Five “white” white peach varieties

The peach king, Oplea recommended John Clark in college of agriculture in my local university, who released some new varieties of white peach. Then I contacted Prof John Clark to ask his opinions about growing white peaches at our location. He introduced me five “ white “ white peach varieties released by the college, I.e. “ white river”, “white rock”, “white county”, “white cloud”, and “white diamond” I got some scions of each to graft on my big peach tree. Possibly I can taste the peaches next year.

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Oops, anything wrong with my post?

Yes, but you fixed it, a formatting problem or something? How did you fix it?
I like to let grafts grow 2 years before I let them have fruit, but they have to take first, and peach is one of the difficult types to graft. If it grows three feet or more I will let it fruit, but some still look fragile, I would hate for them to break.

I just removed the space at the beginning of the sentence.
If you graft to the main trunk of big tree, the grafts could grow six feet in one year.

Yeah I was doing new scaffolds, so multiple cultivars on one tree. I have not decided to completely top work trees over. And my trees are not that old, so the scaffolds are still rather small. And yeah I did notice the ones on larger wood grew more for sure. I’m letting two fruit the 2nd year. The others are on smaller wood and grew only a couple feet.

I got 15 varieties of white peach scions and decided to graft on one big tree. I will cut the main trunks low and graft three varieties on one main trunk. I have five main trunk all together.

Sophia,
I don’t have good luck grafting peaches on wood older two years. If it is other kind of fruit trees like apples, pears or even cherries, no issue.

Please let us know how your trunk peach grafting will do. I’d love to learn from you.

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I saw YouTube showing “V”notch grafting one old peach truncks. I got all thin scions and I will use bark grafting. I can put 6-8 scions to make a circle around the trunk. Peach has less success probability than apple and pear. But half percent will work for me.

Please take pictures so you can show us later.

I’ve watched so many Youtube videos about fruit trees until my eye crossed :grinning:

Good luck…

I top worked this peach tree with bark grafts. Interesting comment from @mamuang, I bark grafted all of the stumps but only the younger branch took. Not trying to discourage you, it just seemed to line up with what was stated.

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I was not successful a couple of times when I stump-grafted peaches. So I just shared my experience.

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You discouraged me. I decided to top graft my peach tree since I don’t want to make my tree to became so ugly.

Before I want to cut my peach trunks like they did. You guys discouraged me. I better buy a small peach to train from young tree.

You should do whatever you want to do. I saw that video (and others) a few years back. They could do it. I just couldn’t.

Sophia I would go ahead and try. I have done many grafts on large peach trunks and had about the same success on them as I have had on smaller stocks. I always do bark grafts. Make sure to graft in the first stretch of warmish weather after the tree has some green showing, highs optimally in the 70’s but 80’s or 60s can work as well. Peaches are very picky on temperature.

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Like Mamuang, I had poor results grafting to older wood, but at the time I was using cleft grafts. Last year I used bark grafts and had some success.

I’m guessing that you meant 50% and not 0.5% (literally half a percent). Peaches are tricky- I’ve been grafting for 5 years and last year my take rate was 52% (26 of 50). That was measured in June- I think by the end of the season it was more like 23/50. Keep in mind that a lot of repetitions doesn’t necessarily indicate skill. :slight_smile:

The early success rate(~70%) was much better than later though, so this year I’ll try to do more early grafts. This flies in the face of some other posters experience, who report doing better once there is some warmth. When I grafted all later in 2016, I came close to the 0.5% success, which is why I tried some earlier (2nd week of April) ones this year. Maybe if you get a few warm days early in the grafting season that would be the best of both worlds.

Very true- I was 46/47 on apples and pears…

The only one of these I am growing is White River. I’ve fruited it for a couple years and haven’t been impressed so far. There is lots of production, which I didn’t thin enough (maybe part of the problem), but the flavor wasn’t all that strong or sweet. I’m giving it another chance this year and will see if better thinning will do the trick. It is quite pretty with a lot of pink/red flesh.

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For those in the right climate zone, Snow Queen nectarine is an amazing fruit.

Me too, about 70% too when the dust settled. I think it’s better to graft at 60F than 80F with peaches, 70F being just about right. Plus wood may be that much more viable earlier than later. It’s not all about temps it’s cooler here, but the trees are used to it. It’s cooler here when they flower, or fruit even compared to the Northeast. So temps are only part of the equation. Grafting when their is high sap pressure I think is the secret. I’m doing all I can this year as I want to be done with grafting in this yard. So I’m using a lot of bells and whistles this year. I bought vitamin water to soak scion in (super thrive), I will only graft when I have my lucky socks on too :slight_smile:
Buddy tape instead of parafilm, and I will trap moisture in with Glad’s Press and Seal instead of using foil to cover graft. It should keep area at a high humidity. I will keep an eye on it, and open to breath once every couple days for a bit. A little concerned about mold.

My nectaplum which is a white nectarine was just like that the first 2 years it fruited, but the third year it was the best stone fruit in the yard. So yeah don’t give up on it just yet.
My wife said it was the best stone fruit she ever had. I’m more a high acid kinda guy, yet must admit the low acid nectaplum was most awesome last year.

I wonder if that doesn’t have a lot to do with it? I keep my wood pretty much frozen at 32F. I take it out and either rinse it off or let it sit out for about 30 mins. every 3 weeks or so to let it defrost (so it doesn’t freeze dry) then put it back in the ridge. I think this keeps the wood in a pretty much suspended animation.

Beyond that, the I think the earlier success you guys had may have to do with the tree having more energy on the initial push of growth, vs waiting later when the tree has expended more reserves in the wood/roots. (I think that’s what perhaps you were saying Drew about the “sap pressure”?)

I’m certain higher temps are more conducive to callusing stone fruit, but it’s the other issues which go along with it, which may be a detriment when it comes to field grafting.

You guys are starting to have me rethink the graft timing for stone fruit. I initially had poor success grafting stone fruit when temps were lower, and have never gone back to it. Maybe it deserves a second try for spring grafting dormant prunus wood.

I hope you guys replicate these tests a few more times to get the results a little more statistically significant before a general consensus is drawn.

Sap pressure is like blood pressure. It is measured in sugar maples to determine best time to tap trees. Sap pressure can be a problem with some species like figs who secrete latex which often makes the graft fail. Cuts below the graft are often done to relieve pressure, same with grapes. But in trees I have been told by old timers is to graft stone fruit when pressure is highest.

Yes, the cuts drying to quickly in the heat. Again too sap pressure is going to be in this equation too. Sap pressures may vary by location as to when it’s highest.

I think Antmary grafted while still dormant? And had success, she is the earliest grafter I know. She didn’t know peach was hard to graft until we told her as her results said otherwise. Maybe it was a fluke? I’m sticking to advice I got from an old local guy. “Graft when trees flower”. What i did last year I got 70% and it never hit 70F until weeks after the grafts. I got about 95% with plums. One or two failed after leafing out. Initially all of them took. I did two or 3 of each plum, and all of them took in most cases. I got 3 Vermont, 3 Toka, 3 Superior, 3 Laroda, and 3 Lavina to take last year. All look good this spring. I did 3 hoping one would take, they all took! Yes! Maybe I just had a good year, I’ll know more after this year as I’m doing three times more grafts, mostly peach too.