OK i don't want to pick up after this fruit tree I have in my front yard so i thought I would just keep it...
Question:trimmed down.The person whom we bought our home from planted several small fruit trees in the yard .4 being in my FRONT YARD! I hate fruit trees in my front yard so I had 3 removed and the one left is a peach tree it is about 7 ft tall and about 5 ft wide the trunk is about 5 to 6 inches in circumfrance, it put fruit on last year.I fought with apricot and apple trees all last year and I really hate the thought of fruit dropping in my front yard to a point that flies,nats and wasp gather to eat and fruit begins to rot and has that awefull smell.
So my question is..if I keep the tree trimmed to the hight I want it and keep the limbs trimmed to the width I want them will the tree continue to produce ok? I want to be able to harvest off it quickly like I did last year.
But I still want the shade of the tree.
Answers:
Yes, that's what many good fruit orchards do. My one neighbor growing up who runs an apple orchard would cut his apple trees so they weren't much taller than him. Some apple orchards grow their apples so where the trees more closely resemble grape vines than trees so that the apples can be easily picked. By keeping the trees small the apples can be picked easier and the fruits are larger.
So yeah, it's perfectly fine and even a really good idea.
Trimming isn't the answer. What you need to do is clean up around your tree before it gets all smelly and gross. You like the fruit you admit but hate the hassle of the clean, well go to the store and buy your peaches and get the tree dug up. OR you can just clean everyday under the tree as it the fruit falls. Deal or no deal! Easy answer.
Keeping it trimmed will have the reverse affect you desire. If you have ever been to an orchard you might have noticed all of the trees are trimmed. This removes a lot of the access branches helping to maximize the harvest. Your best bet is to harvest regularly and often. Tell people you know they can come by and pick some , give a lot away. I can understand the frustration, I had a 20 ft apricot tree in my back yard, the smell was awful the first year, but the second I gave fruit to every one I knew and cleaned around the bottom of the tree daily to keep the fermented smell away. Your tree shouldn't be as bad as the twenty footer, plus peaches are much easier to give away than apricots.
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