Page 18 - Leisure Living Magazine: July 2021 Edition

Peaches: What Else Can Happen?
By Brad Schwan, Peach Farmer
Every summer I’m asked to write about the Catawba peach crop and I usually struggle to find something new. By now most of you know of the great history of this peach growing region. Many of you can even remember childhood trips here to buy peck baskets (if not bushels) of delicious peaches. Shortly after the turn of the twentieth century this little area produced over one million bushels! Our great peach growing history and most of the perils of this finicky crop have been explained in great detail in the past. Whether extreme cold, late frost, flooding, insects, fungus or deer it has been covered.
Then out of the blue, came the monsoon of a few weeks ago. Things were coming along beautifully until the day we
got driving rain along with winds as high
as 50 miles per hour. So this year’s “peril” installment is the damage an extreme
storm does to an orchard. Although quite shallow, a mature peach tree’s roots can
hold up against such forces of nature, however, the one year old trees had a large canopy (think “sail”) with not enough
roots to hold against such a force. A large portion of those young trees were rocked back and forth enough to open the ground around the trunk and cause a severe tilt to the tree by the time the winds let up.
Each year several weeks are devoted to pruning the trees. This task ensures that every tree maximizes its potential by clearing dead branches and opening up the center so that sunlight can penetrate the tree. Although many people fear that pruning will weaken a tree, the opposite is actually true. Pruning invigorates a tree and creates new growth. Pruning is followed by weeks of thinning peaches by removing hundreds of peaches from each tree. If a peach tree is not thinned, either the peaches will not get larger than a golf ball or, if they do, they have the potential of breaking the tree into many pieces. The end product will be the largest, sweetest peach possible! This year the added chore of uprighting many young trees was created. About half of our one year old trees had to be set upright and secured with straps.
18 |LeisureLiving July 2021
Pruning trees and thinning peaches helps to assure a good crop.
The end result is that this year’s crop looks fantastic even after mother nature sent us yet another challenge. I have one last thing to share with you. I encourage you all to plant and grow something, anything! Growing plants will always create a challenge; however, there is an incredible “magic” feeling that comes with watching and assisting nature. More than ever, in these post- covid times, a planter or window box or tiny piece of ground filled with any plant will return your peace of mind and put joy in your heart.
The annual Peach and Wine Festival will be held at Schwan Orchards on Catawba Saturday, August 21 from 11am-8pm. Stop in and enjoy some great entertainment, food and wine. The event will benefit the Humane Society of Ottawa County.
www.LeisureLivingMagazine.com