My Moonglo really improved in quality with cold storage. Two weeks in the crisper drawer of the fridge then at room temp till it softened, usually a week. The difference was amazing at least for me.
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I picked all my Bartlett last weekā¦i should pull some out and let them ripen.
I ate my first Flavor King and it was just about there. The bees were attacking this one fruit so i picked it. Very good.
I might get rid of Spice Zeeā¦ not sure if its worth growing being (to me at least) so similar to Tri Lite peachā¦plus the fruit are so ugly growing here//spotted/cracksā¦
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I need to do a better job recognizing that each variety of pear has different ripening needs. Thanks for posting your procedure on Moonglow.
No pictures because i ate it so fast, but i did try a honey peach today. Very good. Sweet, juicy, freestoneā¦ It is a very young graft (the fruit was on the small size too) and i probably shouldnāt have let it fruit, but i wanted to try these. Next year Iāll probably refrain from letting it flower and grow out a year. Iāve also grafted it a few more places for back up.
I believe the variety is Pallas.
You just need to harvest a little earlier than the rest of us. FG can be spicy if brought in before dead ripe. I like them early, late and in between because of the crunch. 
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Veteran Peaches (15 brix); Honey Blonde Cantaloupe (19 brix). For reference, the biggest peach in the box is just under 2.5" dia. That tree was planted in the spring of '14.
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They have good skin and almost a perfect texture. They hang and donāt seem to crack. Not change your clothes juicy like a Superior. The problem is no flavor. Its all sugar. I need to drink water after eating a couple of these things.
That doesnāt look like flavor grenade at all. Looks like geo pride
Agreed. It doesnt look like Flavor grenade to me either. Look at the picture I posted about 30 or so replies above. Flavor grenade gets its name because the fruit is shaped like a hand grenade.
You are 100% correctā¦i have no tags and i just went back and looked at the color coding on the branchesā¦yellow is FGā¦this did not come off that branch. No wonder they are so dark.
Having said thatā¦everything else stands. I have also never had FG before since that branch broke off 2 years ago and has only slowly grown back. Maybe next year.
Iāll get it all straightened out the next decade or so.
Iām pretty sure this is a green gage. It was a tree on the property when I bought it. Size and color are nearly identical to Althannās gage grafted to the peach tree next to it.
The one with the skin showing measured 31 brix. The only I tested that day, some are sweeter.
The smaller ones are mirabelles.
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A really experienced Pear grower taught me that trick years ago and it worked great for me. One thing that makes pear pickin a little tricky is that the so called oriental hybrid pears that we usually grow in the south (Leconte, Kieffer, Orient, etc.) donāt in my opionion need the fride treatment to ripen properly. But most pears that have European heritage even the southern hybrids( Moonglo, Ayers, Magness) do really benifit from this cold storage. To me Moonglo really benifited from this the most and was a very nice pear after a stint in the fridge. This trick can be usefull if you ever need to harvest any pear early as it will help em ripen up. I think this really gives us a good long window to pick pears. So glad that info was helpful I know it was very helpful when it was given to me!
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Consider leaving them on the tree longer if possible. I just picked mine last week and if not for all the rain we had comming I would have left them longer. I noticed with mine the darker they got the more flavorfull they became. Take note of fruitnuts pics of geo pride, ime not sure if they were in this thread or not but they can get quite dark when they become more ripe.
Alcedo,
Your Greengage looks wonderful!
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I believe Magness is of full euro genetics. Bred in Maryland from Comice (euro) and Seckel (which is thought to be descended from euros brought to America).
Those peaches look very nice and clean. Is a 15 brix sweet for a peach? What is the flavor like? Good to hear you got peaches after two years, we planted some this spring. How big are your trees now? I donāt think Iāve ever heard if a Veteran peach.
Iām just surprised that you and @BobC, who is also in Ohio, got peaches this year. No one down south of you here in N KY have any peaches because of the late freezes. Guess we were in a particularly colder pocket of air then. We are planning to go to a fruit orchard over by Lexington this weekend to get some apples and pears, and they said they wonāt have any peaches for this year.
Having one of my last Sweet Bagel peaches. Ginormous. Had to battle the bees and the Fig beetles for these, pretty terrible toll it took on my Sweet Bagels. Probably got only 1/3 of them:
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This link has a chart for poor, good, average and excellent brix readings for several dozen kinds of fruits and veggies: http://www.healthy-vegetable-gardening.com/brix-scale.html
It says 14 is good for a peach, 18 is excellent. I donāt have a lot of experience with these readings, but based on what others have said on this forum, I think that is in the ballpark. Iād rate them āvery good.ā Very juicy. Veteran is supposed to be an old time variety that is bud hardy against frost. This year it was for me, lots of other stuff I had got zapped by the frost. However, all the orchards around here seemed to have a really good peach year also. I had to pick them a little early because of birds (and/or bees) and let them ripen on the counter top. Next time I will definitely net them so they can ripen properly. I sprayed them early with daconil I think, then a few times with Immunox. Of course, it was a lot drier than normal this summer for us, and that helped. That particular tree has been vigorous. Iād say it is 1.75" caliper and about 7ā tall, but Iām not actually looking at it right now. Next year I plan on using the peach growing bags from Clemson. http://www.clemson.edu/extension/horticulture/fruit_vegetable/peach/diseases/peachbags.html
I bought some this year, but didnāt get them up on time.
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My sweet bagel are still sizing up. I would guess another month. Didnāt realize they were so late. My Saturn were very big this year, but the squirrels got into them and that was that. I got a few half ripe ones :(.
I have a few seedling peaches that are finally starting to change colorā¦
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