The house we recently (couple year ago) moved into has a peach in a fan under the eaves on the south side. Partly due to the previous own and my own neglect since we moved in, the peach is no longer a very good specimen. Much of the growth is now around the outside of the fan (farther away from the trunk) so that if I prune there won't be much left for fruiting ... yet if I don't prune it, it will shortly be growing out into the rain in short order. I'm guessing that grafting will be part of my solution. Lee Valley had a nifty looking thing that I picked up (drill bit that matches a pencil sharpener so that you drill into the trunk and then use a pencil sharpener on pencil diameter scion and plug it neatly into the hole) and I'm itching to use it on something. Although I've done some reading, I'm a newcomer to the whole grafting process. 1. What's the best way to graft a peach and especially graft it to the trunk of the peach? I'll likely try at least one graft with the Lee Valley gadget, should I try more or none? 2. Any other advice for peach tree rejuvenation?
I've done some grafting but not a lot. My impression is that grafting peaches is more difficult than some other common fruit trees. At least I've had success with apples and plums but not with peaches. I've read that grafting onto the trunk of an older tree is the most difficult; so you have your work cut out for you. I think you would be more successful if you pruned off at least one of the main branches to induce new growth on the trunk and then grafted onto the new growth. I also understand that budding is more successful than grafting for peach trees; so I plan to try that myself soon.
Thanks for the cautionary words. I guess I'll make sure to do as much reading as I can and not get my hopes up too much ... and we'll see what happens. Quite a time to wait before grafting time arrives anyway. :)
