Janell Garcia, age 13, of Willingsboro, N.J. for her question:
WHERE ARE MOST PEACHES GROWN?
A peach is a round, yellow, delicious summer fruit that is ' second only to the apple in distribution throughout the world. More peaches are grown in the United States than in all other countries of the world combined. California is the leading peach growing state.
Peach trees grow in most temperate regions. China is probably the peach's native home and it has grown there for at least 4,000 years. No one knows just when the peach tree was brought to Europe but it can be found today growing in many countries there.
The first peach trees in the United States arrived when colonists settled Virginia in the early 1600s.
Next to California, the next four leading peach growing states, listed in order of their ranking, are South Carolina, Georgia, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Peaches do well where there are few late frosts. Flowers appear early in the spring and can be injured by later frosts. Peaches do best southward from the Great Lakes region of the Middle West into the deep South, and along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.
Pruning is necessary for good food production. Peach trees are pruned more heavily than most other fruit trees. Growers keep their trees pruned low to make spraying and picking easier. Because the fruit is produced on shoots of the previous season's growth, about one third of the last year's growth is kept. All the rest is cut off.
Peach trees usually produce so many peaches that the fruit must be thinner. Growers remove some of the peaches early in the season. This increases the size and improves the quality of the fruit that remains.
Tree ripened peaches have the best flavor. They are harvested when they are ripe but still firm. A peach orchard starts to bear large crops three or four years after it is planted. If the trees are healthy, they live about 20 years.
They are many varieties of peaches. They ripen from early summer to late fall.
Peaches are called freestone or clingstone, according to how difficult it is to remove the pit from the fruit. The furit of freestone peaches is usually softer than that of the clingstone.
Perhaps the best known peach variety ie Elberta, a freestone. It originated in 1870 in Marshalville, Georgia. Other well known freestone varieties are J.H. Hale, Redhaven, Hiley, Halehaven, July Elberta and Golden Jubilee. Important clingstone varieties include Fortune, Palora, Johnson, Gaume and Simms.
Growers plant standard sized peach trees about 18 to 25 feet apart in the orchard. But those trees grown on dwarfing rootstocks are planted 12 to 15 feet apart.
The best soil is one of medium texture, such as a sandy loam. Peach trees must be watered regularly. The amount of water required varies with climate, texture and depth of soil. Enough water must be used to wet the entire root system.