Thanks for the great report Olpea! I have been somewhat delinquent about my own reports recently. Here is some stuff from my log. This year the squirrels and deer were horrible so I didn’t get nearly my usual harvest. On the plus side the rot was not so bad.
I agree about Ernie’s Choice; the critters got nearly all of mine this year but I had a few fruits to remind me how good it is. Several of the ones you are taking out due to disease reasons I had the same issues with (Summer Pearl, Yukon). I am surprised Carolina Gold was light for you, that is probably my most productive peach variety. Nectafest sounds like one I might like to try some year, I want maximal intensity in my nectarines!
Gold Dust - The usual nice early peach. I got more than usual but animals still got the bulk. My tree is now reasonably productive but it took quite a few years to get there.
Clayton - Tree did not set a lot and fruits are decent sized. Birds are getting a lot of them. Its an excellent peach, no more could be asked for in a peach really.
Nectar, Sanguine Pilat, John Rivers - squirrels cleared out sigh.
Summer Beaut - A good tasting nectarine, but a bit soft - some cells are getting crushed on it. They have high sugars but not quite the mega-packed Nectarine scream of Mericrest. Excellent in terms of disease resistance, they are fruits of perfection. Also sizing up extremely well for a nectarine. Anyway overall seems worth keeping for several more years to see how it evolves; its a young tree and the flavor could improve.
Foster - Squrls got nearly all, had one to remind me why I keep it. Quite sour compared to the modern peaches.
Mericrest - Squirrels got nearly all of these on vacation but the ones left were excellent. They finally sized up OK this year, there was less diseases and maybe its related to the tree getting older. The taste is 100% classic nectarine, really excellent.
Kit Donnell - Tasting very similar to what I remember of Early Crawford. In short a classic peach flavor more on the sour side. Only problem this year is the bees are after it.
Zin Dai Jiu Bao - Squirrels got nearly all but the few that came were the usual excellent mild peach.
Early Crawford - Relatively bigger this year. Taste is awesome as usual. Later ones were not quite as good as earlier ones.
Shui Mi Tao - One very nice one, as good as any honey peach gets. Perhaps more flavor than my other honey peaches.
Athena - Very good as usual. Deer pigged on these unfortunately.
Sanguine Tardeva - Excellent this year, large fruits and very tasty and 15 brix. No mealiness. Really an excellent peach! Indian Free but in August.
Carolina Gold - The usual well-balanced, creamy, low-sugar peach. Incredible production, need to thin more for better flavor I expect. Keep this tree since its very productive and perfectly fine for taste if not best.
Fantasia - A bit smaller than Summer Beaut but more flavor. Excellent when well-ripened; not quite up to Early Crawford at its best but really good. Ripens over a long period. Has good texture, lack of rot, etc - WINNER!!!
Pallas - They can be a bit bitter in the skin before being ripe. Taste is good but not great. Athena really is a better version of this peach, it seems to be consistently better and seems to have a bit more flavor on average as well. Also these are super susceptible to rots and bruising. So, topwork most of this tree.
Sanguine Tardive de Chanas - less sweet more red than Sanguine Tardeva. I like ST more - I could remove part of this tree and would not miss it. One advantage of this tree is it ripens over a long period and has little overlap with Sanguine Tardeva, so seems worth keeping at least some of.
Late Crawford - getting bug damage on nearly all fruits. The ones that ripened well are excellent.
Rio Oso Gem - really quite an outstanding peach, seems to be the best in this period as it is better than Late Crawford.
Oldmixon - the usual excellent. Lots of bugs this year.
O’Henry - A more “clean” peach flavor than e.g. the Crawford peaches. Excellent. Small this year due to tree decline.
Indian Free - all rotted as often is the case.
Heath Cling - not in yet.