.  This photo from 5 years ago:

    Sadly, the tree has just been removed as it out-grew the space (despite careful pruning) and grew to more than twice the size you see above, reaching gutter-height of my semi.  It was clearly very happy in my south-facing front garden and simply shrugged-off leaf-curl every year.  I would recommend only this variety if you want to grow peaches outside in the UK with no 'faffing about' required.
    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • valerierobertsvalerieroberts Posts: 726
    @BobTheGardener. That’s really impressive, I like that one. Maybe it’s time I have another peach tree. Can you tell me what size root stock you had please. Valerie 
  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,385
    Hi @valerieroberts The site I purchased it from quotes 'Peach Seedling Rootstock' which, I believe, means it isn't grafted but on it's own roots.
    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • valerierobertsvalerieroberts Posts: 726
    @BobTheGardener thank you. I think I will be able to ask for an  M25 then. I believe grows to about 12 ft. I will check that out of course when I find one for sale. I haven’t been happy with the fruit tree providers in the past as I find out two years later they have sent me the wrong variety and not having a large area I am stuck with it. Many thanks,  Valerie 
  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,385
    @valerieroberts Orange Pippin sell them on St Julian A rootstock (they say 3-3.5m after 5-10 years.)  Here's a list of the rootstocks available for peaches and their eventual size:
    It might be tricky to get it on some of those.

    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
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