This is 5 years out of date. If anyone can come up with a more current article please post a link.
That article is not helpful anyway, there is not a single word about flavor in it. And you wonder why commercial growers are planting such tasteless peaches, they are getting tasteless advice.
I haven’t seen many commercial evaluations in the last few years (for humid areas) but I suppose there haven’t been a lot of new introductions in that regard.
I’m still trying to sort out what late peaches work for me. I prefer non-patented varieties, so I can propagate my own, but for some harvest windows, there aren’t any good choices.
As far as the article:
Frecon recommended Gloria. I just don’t like these yellow sub-acid peaches (my customers don’t like them either, from what I can tell). I’m removing my last NJF18 flat peach tree. Just too hard to sell yellow sub-acid peaches.
Even though Frecon was looking for a replacement for Cresthaven. I thought it was a pretty decent peach this year (although it did get a fair amount of bac. spot). Frecon said Cresthaven produces a “lousy tree”. My trees are too young to evaluate that, so I don’t know what he’s referring to yet. What have you seen Alan w/ Cresthaven trees?
I’ve tried most of the peaches he mentioned, except FlamePrince, AutumnPrince and some of the lesser known PF varieties.
I really liked several of the PF varieties I have. PF25, PF27A, PF28-007. were all very good, despite heavy cropping. PF35-007, a later peach, produced some really big peaches, which were OK. All of these fruited for just the first time this year, so I don’t have a lot of experience w/ them.
He mentioned Messina. I picked it also for the first time this year and don’t remember what it tastes like, so I’m guessing it wasn’t that remarkable, but I was pretty busy at the time. I’ve liked Autumnstar as a late peach for a long time, but this year it wasn’t that good. Victoria, which ripens a bit later than Autumnstar, was a better peach this year.
I’d like to try AugustPrince (the article refers to this peach as AutumnPrince) but I’m fairly certain this is a misprint. AugustPrince ripens shortly after FlamePrince, while AutumnPrince is much later.
1 Like
I experiment with a lot of varieties without any clear guidance about relative quality. Of the more recent releases mentioned here that I’ve tried, all have been very good peaches.
If I relied on the experiences of forum members the only tree later than Encore that I’d have is Heath Cling, which is a very interesting peach but not really very peach like. It is in a category of its own, which is nice when unusual and interesting are your main goals. I actually like a good conventional peach just fine. I prefer Victoria off the tree to HC but HC is good as a cooking peach as Scott originally called it when he sold me on growing it. Some folks I’ve had sample it love it off the tree and others hate it.
I took a chance on Laurol and Victoria- with Victoria the only one I actually tended for fruit quality and I’m very happy to have it in my orchard. It tastes like a typical real good peach- what makes it valuable is that it ripens into Oct here- 10 days after Encore. Laurol seemed like it will be another good one when I get some fruit from well lit branches.
PF 28 … will likely prove superior to Encore based on the relative high quality of peaches it bore on a couple of nursery trees low in the canopy and in unfavorable light. They still had very good color and flavor.
The earlier Messina is also quite good and quite large (for those who care).
I look forward to sampling O’Henry next season and took a chance by ordering 5 for my nursery before tasting any here. Hopefully bacterial spot won’t render them useless.
The key word for me in determining quality is “subacid” which I avoid like the plague. Unfortunately the main Rutgers breeder is drawn to such peaches and ACN does not reliably describe them as such- instead simply terming them great flavored peaches. Not by my palate.
1 Like
Isn’t subacid the same as low acid? If so Honey Royale is subacid. True they’re no good if conditions don’t allow high brix. But with high brix they can be extraordinary.
I’ve not yet tasted a low acid white peach that I liked. I got rid of those before I was measuring brix. I guess one yr in Amarillo Nectar tasted good.
I only grow one peach on the list - Flame Prince. I picked and sold these peaches the week of August 22-29 which was later than expected. Although Flame Prince looked and tasted somewhat like Contender, it was a lot more difficult to judge their ripeness. Flame Prince peaches were smaller than Contender or Winblo, but they had not been thinned as well, which may account for the smaller size. The FP peaches seemed to hang on the tree a long time before they sized up and reached maturity. Winblo and Contenter ripened quickly - almost overnight, but it took Flame Prince several weeks to get ripe. Because they did not ripen as quickly as expected, I may have picked the FP about a week too early. I will keep that in mind next year
Speaking of non patented peach trees it seems Cumberland Valley has 70 cultivars. many I never heard of. I think they had problems this year? Not sure? Anyway it’s a list of possible peaches to try.
For me we have plenty of examples of good old fashioned peaches. I can’t fit all i want as is. Olpea, I’m going to need some scion again as most you sent last year froze on me and was ruined, well all of them really! So much for my first attempt! I tried some anyway, but none took, zero. They were bad, brown throughout. This year I plan to put them in another fridge that works very well! Well I needed practice anyway and by the time I finished last year I was making excellent cuts.
Do you folks think Victoria is the best all-around for late season? I am planning on adding one yellow late-season peach as my last yellow is O’Henry.
Here is another list, it shows Victoria as the only recommended really late one. Of course its from the breeders of Victoria so take with some salt.
https://njaes.rutgers.edu/pubs/fs1201/
This sheet like Ouichita Gold more for flavor:
at least for that ripening period.
Scott
I’m not sure about Victoria, but the lists you attached are very helpful.
Below is another list based on varieties grown in NC, The grower placed an * next to the preferred variety
http://jones.ces.ncsu.edu/files/library/52/peachvariety062.pdf
I don’t grow any very late peach variety because I spray the trunks and lower scaffolds for peach tree borers around labor day. I stay out of the area for about a week after that.
I’ve not tried Ouchita Gold nor seen it for sale. The U KY descriptions seem highly suspicious with no clear rating system- just a random variety of adjectives- . It is very hard to compare so many varieties of peaches for flavor without some careful group taste comparisons- I suspect these were the contributions of a single person.
I would want another source for info on time of ripening, as well. I can’t figure out if the numbers on the KY sheet are about spread of harvest or the range year to year. If the spread is that long I want that peach- but I know that Victoria doesn’t all ripen up in 2 days.
Rutgers used to use a 1 to 8 rating system for flavor, among other things, but they haven’t done that in a while as far as I know. It used to be based on group tastings.
And what about “Fairtime?” Is ANYBODY growing this peach outside of Calif? Supposed to be an excellent very late-season yellow freestone.
ARS (UC-Davis) and Bay Laurel have it.
Vaughn (TN) is the only source outside of Calif I am aware of.
NJ says Gloria is the latest blooming peach in all their tests. We discussed it earlier as a very hardy variety. I might try that before recommending it to my sister in WI.
Ill tell you this, if you decided to try Fairtime…dont buy it from Dave Wilson on Citation. Peaches are way way too dwarfed on that understock. Ive got one in the ground for 3 years and it still isnt more than waist high. Get if from UC Davis and graft it on a decent peach rootstock.
3 Likes
It’s threads like this that I appreciate so much. I’ve never grown peaches so I’ve got nothing to contribute. However, the knowledge I gain through learning about others’ experiences will greatly contribute to the success of my future peach plantings. Thanks to all who take the time to educate me.
2 Likes
Scott,
I just have one years experience (and this was a very wet year) but this was a good peach this year. It wasn’t as good as O’Henry normally is.
Last Chance and September Sweet are also good late season yellow peaches, at least out West. SS comes in later, but I think that Last Chance is the better of the two. Some relative ripening information here:
Thanks Vohd. Andy is someone I trust 100+% on peach flavor. I decided to try an August Flame given his very strongly positive comments on that one. Unfortunately Burchell’s retail prices are true nosebleeds but its only one tree. Oh the shipping is also a nosebleed as well. Heres the retail site FYI:
https://www.tomorrowsharvest.net
Fun to look through if nothing else, they have a lot of exclusives.
Lot’s of interesting stuff there Scott- I need another half acre to try it all!
Andy’s Orchard listed an October Sun plum in late October. Has anyone tried growing that one? I see a bunch of references to the fruit online, but don’t see anyplace selling it.
2 Likes
One thing not mentioned in this thread is bac. spot.
Perhaps bac. spot is more prevalent in my area, since it’s generally not discussed much in peach variety selection on the forum, but it’s a pretty big deal here.
I’m removing several peaches because of bac. spot issues. In general, whites seem more prone to this.
It might not seem like a big deal, but when trees loose most of their leaves, they also either drop their fruit, or the quality suffers. I’ve noticed this more in peach trees at the farm, vs. my home orchard. It could be there is more pressure at the farm w/ more trees, but I think the larger reason is that there is much more wind at the farm.
Peaches popular in CA many times have bac. spot issues here (i.e. O’henry)
Although not a CA peaches, this is the reason I’d like to try Augustprince instead of Flameprince, which Blueberry mentions (Jerry Frecon claimed Flameprince is more bac. spot prone, but it doesn’t sound like it’s an issue in Blueberry’s area).
Unfortunately, some of the published info. on this isn’t the most accurate. I noticed the link from KY Scott posted earlier had several inaccurate entries regarding bac. spot. As an example, they show Glenglo as only fair resistance, but my trees show no evidence of bac. spot. Fruit was flawless, as was foliage this year, in spite of continual rain for the first half of the summer. They show Laurol as good resistance, but everything I’ve read says Laurol is bac. spot susc., which is exactly what I see in my trees.
I have bacterial spot here too, but last year I didn’t see it. The two years before I saw some.