The Best Way To Transplant A Peach Tree Sapling Into A Container

With just the right balance of refreshing and sweet, peaches make for the perfect summer snack. Once you finish licking the sticky juice from your fingers, you're left with a pit — the "stone" that makes peaches one of many kinds of stone fruit, a category that also includes apricots, cherries, and mangos. If you wash, dry, and crack open the pit, you'll find a seed, from which you can grow a peach tree that will produce peaches for many summers to come — or you could just buy a sapling from a nursery.

Regardless of how you acquired your peach tree sapling, you'll want to transplant it into a generously sized container with a nutritious potting mix to help your fruit tree grow and produce faster. Though peach trees can be grown outdoors in USDA Hardiness Zones 4 to 9, they prefer Zones 6 to 8, which provide the most moderate climates. If you live in a colder climate, you can keep your peach tree happy by bringing it indoors at the first sign of a chill in the air, or, if necessary, peaches are one fruit tree you can grow indoors year-round. In these cases, a container is the way to go instead of transplanting your sapling into the ground. Properly transplanting the sapling into its new pot will set it up for success and healthy growth.

Like moving to a new house, transplanting to a new pot can be rather stressful for your plants. Reduce this stress by following the proper procedures, beginning with the container itself. To allow room to grow, the pot should be about twice the size of the root ball. Since your peach tree will be inside for at least part of the year, you might be considering a more aesthetically pleasing pot, but to keep the tree from getting waterlogged, you should never plant in a pot that doesn't have any drainage holes. Peach trees enjoy the acidic bite of soil with a pH of 6.0 to 7.0, so fill the pot with a soil mix that falls within that range. While commercial potting soil works for this purpose, mix in some peat and perlite to provide enough moisture retention and drainage for your young plant.

Once your nutritious soil mixture is in the pot, make a hole in the center for the sapling's root ball. Near this hole, insert a long stake deep into the soil. This will help support the young tree as it grows, but it must be placed in the container before the tree to avoid damaging the roots. Then, grasp your peach tree by the base of its trunk and move it into the shallow hole you hollowed out, covering it until the crown — the top of the root system — is level with the pot's rim.

Dust off your hands and take a second to appreciate your peach tree sapling, which will eventually supply you with delicious peaches. Your freshly transplanted peach sapling will need regular watering to keep it from getting dehydrated while it settles in. Containers dry out more quickly than outdoor garden beds because of the smaller amount of soil. Some pot materials also absorb moisture. Water the sapling daily, but be wary of overwatering. If you're uncertain about whether your plant needs water, stick your finger into the soil to check how moist it is from the last watering. Make sure your sapling doesn't dry out by covering the soil with a layer of mulch. Only once the tree is established can it safely dry out between waterings.

To keep your peach happy, hoist the pot up and put it somewhere that receives at least six hours of sunlight every day. Growing a fruit tree is a process that requires patience and care, so do not expect your sapling to produce fruit for the first few years, and avoid making rookie fruit tree mistakes like forgetting to fertilize and prune your tree.