Peach

Sowing: Peach trees are typically planted as bare-root stock into a hole slightly wider than the root ball, set at their original depth with the bud union kept above the soil line, and spaced at least 25 feet apart. They need full sun and moist, fertile, well-drained, slightly acidic soil around pH 6.5, a period of winter chilling below 45°F to break dormancy, and warm summer temperatures of about 20-30°C to mature the fruit; because they flower early, late spring frosts often injure the buds and blossoms.

Watering and feeding: Trees should be watered regularly through the growing season, given a deep, wide soaking roughly every 10 to 14 days during dry spells, and they benefit from a nitrogen fertilizer applied in spring.

Pruning: Annual pruning, starting in the planting year, trains the tree to an open center, and fruit should be thinned to about one every 8 inches so the remaining peaches grow larger without reducing the following year's crop. Commercial trees are propagated vegetatively, most often by T-budding a desired variety onto rootstock, to preserve the parent's characteristics.

Peach trees are attacked by a wide range of insects, including peach tree borer, plum curculio, oriental fruit moth, aphids, mites, scale, beetle borers and root nematodes. Bacterial canker and bacterial spot cause gummy, sunken cankers and leaf and fruit lesions, while brown rot, powdery mildew, rust, phytophthora, crown rot, root rot, gummosis and verticillium wilt are also recorded problems. Cold winter temperatures and late spring frosts frequently damage flower buds, though the trees are generally resistant to oak root fungus.

The fruit is a fuzzy drupe up to about 3 inches across, enclosing a hard, ribbed pit around the seed, and it ripens in mid to late summer.

Culinary: Peaches are grown chiefly for their fruit, which is consumed fresh.

Ornamental: Trees are also planted as ornamentals for their showy spring flowers.

Cultural: In China, the peach is regarded as a symbol of longevity.

Peaches were first domesticated and cultivated in China during the Neolithic period, with cultivation documented as early as 2000 BC. The species name persica reflects its long history of cultivation in Persia, modern-day Iran, from where it was carried onward into Europe.