Paano Magtanim ng Peach: How to Plant Peach the Traditional Way
Paano magtanim ng peach? Here is how traditional Filipino farmers usually plant peach, step by step from getting the field ready to the harvest, with the day of each step and what to change for a higher yield.
This guide shows how traditional farmers usually plant peach. Use it as a starting point. For a higher yield, update it: plant certified seed or clean planting material, test your soil, and follow the right spacing and fertilizer.
Peach is rare in the Philippines: there are no peach farms, only a few trees in gardens and trial plots in the cool highlands around Baguio and Benguet. Trials found that in the warm lowlands the trees grow well but almost never keep their fruit, so this short guide is for highland growers who want to try low chill types.
Before you plant, get the field ready with our land preparation guide for fruit and plantation trees. For more on the crop, read pagtatanim ng puno.
When to plant peach
Trees are planted at the start of the rains, about May to July. Without a winter, growers bring on flowers by stripping the leaves once growth stops. Fruit sets best in the cool, dry months.
What you plant
Grafted trees of low chill peach or nectarine types, bred for warm places, from a specialty nursery. Seedlings from store fruit seldom bear.
Paano magtanim ng peach, step by step
We count the first harvest at about 30 months (900 days). Many trees here bear little or nothing. The crop is ready about 30 months after planting.
Before planting (Bago magtanim)
14 days before planting: Choose cool, well drained ground
Pick a sunny, high and cool spot where water drains fast. Dig holes about 50 cm wide and deep with rotted manure or compost.
Planting day (Pagtatanim)
Planting day: Plant at the start of the rains
Set the grafted tree at the same depth, graft joint above the soil, about 3 to 4 m apart. Firm, water, stake and mulch.
Care while it grows (Pag aalaga)
Month 3: Prune to an open bowl
Cut the tip at knee to waist height and keep three or four branches spreading outward, so sun reaches the middle. Feed compost and a little complete fertilizer (14 14 14) every few months.
Month 12: Strip leaves to bring on flowers
When growth stops and the leaves are mature, pick them off by hand so the tree pushes new flowers and leaves. Repeat after each crop.
Month 13: Thin and bag the fruit
Leave one fruit every hand's width along a branch, remove the rest, and bag them against fruit flies.
Harvest (Anihan)
Month 30: Pick ripe fruit
We count the first crop at about 30 months. Pick when the green under the red blush turns yellow and the fruit gives slightly when pressed.
Watering peach, stage by stage
The few peach trees here live on rain, with a pail of water in dry spells, on high ground that drains fast. A pail or hose into a ring basin, in the morning.
Flowering to about four weeks after bloom. The final swell, the last weeks before picking.
| Stage | When | How often | How much |
|---|---|---|---|
| Planting to 3 months | Planting day to month 3 | Soak at planting, then whenever the soil dries in a dry spell, until the tree is clearly growing | A good soak of the mulched ring around the stem |
| Rest of the first year | Month 3 to 12 | Only in dry spells, when the soil a hand deep is dry | A deep soak of the ring, never leaving water standing |
| Leaf stripping to new shoots and flowers (each crop cycle) | Month 12 to 13 | Keep the soil moist after stripping the leaves. Water if a dry spell comes | A deep soak of the ring under the leaves |
| Flowering to four weeks after bloom | Month 13 to 14 | Never let the soil dry out | A deep soak whenever the soil a hand deep is dry |
| Final swell to harvest (first real crop) | Month 28 to 30 | Steady water in dry spells in the last weeks before picking | A deep soak of the ring |
Without irrigation. Plant as the rains begin on sunny, cool, well drained ground and mulch the ring. Most trees get by on rain, with a pail of water in dry spells at flowering and final swell.
In the dry season. Water when the soil a hand deep is dry, above all at flowering and in the last weeks before picking.
In the rainy season. Peach roots rot in standing water: plant on raised or sloping ground and keep the trunk dry.
- Too little water: Leaves droop and curl, few fruits set, and fruits stay small.
- Too much water: Yellow leaves, gum on the trunk and dying roots on soggy ground.
To water better for a higher yield: Water steadily from flowering for four weeks and again in the final weeks before picking. The middle weeks need less.
Spacing, water and fertilizer for peach
Spacing
About 3 to 4 m between trees. Trials used close rows of 3 m x 1 m.
Water
Rain fed, with watering in dry spells. Never in standing water.
Fertilizer
Compost, rotted manure and small amounts of complete fertilizer (14 14 14) every few months. To read what a bag really gives, see our guide to fertilizer for this crop.
Care and harvest
Care while it grows
Open bowl pruning, leaf stripping after each crop, fruit thinning and bagging.
When and how to harvest
Fruit is picked when the ground color turns yellow and the flesh just softens. It bruises easily and is eaten within days.
Common mistakes when planting peach
- Planting peaches in the hot lowlands, where fruit drops before it ripens.
- Buying high chill types that need a cold winter.
- Leaving every fruit on, so all stay small.
How to get a higher yield of peach
The traditional way gets a crop, but small changes add up. These are the first things to change, one season at a time.
- Try only low chill types, and only in cool highlands.
- Strip leaves on a schedule and keep notes on what works.
- Test the soil and feed by the result. Bag fruit against flies.
anee.io helps with each of these. The NPK Plus calculator checks that your fertilizer plan feeds the yield you want, the pest and disease finders tell you what is on the leaves before you spray, and Anee, the smart farm technician answers your questions in Tagalog or English.
Members open this guide in the How to Plant tool and send every step to the Protocol Builder in one tap, each on its own day. There you can change the seed, the spacing and the fertilizer, then turn it into a cropping calendar for your lots.
Start from the traditional way, make it better, and let anee.io date every task from your own planting day. Free to start.
Start freeQuestions about planting peach
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When do farmers plant peach in the Philippines?
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