How To Thin Peaches: To improve fruit size and sweetness 

I haven't done a great job of thinning the fruit on my peach trees and I usually get a lot of peaches that are almost too small to eat, and many of them are cast before they are ripe. So I won't feel bad about thinning them this year because I think it will increase my actual yield.

I took all the blooms and immature fruit off my first year tree except for one just to see what they were going to be like. This year, 2 years after planting, I thinned about 80 per cent and got peaches as big as a softball so sweet they made their own syrup. This black Illinois dirt can really grow peaches! I don't think most people realize how quickly peach trees will start producing.

I just moved to a house in Salt Lake City in the winter and just saw a tree in my yard producing fruit. Turns out they are peaches and just at quarter size so I guess I know what I'll be working on the next few days. Our tree is much taller though so not sure how high I'll be able to get. This was so helpful, thank you!

I tried teaching my brother this, and he doesn’t get it. He said that bugs and animals will do the work. However, I have a tree that I purchased recently and it already had a lot of blooms, so I didn’t even prune it. In about a month I will know exactly what peaches I will keep, and I’ll even remove the weaker branches. I will protect the keepers with either a net, or if I’m only keeping a few, I’ll slip a little fruit net pouch. People should be glad that you are showing them this, and their feelings for the fruit should not interfere. Thanks for the video

God is smiling on me today. This video deserves a 5-star rating which contains a lot of helpful and amazing information for gardening beginners like me. Thank you ...thank you ... thank you for all your hard work. I also greatly appreciate all of you who have/will given/give this video a thumbs-up. Have a blessed day everyone+

2 hrs. and almost a 5 gallon bucket of peaches I'm done thinning my tree . I don't know what to expect but because of your video I now have a sense of relief and when I walk by the tree I know I helped it instead of wondering what should I do to help it....I just didn't know ...so again I sincerely TY !

Thank you for the information. Just what I needed. One question- does it matter whether the fruit is on the bottom, top, or side of the branch?

I lost a peach branch this year because of weight load. It was so sad. It was a major fruit bearing branch too

Thank you so much I was wondering what rules I should follow when thinning my peach tree. I hope it's not too late I should have done that a month ago. I hope it won't do any damage your harm to it that I do it now. Thank you for the great info. I'm a new subscriber.

Very well stated with some excellent tips. Thank you.

Step 1 is to cry first.....but it has to be done.

Thank you for your video. My peaches wonts ripe, and there are holes in the fruits and leave, what solution you recommend?

What type of fertilizer do you use for your peach tree. thank you for the excellent video

Thank you. Now I know why all my peaches are beautiful red color yet the size of a golf ball 😩first year of peaches for us.

I planted a peach tree in 2019. I got a few peaches in 2021, a couple more in 2022, and DOZENS in 2023. I wish I had seen this video before my beautiful peach tree had so many big peaches, which ultimately tore the tree apart in late August. It looks like a bomb went off. My poor peach tree has been split in several places by a huge fruit load.

Thanks great info !!! Your a Peach !!!

Thanks for showing us the best way to thinning our peaches. I started my peaches 3 years ago and the plants were 2 years old. I am hoping 23 will be my first harvest.

Do u ever prop limbs up to prevent fruit load from breaking limbs off?

When, how often and what type of fertilizer are you using? Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge. Extreme novice here 😊

It's July 2, 2022. I watched this and went right out and thinned the peaches on 3 of my 5 peach trees (the other 2 didn't have anything on them and they are older). The trees with peaches were planted 3 years ago. They had a few peaches last year but this year they are LOADED. It was truly painful to pull off all those peaches, but I did it! I got 3/4 of a 2 gallon bucket of peaches a little bigger than a quarter. But I didn't thin them to 6 inches apart. I just couldn't! I thinned to 3 to 4 inches apart and many were in clusters of 3, which I thinned to only 1 peach. I will come back when they ripen and tell you how it went.

hello from France, Please tell me how I can preserve the peach stones that I have eaten in July until the month of March to plant them, in water or in the freezer Please answer me.

ty for your video....i have a year old peach tree...what do i do too make it grow beeter..

I have a miniature Pix Zee peach tree; would I thin it the same way? It is loaded with tiny peaches.

I bought a home recently with a big mature peach tree and it is loaded with tiny fruit now in April. Definitely going to be thinning in the next week or so. Is there anything that can be done with the immature fruit that’s removed, other than composting it?

what to do when you bye a tree with fruit on it. I just planted it a week or 2 ago and I hear the first year pull all the fruit! would u recommend that or no? my tree is a third the size of yours but it only has 5 to 10 peaches total on each tree.

I presume the 6 inch rule applies to my dwarf pixie? Just got it this year. Hundreds of teeny tiny peaches forming. But my branches are still so short, so that means most of my peach babies will be removed?!

Great video. How do you get them to get sweeter. What can I do ?

How often do you fertilize?

What do you do with the tiny peaches that have been thinned?

Why would you not thin out when the fruit is a blossom? It seems logical that thinning as early as possible would promote the tree to direct more energy for larger, sweeter fruit.

I am trying to thin my espalier peach and there is quite a bit of new foliage that is shading the fruit. Should I cut some of the new, vigorous water sprouts back to increase the energy to the fruit?

I planted my peach tree in 2020. It was about 6 foot and now it's 12 feet to top. Last year it had about 50 peaches and we had a storm that broke two major limbs off. This year it was full so i watched your video on thinning the tree so i did. After i had pulled 1,650 little peaches i stopped to see what will happen. I've never seen so many peaches on one tree.

Thanks so much for your great video! We've had 2 glorious years of fruit from our Frost Peach. Last year there were 30+ (first year) fruit and the Peaches were huge and sweet, the best peaches I've ever tasted. This year, I didn't take enough young peaches off. It was exciting getting 300 peaches but they're smaller and not flavorful. So there! I had to prove it to myself. Like you say, it's hard to take those little ones away, but next year I'm bucking up and doing it! Any thoughts on feeding and watering...?

I've got like 8 peach trees lining one side of my yard. They produce an absurd amount of peaches, but they're all barely bigger than a golf ball and inedible. I don't know anything about fruit trees or any sort of gardening so I assumed they were just the wrong type of tree. If this works on them it'll be life-changing. haha

Thank you so much for your excellent video. Last year we only had 3 small peaches and this year we have tons! I've already thinned quite a bit but will go back and thin some more, as you suggest. And you're right, it's painful.

Thank you for your video, yes thinning does seem wrong but if you have ever seen a beautiful tree badly broken up by not thinning them you would agree it's necessary!

I have pulled off over 2,200 little small peaches off my one tree and it's still full. That seems like a lot of peaches to me.

Up until I watched this I was clueless concerning my peach tree and being late July in SE Texas with my tree being slightly larger then the one you're showing and yielding at least three times as many peaches I have got lots of picking to do! You answered all the questions I've had bouncing around in my head about this tree and you are now my go to man when it comes to any kind of plants or tree questions I may have. TY

Such an EXCELLENT tutorial! Thank you! One question…When you have a short branch that only allows one peach to remain, do you keep the peach closest to the main branch to provide better support?

My peach tree is about 13 years old now. Seemed to not have good peaches til was close to 10 years old. Theres a massive amount of peaches but are like the size of those blue handball or paddleball balls not quite sure what they are called but taste amazing where bite into them and half ur face is soaked. Last year was an odd year just after my partner had passed from cancer which we planted peach tree after a year of being together but anyway there was only one peach on the tree and as it grew it looked like bugs or something got to part of it so ended up just pulling it off and decided it would be a pruning year and thinned out so air and sunlight could penetrate through the tree. This year i have a ton of peaches but while a lot are golf ball sized i have a ton that are marble sized and alot of marble sized ones have fallen and are on ground. In past usually havest time will last over a month with few weeks between first pickings and than a second. Im wondering if it’s normal to see all those smaller marble sized ones now even though others are golfball sized and maybe smaller ones are the ones that normally pick towards the end of fruiting being done. Ive looked at tree last several years just to see the peaches but never noticed the dif in size. Maybe was just too busy with work and taking care of partner and over looked them. So i was just out and was pulling marbled sized ones off figuring there was some issue with them but am wondering if should just leave them. I get all the peaches i want and usually give out 8 12lb bags to people i do work for and then toward the end end up giving another 5 or so bags with about 8lbs in them to clients.

It is almost time for me to thin my peach tree. I have pinkish curly leaves on my tree? What should I do about that?

I stumbled across this video and am so glad I did! Thank you so much! I'm sorry to say I lost a branch off one of my trees earlier this year and I think this is why. I have since removed a lot of the peaches but next year I will know how to take even better care! Thanks for taking the time to educate me!

My peach tree has hundreds of peaches. I have steaks all around the tree to prop it up. Didn't realize you had to thin. They are the size of golf balls now. Is it to late to thin?

I have a peach tree in its second year and this year I got five fruit. Two looks already ripe and they're golf ball sized. I just didn't have a lot of blossoms on it. I've used Job sticks for it and water regularly. What am I doing wrong??

Great presentation! Clear, logical and easy to understand and follow.

Excellent video, production, and education. Thanks for your efforts. Is it ok to snip the peaches off w pruning shears?

Thank you so much for this video. Do you do the same with mandarine oranges?

We have a pretty big tree (not dwarf) It is loaded with peaches this year. Do we still use the 6 inch spacing rule? Thanks for great video. It really helped a lot.

I just removed burlap that I used to protect my two lil trees from a very cold winter. Both have bunches of blossoms & the lil sprouts of leaves. This is their first year to have blossoms since planting seeds. Is it still a good time to thin the blossoms?

yes this hurts me. first time my peach has peaches on it and I have already pulled maybe 500 off and I am still not done. but now a chipmunk is also coming around

have a contender peach in a container, with a lot of double fruits, looks like one flower that turned into 2 almost fused peaches. do i remove the double or try to separate them?

If you would just get to the point and stop repeating yourself, you could have finished in 5 minutes.

Do you only thin once or should you go back and thin a 2nd time?

Do you have any videos on leaf curl issues or spraying peach trees? I need to get more info on how to care for mine. Thank you.

Are peaches better on new growth branches or older branches? Does it matter? Do I need to trim branches yearly?

What if the peaches are not spread out along the branches? The branch is small and there are 3/4 peaches at the end of the branch and that’s it? What should I do

Great tip… I’m a first time peach grower. My trees are about 3 yrs. when and how do you prune to shape trees?

Hi & Thx for your video. I purchased a Julyprince peach tree from Home Depot as it looked nice and healthy and planted it in March 2023 here on Long Island, NY. To my surprise, I have about 100-150 tiny peaches on the 3.5-4' tree and not sure if I should take them all off or just some as you show in the video. So far, I took most off (75?) as you show and was very painful. Secondly, do I prune the tree this year with an open center or do I wait until next year? I have about 3 main branches which go outwardly and one going up. If so, when? I grew up with 2 trees as a kid but there is really no one to ask around here and I'm completely determined to make this work! Helpt!

I have a peach tree that i planted 8 or 9 years ago that isn't growing. It has put on peaches from the first year that I planted it, although one year I picked them all off trying to get it to grow and one year the frost got it. The label does not identify it as a dwarf. But it is bearly bigger than the day I planted it. I fertilize it a couple times a year. Any suggestions on how to get it to grow taller with longer limbs?

just remember when you thin you are trading quanity for quailty what you have left will be larger and less stress on the limbs

I have a peach tree for its 2nd year and ddnt know all those small things were peaches. Luckily I asked people in my gardening group and they said to thin it and now I’m watching your video. Thank you now I’ll continue watching.

Can I thin the blossoms first so more energy is put into thinned fruit earlier?

What if the peaches are bigger than a quarter? Is it too late to thin?

You just saved my tree's life! 😂 I'm going to give it one more year. I had brought home the tree (years ago), planted it and got peaches the first year! I was so excited. Then the tree became an overgrown monster. I noticed only one part of the tree had beautiful flowers and the rest looked pathetic. I figured that maybe some of it had grown up from the root stock so I assumed that the part with the more beautiful flowers was what I should keep as the original tree. So now I will thin the fruit next year and see what happens. You're right ....it feels SO wrong to pick all those baby peaches off😖. Thank you! Soooo Now I guess I'm going to have to pull off all the unripe peaches. Then what should I do to the tree and when? Thanks again 😊

Interesting. Make sense why supermarkets rarely has fat juicy peaches . Supply and demand . Where can I buy a good peach plant . What do you recommend. Thanks

I wish I would have seen this video a month ago :( I had no idea. Now I have whole huge limbs I have to remove because they've broken from the weight of too many peaches on them. Plus I need help picking them all. They are falling in my yard and now I'm getting ants. Great info to have thank you for this video!

This is our 1st year with a peach tree and we were so excited to see all the little fruit on it today! Thank you so much for this video!! So helpful!!

Thank you so much! I have been wondering why my peaches are not growing. But you are right! It’s so emotionally draining to see how many peaches I have to remove! I feel so bad!

My tree this year gave me sooo much then before I literaly wanted to cry pruning then I had about a bucket of wasted blessings :(

What suggestion do you have, our peach tree has yielded perhaps one peach a year over the past five years. It is delicious. Since there is no fruit - I take thinning does not apply? This is in So California amidst the drought, what should I look for to get some peaches? Thanks!

I would start by removing the fruit on the branch tips as they pull the branch down more.

Never thinned our 4 year old peach tree and the limbs are sagging BIG time. Just went out there and thinned it out. Hope it comes back. Still have a LOT of fruit on the tree even after thinning.

Drat, I thinned mine but looks like not enough ! So back to thinking more peaches, they are loaded

Thank you so much , i will stay in touch K Hovis Michigan.

Is it better to wait until after the "June drop" to thin the peaches? If thinned before will some of the peaches then fall off from the June drop? It wasn't mentioned and I don't know if it happens everywhere but it does in my area.

Hiya thank you for your video. It has helped a newbie to peach trees a lot. The bunches of peaches on my tree are like a bunch of grapes. They are all so close together. Does this mean I am to only leave one peach and take the others away?

This year is a huge peach year for some reason. So this week we thin the peaches. It is hard, but we want sweet juicy peaches come August. Thank you!

Thank you for the instruction! My tree has massive amounts of small branches with big leaves hiding the fruit from the sun. Should I remove tiny branches full of leaves? My tree is very healthy . I think I over fertilized . Should I just leave it for this year? The fruit load is about 1/4 of usual. Thanks from Southern CA. BTW, we are expecting hot/dry weather which is going to STRESS a tree with too much foliage. Thanks!!

anything beneficial from the thinned peaches taken off the tree?

Can we plant the peaches we thinned?

I have a Red Haven that is about 10 years old and I don't know if there is something wrong with it or if it's just the way Peach trees are but I can't even thin at the 6" apart rule. I have to take most of the fruit off all of the smaller branches and only keep fruit that is growing on the trunks of larger branches so that there is no weight load out on the ends of the branches or the branches always break, especially when we get our hurricane strength winds here in Utah either before, during or after a storm or before a storm that never comes. My tree just will not handle any load without branches breaking so I have to thin a lot out of my tree. Thinking of getting another tree just so after I thin I will get the fruit that I want between both trees. Seems like this is a newer problem because both my Grand parents and parents trees never had to be messed with or thinned and they didn't have branches break and the peaches all grew large and tasted fantastic but now they need lots of work or you don't get fruit and the trees crumble under their own weight.

Do you also remove young peaches that have any kind of blemish such as those small sap-looking spots?

How do you keep bees away from a peach tree

What kind of peach tree is best all around? Wanting to plant some this year

So helpful and informative. Just inherited a tree with our new home. This is exactly what I needed to know. Brilliant 👏

That’s exactly what I was looking for. My peach looks just like yours ,many years old and the same size. New Bedford MA here. Thanks again

I am in a high desert area in idaho, how do I know if I’m watering my peach tree enough (or too much)? Any tips. Mine is just three years old and had tons if blooms this year for the first time. So excited to get some fruit (and should thin it down to about 20-30 peaches I’m thinking)

I've been thinning my multiple peach and nectarine trees for over a decade. I try to thin before they get bigger than my pinky fingernail - they pop right off with a half twist or perpendicular moving pinch. If they get bigger like in this video, you have to twist them a full 1-2+ turns which gets old really quick if you're thinning 200-400 per tree (and maybe injured from repetitive motion). I thin again 2 months later because I have never ever overthinned the first time or even the second. I still have to prop up the branches. I dare you to overthin.

I don’t thin my trees because between the squirrels and birds the peaches get knocked down all spring up to now (June 22). If I thinned my baby peaches, by the time late July rolls around (when my early peaches ripen), I wouldn’t have any peaches at all. The tree is over 14 feet high so too big for netting. It’s not ideal, but that’s life in the garden some times. 🌳🌳🌳🍑

Ho leeee crap. This could've easily fit into five minutes, you just repeated the same two facts for almost 10 minutes, along with the world record for ums. Tl;dw: when peaches are between dime and quarter size, thin to roughly 1 every 6 inches along a branch, adjust for peaches obviously favored by the tree. Remove by twisting up along the branch, so as not to remove bark.

My tree produces plenty fruit but it's not sweet

Stop talking so much. Start getting to to point

Hey Rick. I'm just entering my first year with a peach tree that looks almost exactly like yours in this video. I've been thinning out the double and triple and sometimes quadruple peaches that have started growing as I understand they will not end up being good fruit. I now want to thin the singles, but as you said, it's painful to "waste" all that fruit. Is there anything "productive" you can do with the thinned fruit? I've just been dropping them at the base of the tree hoping that they'll eventually serve as fertilizer. I might just be attracting rodents though. Any suggestions? Are they viable seeds that can grow into peach trees? Thank you!

Thank you for sharing your knowledge! I have read tons of articles and couldn't find anything about needing to thin the fruit. I assumed since apples needed thinning that my peaches would need the same.

I had a burgundy dwarf peach tree. After a few years a tree grew out of it with green leaves. It used to get baby peaches that I thought were uneatable. Now peaches are 3x in size. Are they eatable? Thanks.

Excellent information!!!

I’m in California and late. But I just heard about this practice and will thin now. Renting this property, so not skilled yet.

Thanks, I have a young peach tree with way too many blossoms and thin branches, guess it has to be done, last year the peaches were excellent

So glad I found you, wish I had done so sooner, incredibly helpful! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Is it too late to thin out my dwarf peach tree if the branches are already full of fruit? The branches are so full that they are almost touching the ground.