Peaches are sizing up — and we're thinning them

Hundreds of fuzzy little fruit. We'll pull most of them off so the rest grow big.

Field notes

The peach tree was a cloud of pink blossoms in early April. Today it's loaded with fuzzy little peaches, each about the size of a big marble. Way too many for the tree to handle.

So we thin: pinch off all but one peach every 6 to 8 inches along the branch. It feels wasteful, but the peaches we leave behind get twice as big, and the tree won't snap a limb under the weight.

The learning

What's actually happening

Self-fruitful, unlike apples

Most peach varieties are 'self-fruitful' — a single tree can pollinate its own flowers. That's the opposite of apples, which need a second variety nearby to set fruit.

Why peaches have fuzz

That fine hair on the skin is called 'trichome'. It discourages insects from landing on the developing fruit and helps the peach hold a little extra moisture in dry wind. Nectarines are just peaches with a recessive gene that turns the fuzz off.

Why we thin

A peach branch can only push so much sugar and water out to the fruit. Leave 200 peaches and you get 200 tiny dry ones — and you risk breaking the branch. Thin to about 50 and each one gets four times the food and water.

Words to know

Thinning: Removing extra young fruit so the ones left behind grow bigger.
Stone fruit: A fruit with one big hard pit in the middle — peaches, plums, cherries, apricots.
Self-fruitful: A tree that can make fruit using its own pollen, with no partner tree needed.

Your turn

Make your guesses

Enroll a kid to save guesses.

Guess

There are roughly 200 little peaches on the tree right now. How many full-sized peaches do you think we'll pick in July?

Hint: After thinning AND natural drop, a young backyard peach tree gives 40–80 keepers.

Wonder

Why does it feel wrong to pick off perfectly good baby fruit — but the tree actually does better when we do?

Try this at home

▸Run your finger across a grocery-store peach. That faint fuzz is the trichome — the tree's own bug repellent.
▸Eat a peach, then split the pit. Inside is a single brown seed that looks like an almond — they're close relatives.

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