I expect most of the forum members remember last year about the big peach I was lucky enough to harvest.
Just as a recap from last year. I harvested a peach of about 760 grams, which was larger than the previously recognized world record from Guiness World records, which was 720 grams held by Paul Friday.
Ironically, the record only held for 3 weeks because a Canada grower raised a peach of 810 grams three weeks later, even before my peach had a chance to be officially recognized by Guiness (I had electronically submitted all the paper work and was awaiting their decision.)
Here is a link about the current world record holder:
Well, wanted to mention I had another big peach this year, which was bigger than my peach last year, but not big enough for a world record. It weighs about 805 grams. I picked it last night because the meteorologists were predicting storms last night and I figured it would blow off if I didn’t pick it.
Here’s a pic of some of these big peaches in a crate of some nects and some yellow peaches. The yellow peaches are actually pretty big 1/2+ lb. but don’t look that big compared to the big Lady Nancy peaches. The nects are Fantasia.
Mark,
Lost by a nose. So close. Maybe, had you left it on the tree (with a net covered it from falling), water fromt the rain could have increased its weight and pushed it over 810 grams!!
Hope you will get to hold the world record next year.
I do have a few more hanging, but I think I picked the biggest ones.
I agree, I think if I had left them on the tree, they would have gotten bigger. I picked them fairly firm. I just didn’t think any were as big as the one last year, and I figured they’d blow off anyway, but duct taping a net around some of the biggest might have worked.
I wonder if there is something besides variety which is contributing to the size of these peaches on this tree. I have other Lady Nancy trees at the farm, but they don’t get as big. This is an older tree, so perhaps that’s the only factor?
Mark ,
That tree is meant to help put your name on the Guinness Book of World Record. Hopefully there remaining peaches will size up and surpass the 819 gram record.
Would you consider grafting scionwood from this tree to your other mature peach trees? Maybe, it could get the fruit from this graft to be gigantic, too. Just a thought.
I’ve never grown Oldmixon, but I understand it’s a very tasty large white peach. Lady Nancy has a lot of acid for a white peach and is actually a sport of a yellow peach (Jersey Queen).
I don’t really know that much about Oldmixon, other than it’s an antique variety and generally gets good reviews.
I’ve heard enough good comments about Oldmixon, I’d probably try to grow it, except that I’m growing less and less whites. They just don’t sell that well around here (and many of them are very bac. spot susc.)
I wanted to ask, did those white donuts (Sweet Cap) ever sweeten up and improve flavor? I recall, when we tasted them I felt like they were a little short on flavor and sugar, but they were a little firm at that point. I thought they might improve with age. Did they?
I’m not a real big fan of most white peaches anyway, so I’ve got a taste bias against them.
Olpea, I gave up on the Oldmixon, the only three sources, as far as I know are no longer available.
Scott was nice enough to send me scions two years in a row and for two years I did not get any takes.
(0-6 this year alone) Next year I’ll try Lady Nancy, believe ACN has it, meantime I was wiped out by either chipmonks or squirels. 20 trees stripped bare.
Darn, that’s one of the biggest fruit bummers I’ve heard this year. Go to all the trouble of putting the time in on the fruit and lose 20 trees worth of fruit to squirrels.
It sounds like they’ve been tuff on you, you need to get tuff on them.
I used to grow both and they are very similar, both excellent and a similar harvest time, size taste, etc. Lady Nancy rots more though so I removed it. Now that I am spraying Indar I could probably grow it fine.
Oh no, what a loss! Sorry tree rats. About how many fruit did you lose?
We had an old apple tree that’s just about on its last legs, has one partially producing trunk left. It had tons of blooms on it this year, and set a lot of a mystery apple that I’d never seen here before. The fruit was only on the tips, and not spurs, so there wasn’t a ton of fruit, but they were about golf ball size a couple weeks ago.
I had noticed that some of the lower branches had lost a few, prob to deer about three weeks ago. But last week, I was out there and saw that ALL of the apples were gone. Too high up for deer, and too big for birds, so my guess is squirrels. Dang, I was hoping to try some of those out, too!
Perhaps some people are considering adding Lady Nancy to their orchard. One thing I felt obligated to add after today is that, here in my climate, Lady Nancy can be unpredictable in terms of flavor.
I’ve grown this peach for several years. Some years it doesn’t develop adequate sugar here. Sometimes, some of the peaches will be sweet, and others won’t. This is a white peach with an unusual amount of acid (for a white) anyway, so if it doesn’t develop sugar, it can be pretty tart (like the early yellow peach Rich May).
I noticed this last year. The biggest peach and some others, were full flavored and sweet enough to be delicious, but some of the other peaches I picked were plain tart.
Today, I had a very good customer (and a good friend) come back with some of the huge Lady Nancy peaches I sold her (She was a good enough friend to bring them back.) They were plain tart, I tasted them. I replaced them with more traditional yellow peaches, which were sweeter this time of year.
Anyway, I’ve found this variety (although huge) lacks consistency in the fruit. I currently have 4 of these trees and because of this issue will probably end up removing 3 of them.
Spring Snow is a very early white peach with a much more consistent good flavor. I’d recommend this much smaller white peach, heartily, over Lady Nancy (at least in our wet climate). The best peaches of Spring Snow are better tasting than the best peaches of Lady Nancy. And for sure, the worst peaches of Spring Snow totally eclipse the worst peaches of Lady Nancy.
Wow, now I realize how big your big peaches are. I just weighed the largest peach I harvested today and it is the size of a softball- much larger than what you will find in stores or what I can eat in one sitting. It only weighed 390 grams.
Flavor May has gotten plenty enough sugar here in the 2 years it has had fruit. It was sweeter this year than much of the subsequent peaches until recently. Even the crop now is a disappointment as far as brix- just too much water keeps coming out of the sky. Had my first perfect peach of the season yesterday, though. A dead ripe Jonboy from a nursery tree with only two fruit. Guess I should have thinned more.
I happen to notice today something you probable know, Mark, but I wanted to be sure. Apparently another world record peach was harvested last fall in GA that was bigger than the one that beat your record peach. It was an August Prince (a variety I grow!) grown in Georgia and weighed in at 816 grams.
If anything, I think this should make you more proud of yours, not less. I mean, both of the peaches that beat yours only beat it by less than 2 ounces, so it’s very clear that you raised a peach that was VERY close to the largest one ever grown. The 3rd largest peach is still a huge deal to me, especially when the other 2 are so close to yours. One more day or a little more rainfall could easily have made yours weigh in at 816.
Anyway, you may have already mentioned this or at least known about it, but I thought it was kind of neat and I’m still impressed that one of our members produced such a fine piece of fruit!!!
Actually I didn’t know about this, so I appreciate you mentioning it. The link says it was an Early Augustprince. I’ve never grown that one (although I like several of the Prince series peaches). I’ve tried to grow Augustprince, but found out it was a mislabel.
I missed the word “Early”, and I’ve never seen an “early august prince” for sale anywhere. I have about 7 or 8 prince varieties but they haven’t started fruiting yet.
I have a few trees this year that only have a hand full of peaches on the whole tree thanks to the late frost here, so maybe I’ll get some big peaches this year!
Vaughn Nursery lists it on their Webpage. I’ve never tried it because it’s supposed to ripen close to Carolina Gold, and so far I’m really liking C. Gold for that window.
