Thank you for opening my eyes to the SWD issues you deal with. With so few trees I can clean up any drops, so as you say that shouldn’t be a problem. I appreciate you taking the time to reply in such detail! I am encouraged then that I may enjoy growing a few more late season peaches.
I am curious how you pick up drops on this large scale?
That’s a good point Stan. I guess it’s hard to tell exactly what Schlabach means by that comment.
Thanks for the report.
How would you compare Veteran to Contender taste and fruit size wise? Also, what do you mean about Contender’s poor tree form? Is it too upright? I have one and it seems to be that way, although I didn’t do the best job shaping/pruning it, either.
I would say Veteran is a better tasting peach most years. Contender is a slightly bigger peach. That’s assuming neither is overcropped. Veteran has fairly poor color, with some peaches having a small amount of green on the skin, even when dead ripe. Amount of poor color varies from year to year.
Contender has a poor tree form because it grows very upright. This makes it difficult to keep it pruned in a vase shape. When most of the wood wants to grow vertical, what you really have is a bunch of water spouts. Not only does it require pruning off just about all the vertical stuff, but it requires more attention in the summer because all the water spouts want to shade the lower portion of the tree more.
For a hobby orchard it’s not as big a deal. Poor tree form makes things more difficult when managing lots of trees.
Despite the drawbacks of Veteran and Contender, they are good trees overall for me because of their consistent production.
Thanks for the comprehensive and objective reporting Olpea. I’m reassured about’Veteran’ in my garden thanks to you.
My neighbor wants to plant a couple peach trees, but she specifically wants “sour peaches.” I assume she likes to pick them early/green. I ordered Redhaven and Ranger for her. Would a picked when green white peach such as Belle of Georgia also work?
This summer I had a very unusual customer who went out to pick tomatoes and sweet corn. Not only did he pick both of those, but also came back with a bunch of green peaches. It made me unhappy because he picked the peaches from a variety a month early.
I’ve been through this before where people go out to pick blackberries, walk by the peaches, and end up picking a bunch of unripe peaches. They think the peaches are ready to pick because they have some red on them. They get to the stand to check out. I see they have picked peaches way too early and inform them the peaches aren’t going to be any good. Then they leave them at the stand for me to dispose. That’s one reason I don’t allow upick, except on donut peaches.
Anyway, the man picked about a half bushel of green peaches (or 25 lbs.) I explained the peaches weren’t going to be any good. He said he liked sour peaches and bought them. I figured he wouldn’t like the peaches, or the tomatoes he picked, which were also green. But he came back multiple times throughout the summer and always picked bunches of unripe green peaches and tomatoes. Always bought over $100 of unripe green fruit. I finally asked him about it and he told me he was from a certain part of China where they grew sour peaches, and he liked his fruit sour. So there are some people out there who like sour fruit.
If I were to try to get more sour/tart peaches, I would try Ernies Choice for a sour peach. Most of them aren’t sour at all, but the acid is really high in the variety, and the interior peaches which don’t get enough sunlight, tend to be more sour or tart.
Hardired nectarine is also like that. The variety produces abundantly, and regularly. Again most of the nectarines are sweet and intense, but fruit lower in the more shaded parts of the tree can be pretty tart.
I don’t recall that Belle of Georgia had much tart fruit at all. White peaches tend to be more mild flavor and aren’t very tart. The exception would be Lady Nancy. It was a white peach with a lot of acid. I had a problem with some fruit being a too tart on that variety.
Bob Purvis sells scions of Chinese Honey Peach.The name sounded good to me,so I bought a scion and after two seasons,the fruit never gets sweet.The wood is fairly vigorous and most was grafted to something else.
Here is Bob’s description: Chinese Honey Peach: Has survived temperatures of -34F without winter-injury in SW Minnesota during the past ten growing seasons. Tree growth habit is upright to spreading; tree appears to be precocious based on our experience here. Fruits are small to medium sized, with silvery-greenish-yellow skin and with red around the pit and white flesh. Brix levels of fruit were 17 degrees in 2015. Fruit must be harvested immature and stored for a week in the refrigerator for it to be freestone and somewhat sweet; otherwise it is fibrous and clingstone if left to hang till it is tree ripe. Compatible with Manchurian apricot rootstock; this is what our tree is on. Ripens with Contender.
I followed his instructions,but never came close to 17 brix,maybe 12.
Thanks! This neighbor is from Romania (Transylvania) and also enjoys key limes I gift her. Will look into your suggestions. As for the Chinese - we do enjoy a wide variety of plums, apricots and peaches picked early for fermentation, drying and preserving in sugar.
Should try Mericrest Nectarine. For me, it wouldn’t sweeten up when sugared and cooked in a pie.
@Olpea Mark,
I look up your report to get an idea of a ripening order of my peaches.
Got to your review of Challenger, “smaller peach with good flavor”.
This year’s continuing rain has caused any peaches ripened so far to be large to very large with bland to awful taste.
My not-small Challenger.
That is a big peach for a Challenger. Have you gotten any break from the rain this summer?
This year it’s been unusually difficult to grow anything here. First, the spring was very cold and very wet until about the beginning of June. Then June turned very hot and dry for about a month. Then it was back to very wet for a good part of July. August has been the only month which has been a “normal” summer month of us.
Mark,
No break. The longest dry stretch was about 4 days before we got 2” of downpour 2 days ago. Tomorrow is another soaker, either a serious tropical storm or a low level hurricane. Thanks goodness we can’t afford to live along the coastline 
Most of my Challenger are between 10-11 oz. Can’t fit many in a box. Some had decent brix at 13, 13.5. Many were about 11.
I have a Hardired and a Mericrest side by side I put snow around them. When that melted I put someR8 reflective bubble insulation around the bases 8 feet square. It worked they bloomed late enough. Filled my freezer in the garage… both where good. Hardired is the best…
