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Why Are My Peaches Small? | 2 Clueless Reasons & Solutions!

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It feels wonderful to taste the sweetness of the peach fruit you worked hard to grow in your garden.

Nothing is more satisfying than seeing a ripe, juicy peach hanging from the tree. A healthy and well-grown peach is sweet, big, fleshy, and juicy. It can make your mouth water to only look at the orange-red skin of the fruit.

However, sometimes due to certain conditions, you may see that the peaches haven’t grown to their full size.

It takes time for the peach tree to bear fruit, and you must go through a long waiting period. So, when the fruit comes out as underwhelming after all the hard work, it can leave you wondering, why are my peaches small?

There can be a few different reasons for the fruits not to grow to their full size.

You must know about these reasons and work on them in the early stages of tree development to reap the fruit of your effort in its correct size.

Keep reading as we explore the answers to your question!

Peaches on a white table—why are my peaches small
Why are my peaches small? – Image via LUM3N.

Why Are My Peaches Small?

Why are my peaches small, you say? It takes time for the peach tree to grow and produce fruit.

You may have to wait for as long as two to three years to see the first batch of fruit on the tree if you are growing the plant from scratch.

You can also find young trees in the market, which take slightly less time for the plant to bear fruit.

All this time, you have to keep fulfilling the requirements of the peach tree, and it can be frustrating to discover that the peaches have come out in the wrong size.

The size of the peach has great significance because there is a big seed in the middle, covered by the flesh.

The flesh is the edible part, and it is what creates the market value of the peach. With a small fruit, there is likely a little portion of the flesh with a big seed in the middle. So, small peaches may not be as marketable either.

With so much at stake, let’s find out the reasons behind the burning question—why are my peaches small?

1. Different Varieties of the Fruit

The size of the peach can vary depending on the variety of the tree you grew in your garden.

  • There is a wide range of varieties for peach trees; some naturally produce smaller peaches than others.
  • For example, the Springcrest peach variety fruit is naturally small, while those on June gold are large and plump.
  • Moreover, the time it takes for the fruit to grow appropriately and come to its full size can also vary with the varieties of the peaches.
  • Some types may grow earlier and bear large fruits only after a couple of years, while other varieties of the peach tree may not start bearing fruit until the third year.
  • For those varieties, you may have to wait till year four to see the best growth of the fruit.

So, make sure you know which variety of peach trees you have in your garden and related information about them.

2. Overcrowding of the Fruit

A peach tree produces a large number of blooms in the growing season. These blooms will go on to become peaches.

While this sounds like the perfect scenario, too many buds can be a problem for the tree and the subsequent fruit.

Buds need resources like light, water, and nutrients from the plant to keep growing and become fruit. If they are not given the right number of resources, peaches can end up in a small size.

So, one of the reasons for the small peaches on your tree could be that there is just too much fruit on it, causing the plant to divide the limited resources into more fruits than it can bear.

For example, if there are too many branches on the tree with excess fruit, the blooms on the top branches will cover those on the bottom branches from receiving enough sunlight.

Without light, the peaches won’t be able to grow to their full size.

Q&A – Why do my peaches stay small and hard and never ripen? – YouTube

That was all about “Why are my peaches small?”. Now, let’s talk about how to solve the issue.

How to Solve the Issue?

Here are a couple of things that can do the trick.

1. Thinning of Peach Tree

To counter this issue, you must carry out the active peach tree’s thinning. You can thin the peach tree by pruning or carrying out the process on the buds.

  • In pruning, you must start early and cut out some branches that will bear fruit.
  • You must cut the branches in the mid to late winter when the plant is still dormant.
  • The ideal time for pruning is from mid to late February.
  • Cutting off some of the branches at the top that covers the bottom branches will ensure less fruit on the tree, but the peaches will grow larger as they receive proper resources.

Another way of thinning the tree is through the manual method, where you must thin out the buds in their early stages before they bloom.

  • This method is labor-intensive as the thinning of the peaches is usually carried out by hand.
  • You can remove the buds in early spring as soon as you see the first pop of color on the buds.
  • The color shows that they have started to grow, and if you thin out the tree now, you will be able to get larger fruits shortly.

Some chemical methods might also be available but are not as widespread.

So, it is better to thin the tree manually.

How to Thin Peaches: to Improve Fruit Size and Sweetness – YouTube

2. Add Fertilizer

Adding fertilizer can make your peach fruits grow bigger.

However, you have to be careful with the chemical fertilizers as adding too much of it can halt the growth of the fruits and promote foliage to take over instead.

Just the right amount, as recommended by the manufacturer before the growing season, can do wonders for the size of the peaches.

That would be all for today!


Conclusion

Why are my peaches small, you asked? I hope you got your answer.

Peaches are one of the most delicious fruits to exist. If you grow them in your garden, you will know the effort that goes into growing these fruits properly.

So, seeing your tree produce small fruits after years of effort can be demotivating.

But you can easily overcome this issue. Make sure to provide the right growing conditions, thin the plant, and soon you will be able to enjoy big, juicy peaches.

Regards.