We've got a dwarf peach tree that's in it's fifth year, and for the first time it's busting out all over with hundreds of little peaches. We picked about 45 last night, threw about that many more in the ditch, and there are two or three times that many left on the tree. The ripe ones are tasty, too.

As you can see, they have some disease (some are almost covered with black spots that fused together). Best I can tell it's "bacterial spot," or possibly "peach scab." The County Agent says they are still safe to eat, just peel the bad skin away carefully. (Unlike the tree pictured in the "bacterial spot" article, the leaves don't seem to be affected, so maybe it's peach scab.)

Most of the damage was where fruit was bunched together, in thick leaf cover, or where leaves were lying directly on the peach. It sounds like thinning it out early and giving it room to air out will help minimize the damage next time.

After the first couple of barren years, we hadn't planned to get fruit from it. After learning about all the chemicals and treatments typically required to cultivate fruit, we figured to just let it go natural and let the birds and squirrels have at it. But we might try to treat it over the winter to help prevent disease next year.

Also, this poor little tree was seriously damaged by a runaway weedeater that stripped the bark off pretty severely around the bottom. We were surprised it even survived. I guess whatever doesn't kill it makes it stronger.

Pretty as a peach with freckles.

Limbs sagging under the weight of peaches.

It provides habitat, too.