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I grew this peach tree from a pit from a peach tree that grew in in my yard which grew the most delicious peaches. That was in Seattle 2 years ago but now I live in Colorado and I'd like to plant it in the ground eventually. The leaves are starting to come back after the winter.

I trimmed the tips off the branches because they were dried and dead looking after the winter (maybe 1-2 inches depending on the branch). I was watering the plant in this pot during the winter.

My question is about this little shoot coming off the bottom. Should I cut it completely off? Should I let it grow? It is growing much faster than the rest of the leaves. Is it pulling energy away from the rest of the tree? Is it a problem that it is coming out of the base?

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    I'm not sure that 'shoot' isn't a separate weed - the leaves appear to have toothed edges, unlike peach leaves. Also, because you grew the plant from a peach pit, it doesn't have a root stock to produce suckers with, so even if its not a weed, I'm not at all sure it needs cutting back. Any new shoots will be coming from the peach roots, not rootstock, but check its not just a weed first.
    – Bamboo
    Mar 14, 2017 at 17:01
  • @Bamboo I'm pretty sure those are what the leaves looked like on the fully mature peach tree, too. I'll have to see if I have any old pictures when I get home.
    – Brad
    Mar 14, 2017 at 18:20

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Yes, you should trim them. It is frequent to have such shots on fruit plants (or in general plants which are planted or cut). See also Epicormic shoot in Wikipedia

Note: plants grow from a fruit could be very different than the mother plant. Better way to have identical fruits, is to graft some branches of mother to a new tree.

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  • Thank you. I'll clip it tonight. If I still had access to the original tree could I graft it to this plant grown from one of the mother's pits? Or does the grafting need to be unrelated trees?
    – Brad
    Mar 14, 2017 at 15:01
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    Any tree, also related. Sometime some strong tree are preferred (for root). But maybe this tree produce better fruits than the mother. Bamboo or stormy could correct me, but I think you can also put a branch on ground and it will put roots and grow back. OTOH peaches are hard to create new gems.
    – Giacomo Catenazzi
    Mar 14, 2017 at 16:03
  • What is a gem? You think it's even worth planting in the ground without a graft?
    – Brad
    Mar 14, 2017 at 16:27
  • @Brad A gem is a peach tree that grows good peaches.
    – jkd
    Mar 15, 2017 at 6:10
  • @jakekimdsΨ ...I thought there might be more meaning to it
    – Brad
    Mar 16, 2017 at 20:45

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