Harvesting the Peach Tree Already?

Tom and I planted a peach tree in our front yard this year. So far, it has done surprisingly well. We were not expecting to get any peaches from the tree this year, but when Tom went and looked, the entire tree was covered in tiny peaches.

The tree is only a couple of years old, so it isn't very big. After doing a bit of research, we decided that we needed to remove some of the peaches for a couple of reasons:

1. The tree couldn't physically hold this many peaches without breaking once they developed

2. The peaches would not fully develop and would be tiny peaches, which isn't what we were looking for.

So based on the CSU agriculture website, they recommend leaving (1) peach every 6" on each branch. So away we went, and we started pulling off tons of little peaches. They sure did smell sweet! By the time it was all said and done, we had removed 172 tiny peaches from the tree.

Now you may be wondering, did you leave any peaches to develop? We did, there were probably about 50-75 peaches left on the tree. However, (2) days later we had a massive hail storm in Parker. The hail was 1-1/2" in diameter. The hail shredded every plant, tree, flower, bush, and our entire garden. We aren't sure what will come of what's left - needless to say it looks a bit depressing in our yard right now.

Here is a picture of our 172 tiny peaches we pruned off the tree. They were so sweet smelling and fuzzy.