Drew51,
I sign up for some Artic Glo scions, either by trade or SASE. I think I’ve developed a fancy for red flesh fruits, especially if it’s highly recommended from your post.
Tom
Sure no problem. I probably don’t have enough for anymore requests, thanks for playing! Send me a PM Tom please, I tried to send one to you, but I’m having trouble doing so. Just to remind me I have to harvest scion for you this winter.
Actually Scott you sent me wood for Clayton. I got the two Early Crawford trees from Arboreum. This is the first year Early Crawford fruited for me. I expect the Claytons I budded will fruit the first time next year, frost permitting.
Mrs. G
The Early Crawfords did size up a little better right at the last, so hopefully yours will too.
It has been an extremely tough peach year because of all the rain we got. Prolonged rain affected the flavor tremendously, even when the rain quit. We haven’t had much rain since about the beginning of Aug. but it’s still challenging to pick good flavored peaches. Peaches on the top half of the tree generally taste pretty decent, but the lower half is pretty marginal on flavor, so we’ve been selling those peaches as seconds and the top half as number ones.
I wouldn’t have expected all the rain to have such an effect for so long, but even the grass is still green after a month of fairly dry weather. The grass in yards never did go dormant but stayed green all summer, which is unusual for my area.
This season is winding down now. Picking peaches like Cresthaven, PF27a, etc. O’henry is right around the corner, as is Encore.
With all the constant moisture, tomatoes look very good. Much less cracking because the ground has stayed moist. Taste is good on tomatoes. They don’t seem to be affected like peaches do.
Olpea, I was concerned about your growing season and picking season due to all of the rain. There is so much, not in our control. Your high standards for flavor and look of the peach are remarkable. It will all work out, your peaches are saving flavor for a better year next year. Good for you on the tomatoes, I’m still waiting for my first tomatoes of summer!
I just updated the top list with some new stuff coming in. So you don’t have to scroll all the way up here is what I added:
Pallas honey - very similar to Athena, somewhat later and smaller.
Sanguine Tardeva - Yes this is an excellent red-fleshed peach. Not rotting as horribly now that root is healthy. More red than Sanguine Pilat and correspondingly more cranberry flavor.
O’Henry - Excellent flavor, one of the best. Had much more rot than usual on it.
Sanguine Pilat - Excellent as usual; larger than Tardive and not as cranberried.
Sanguine de Chateauneauf - Later than the above two; similar to Sanguine Tardeva but larger. This is the first year fruiting so will need a few more years to evaluate but it seems to fall very much into the good red-fleshed peach category. Rot is similar to the two above (i.e., pretty bad).
Carolina Gold - wow these guys are really good this year! Very creamy flavored. Not super high sugar but very well-balanced. OK on rot front.
Lady Nancy - This variety has a significant problem of rot, largely related to the spot it is in I think. Too close to large plums which grow tall in summer and shade it out. Most rotted. Non rotting ones excellent and very similar to Oldmixon.
Indian Cling - The usual super heavy load of cooking peaches, with little damage of any kind.
Late Crawford - Very nice peach, better flesh than EC.
Oldmixon Free - Not quite in yet, early ones great as usual.
Indian Free -
White Heath Cling -
I think next year is going to get more MFF later, especially in a horrible rot like this one. I don’t like spraying it too close to harvest and have not sprayed any since early July, but I want to get more peaches next year. In a way I like not using it, I learn which varieties and conditions are susceptible to rot and it lets me cull them out or change conditions. I am also noticing more about how shading is tied to rot: the lower shaded parts of the tree have the most rot overall, and the top fruits have the least. I am going to work on some new pruning systems more like espalier to get a lot more sun into these rot-prone varieties that I want to save. For easy growing of stone fruits in my climate I think espalier or similar is the way to go - its more work up front but pays off later.
Re: Carolina Gold, this peach has varied in quality but I am now thinking it is one of those varieties that takes a few years to come into a good pattern of fruiting. Its a really great peach and is my only yellow peach of this later period so is particularly nice.
1 Like
Lady Nancy was my original reason for purchasing Indar. It is among the strongest rot magnets I grow and only do so for my customers- if you have to spray it so much, might as well grow a white nectarine.
Scott, perhaps this is a really unusual year (yet again!). I have never had rot on peaches before, ever. This year I picked the last three Shui Mi Tao that are now sitting on my windowsill in the kitchen. If I had left them on the tree all would have succumbed to rot. All the other twenty two peaches on the tree dropped and rotted. I could eek out a tiny bite occasionally to know that I like the flavor and it is sweet. My only two peaches left to go this summer are my Early Crawford’s and my Elberta’s. The EC’s are finally changing color and plumping up a bit. Never thought I’d call a fruit ‘cute’ but it is! Tough peach year.
Rot tends to take about five years to get going, so don’t be surprised if you get rot every year from now on. I thought I was some genius avoiding rot with my supernatural skill… then 5 years in it nailed me and never left.
@alan, I am wondering if Indar is not better than MFF, it sounds like it completely squelches things. When I run out of MFF I am going to switch to Indar if I can find it.
Another follow up on this, I finally got a refractometer and decided to try it out (thanks @fruitnut for the link to that cheap one on Amazon). Carolina Gold I could tell was low brix; I tested and its only 10! I am surprised how low it tested but it still tastes great. Goes to show you brix isn’t everything. Lady Nancy came in at 18. I tried a couple apples and they were both 15.
Not only rot does not leave, I think it spread more and more each year. I did not have time to spray MFF this year, i would say the majority of peaches got bad, ugly rot.
Indar? Need to here more about it from Alan.
This really has been a tough peach year. Too much rain. Then no rain. Crazy.
I’ve appreciated the no rain part here in NY. I always welcome drought in August as fruit ripens. The rot was a problem earlier but now it’s not too big an issue.
I’m glad you got a refractometer- it means that your invaluable reports can have even more detail!
Here’s my recent haul and the brix readings, including some 12-13 brix Carolina Golds.
I’m surprised that your Carolina Golds are only around 10 and still tasted good. When I had them last year at 17-18, they were great. This year I didn’t thin them nearly enough. The tree is really bending under the weight and they don’t taste nearly as good at 12-13 brix. I’ve been leaving them on in the hopes that they will just need a bit more time to sweeten up. They are still pretty firm, though, so there is hope.
The whole Carolina Gold tree is splayed out. I’m glad only 1 branch has broken.
One heavy branch:
Bob, I think the one I grabbed was a bit premature. I tested another one just now and it was at 14. The tree is now coming into ripening, it will probably head higher. But even the 10 one tasted really good.
Wow your tree is loaded! Mine is about half that thick.
I know you all are mostly comparing named varieties, but here’s a peach from the tree I grew from seed. I grew it before I knew much about fruit growing, but had hoped for a “copy” of the parent tree. The peaches on the parent tree were VERY long and pointy, I’ve never seen any peaches even remotely as long. They were freestone, with very orange flesh that tasted like perfume and melted in your mouth. If they were fully ripe, the skin would almost slip off the peach whole. The skin was very furry and a little bitter. The peaches had to be eaten right off the tree, they would bruise so easily. The tree was in Sacramento, and no one knew what it was. Would anyone like to hazard a guess?
The peaches I get on my offspring tree are almost as good, even though it doesn’t get as hot here, but not as gigantic or pointy. On mine, the strange thing is that even within one fruit, some parts are divinely good, and other parts are bitter. And practically the whole top of the fruit rots around the stem area–the hole is huge and there is no real stem there. I often have to cut out the middle around the pit due to rot as well. The one in the picture is the most pristine one I’ve gotten so far. However, I have grafted over much of the tree, since these seem so vulnerable to everything, at least in my location. I grew two other sister seedlings from the same tree and gave them to friends. They are now thriving and well-loved, one in San Diego and one in Sacramento. Here are the pics:
Scott if Indar is a powder, I’ll share an order with you. If you find it please let me know. My rot this year was heartbreaking!
In fact right after I wrote that note above I decided to order some. If nothing else it will be good to alternate with MFF. Its expensive though, $350/gal. If anyone wants some I would share a pint at my cost, PM me if interested. Its a liquid, and the usage rate is around 1-2tsp/gal.
Scott-
Any comment on “Black Boy” that Raintree carries? Looks to be a red fleshed peach…probably similar to the others out there?
Warm,
“Black Boy” is historically more of an Australia/New-Zealander kind of peach.
Scott has mentioned in the past that Black Boy does okay in the Mid-Atlantic U.S., but that “Indian Free” performs much better here state-side.
See Scott’s previously-published stone fruit reports for the details.
RIght, I had Black Boy and it was very similar to Indian Free but seemed to rot more so I got rid of it. Well, I still have it, just with something else on top 
I don’t think Indian Free is a lot better, just a bit better … it was less mealy and less rotting than BB.