I dont have a south facing wall on my allotment to grow one against and am despparate for the tast of fresh peaches that I remember from my childhood....
Every book going talks about training them against a wall - but I thought there must be someone out there growing it as a bush with success?
I don't know where you are, Tish. We have a dwarf peach which produced approx 20 peaches this year and 40 last, it is in the middle of our fruit cage but is in a sort of sheltered spot, protected by other trees, including another peach which only produced 6, we are in the north west :)
The main problem of outdoor bush peaches is leaf curl - I know some people are happy spraying, but it isn't as effective as keeping a fan shape covered from before bud burst until April.
There is a peach called Avalon Pride which is supposed to be immune and works well as a bush - I suspect that actually means you can get by with a few sprays rather than an insane regime...
However I've read an unbiased review that says it is worth growing - though apparently the flavour isn't a patch on Peregrine.
Cheers.
Peach is a tree and yes, you can 'train'/grow it anyshape yo want it...BUT...like Vilander said..the flat shape has its advantages. Not only for disease control reasons..but in UK where the amount of sun in the summer ::) can be bit hit and miss, maximum exposure for sun (for fruits) creates best tasting fruit.
The part of our fruit cage with the peaches in is covered :)