Thanks Spud. Just as a disclaimer, that test winter was only down to -10F, which many wouldn’t consider a test winter. But it is here. It seems like -12F will wipe out the peach crop on all but the hardiest varieties here. I doubt you will have any bud kill issues with temps at only 0F, so you’re right, it sounds like spring frost is the thing to watch for in your area.
Clark,
I grew a Reliance quite a few years ago. I also bought one for my mother. They were both very productive. I just didn’t feel like the quality was as good as some other peaches which ripen around that time (+5 Redhaven)
Bob,
I grew Coralstar at the house and it was never productive and removed it last year I think. I bought two more when I started the orchard at the farm, and they were never productive there either. I finally removed the two at the farm this fall.
The trees did produce very large fruits of high quality, but just not very many (like a dozen fruits per tree).
Alan has mentioned Coralstar produces well in his area. I don’t understand why it’s been such a consistently poor producer for me.
I’ve got those but they were all too young for me to feel comfortable evaluating. Veteran has a long history of supposedly being cold hardy. As I recall, Chickn tried a Veteran peach off a tree last summer and really liked it (He grows some nice varieties tomatoes btw. Shared one with me. Still remember it. Delicious.)
Bob Purvis has this to say about Veteran from his Website:
“Veteran: From Canada, 1928, has withstood -29F in central MN and borne a crop. Tree has a spreading growth habit and medium vigor. Fruits are sweet, large, moderately firm, mostly yellow in color. Flavor is outstanding; a favorite for home canners. Veteran ripens 24 days after Redhaven. Ours were ripe Aug. 12-14, 2014. (Note: I do not have Redhaven growing here.)”
I grew PF1 for a good many years. I would rate it fairly cold hardy. Very early on, I recommended this peach (ashamed to say, one of my worst recommendations ever - I was too new in the business and excited about any peach which produced something wet. I still feel bad that Mamuang and Bob Vance ended up planting PF1 from my recommendation on an old forum.) I ended up planting more of them myself when I started the orchard at the farm because it was the only peach for that window. I finally realized they are really a crappy tasting peach (compared to a decent home grown peach) and cut them all down.
I’ve also grown PF5b. It’s also fairly cold hardy, but perhaps not quite as cold hardy as PF1. I also removed PF5b because of taste. We get loads of rain here generally in the spring, and very few early peach varieties obtain acceptable levels of sugar. I’ve culled a lot of early varieties for this reason. In climates with dry spring weather. PF1 and PF5b might taste quite good, IDK.