Here are peach evaluations for my orchard this year. Please feel free to add your own evaluations.
We had about a 10% crop this year, so the crop was extremely light. We still ended up selling about 8000 peaches (which isn’t much for a commercial operation, but enough to make some evaluations).
Most of my evaluations won’t change from last year, since we’ve had lots of years to sort through varieties which work well in our orchard.
The crop was light due to several reasons. First, on Dec. 23 of 2022, we had a severe drop in temps over a two day period. I don’t recall the exact temps, but they went from the high in the 60s to a low of about -9F. The sudden drop didn’t allow the trees to harden off, so we lost many fruit buds as a result.
Additionally we had pruned late in the season when the trees were already dormant, which also caused problems. We lost over 100 young peach trees. This was extremely disappointing because most of the trees we lost were just getting ready to come into production. This would have been their 3rd growing season. I’ve made a decision we will no longer prune peach trees once they set terminal buds, or when they are dormant.
We also had a very late spring frost this year. It was the 12th latest frost on record. On April 23rd it got down to 24F. All peaches were past petal fall. There was still a decent amount of fruit set up to this point, but the very harsh freeze removed most of the peaches. The problem was exacerbated because we had pruned the peach trees hard the previous fall. If we had left the trees unpruned, we undoubtedly would have had a few more shoots which had fruit on them. Then we could have simply removed more shoots which had no fruit.
Something else I learned this year is that it’s better to pick late varieties very firm. Last year we had some late season peaches cook internally in really hot weather. This year we picked those peaches much earlier. It took about 4 or 5 days on the counter for them to get soft enough to eat, but the flavor was still good and we had no rotten cores. Customers didn’t complain about it when I explained why we had to pick them early and hard. They came back for more, so I assume they were happy with them. Customers said they were good. This is not an issue with early and mid season peaches, so we continued to pick those pretty close to dead ripe.
The weather was very dry through June and mid July. During that month and a half we had virtually no rain. Flavor was good due to dry weather and light crops on the trees. The latter part of July produced a 2" rain and a 2.5" rain. We had a one good rain in August, then back to dry. Starting roughly Aug. 15 we had a week of near 100F weather, with lots of humidity. I recall one morning it was about 80F at 7:00am with 85% humidity.
The spring was cool, so peaches bloomed later. The end of season harvest was also about a week later.
That’s the background for 2023 growing season. Here are how our varieties did this year:
Earlystar (-21) Light crop with lots of split pits this year. Very good flavor early peach. Nice red color. Tree form is poor. This variety also is pretty non-vigorous (as far as peach trees go).
Harrow Diamond (-21) Light crop, with split pits. Peach isn’t as pretty as Earlystar, but still OK. Flavor is not quite as good as Earlystar, but barely noticeable.
Spring Snow? (-21) The few peaches these trees produced were top notch. Excellent flavor for a white peach (as usual). There is an ongoing controversy over this peach, because it may not be Spring Snow. I tried to resolve this issue. A few years ago, Alan and I exchanged scionwood. He sent me wood from Spring Snow, which he got from Adams county. I sent him wood from my tree. I don’t believe his graft was successful, so the issue rested with me. I had successful grafts and was excited to finally figure out if the “Spring Snow” I had was the real Spring Snow.
I had grafted multiple grafts of Alan’s Spring Snow to a mature PF Eightball tree. The grafts were finally big enough to produce some fruit (which I then be able to compare to fruit from my Spring Snow trees). But alas, the tree which I had placed Alan’s Spring Snow scions on, up and died this summer for no apparent reason. It was the only tree in that row that died.
It appears I’m destined not to know if my trees are the real Spring Snow. Here is a pic I took this summer of the dead Eightball tree with the Spring Snow grafts on it.
PF7a (-15) I have one tree of this variety, and it’s an old tree. The tree has lost virtually all of it’s vigor. The peaches were small because of the lack of vigor. They were poor flavored. I hardly sold any of them.
Early Redhaven (-15) These trees had almost nothing on them, which is unusual. Normally they are some of the most winter hardy and frost hard trees. But these trees are getting older.
Garnet Beauty (-15) Ditto comment from Early Redhaven.
SureCrop (-15) Had some fruit. Very small.
Risingstar (-14) This is my favorite peach for this window. Normally Risingstar produces a decent crop no matter what. This year not much fruit, but quality was very good, as always.
Glenglo (-13) Thin crop. Best fruit size for this window.
PF Eightball (-11) These trees were a pleasant surprise. Nearly full crops on these trees. I did lose one tree (as mentioned above). I don’t quite understand why these trees produced well when most others didn’t. In the past, it’s been the opposite, the Eightballs produced next to nothing when others produced well. This year I was impressed with the production. Flavor and size were also good.
Wisconsin Balmer? (-8) This tree is in my backyard. I don’t think it’s Wisconsin Balmer because the fruit is too big and quality too good to be Wisconsin Balmer. Like Eightball, this tree had good production. In fact, it was one of only two varieties in my backyard to have a full crop (The other was Contender.) Also like Eightball, it didn’t do well in some previous years. Based on what I’m seeing with this variety and the one above, I’m wondering if peach trees need to be at least 5 years old to have good fruit bud frost tolerance and/or winter hardiness. I’m not saying anything definitive, just putting that out as food for thought.
Saturn donut (-5) Trees produced hardly anything this year. This is the easiest donut peach to grow in our orchard. It’s also a great seller. Stem pick damage is the biggest downfall of this variety.
Clayton (-5) Normally these trees produce well no matter what. This year they produced some fruit, but not full crops. Likes to drop fruit.
PF9a-007 (-5) Trees didn’t produce much this year. Normally this is a profitable peach. It has nice size and decent flavor. I don’t hold one bad year against this variety.
Harken (-4) This was surprising. Normally Harken trees are pretty finicky producers. This year they had decent crops. Flavor is always just OK. Fruit size is always very uneven and typically smaller. These trees didn’t get pruned as hard as others, so perhaps that’s why they produced decent crops in this challenging year.
Redhaven (0) Produced decent crops with good quality fruit. Redhaven is a must have variety in my area.
TangOs I (+1) Normally we get decent crops off these trees. This year basically nothing. The variety is really hard to raise a decent looking peach, if there is even a small amount of rain. They are very crack prone, and ink on the skin, and rot easily. The flavor is very unique, but I’m not sure they are worth the trouble. It’s probably worth it to have a few of these, but not too many. In the end, I’m not sure how much money we make on these trees.
Starfire (+1) Produced basically nothing this year.
Blazingstar (+4) Pretty finicky producer except in the best of years, so no surprise they didn’t produce much this year. Quality was excellent, as is normally the case.
PF15a (+4) These trees produced almost nothing this year.
PF14 (+4) Not much production, like normal.
Johnboy (+5) Very light production. Good size and flavor.
TangOs II (+6) Produced light this year, but better than TangOs I. Almost all of the peaches cracked though.
Challenger (+7) Good production this year. It’s the best producer for this window. Fruit quality is good.
Ernies Choice (+11) Very good production this year. Fruit quality was excellent this year. Very intense flavor. The drought really helped make sure that almost all of the peaches had plenty of sugar. In wet years second or third picks of this peach can be overly tart, but not this year.
Blazeprince (+11) Poor production. This one test tree needs to be removed.
Allstar (+11) All virtually blank this year.
Glohaven (+13) Some production. Huge peaches of nice flavor.
PF17 (+13) Some production. Nothing remarkable about this peach.
Tubby Dubby (+14) A mislabel peach we named Tubby Dubby. Excellent quality like normal. Light production.
Harrow Beauty (+14) Some production. Peach gets mealy easily. Needs to be picked firm ripe. I won’t replace these last 2 trees once they croak.
Winblo (+14) Very light production this year. Quality is very good.
Rochester (+14) Second year to evaluate fruit. Blooms very late, but fruit quality is so poor, it’s not worth growing. Peach flesh is way too stringy.
Intrepid (+15) Second year to evaluate fruit. These trees produced full crops of very flavorful peaches. Peach size was medium. I’m thinking this and Ernies Choice are my top choices for this window.
PF19-007 (+19) This was another surprise. In past years these trees produced very little. This year they did well. I hardly know what to think about it. Fruit quality was good.
Loring (+19) Produced basically nothing this year.
Mr. Ed (+19) A mislabel which actually produced decent this year, but it was not pruned in the fall.
Contender (+21) Produced full crops. But this year the fruit quality was horrible for this variety. We hardly sold any as number 1 peaches. The fruit just didn’t taste very good. This was a first for this variety. I’m sure it had something to do with the weather.
Veteran (+22) Light production. Fruit color is poor. Fruit flavor was decent.
PF23 (+23) Light production. Nothing very remarkable about this peach.
Scarlet Prince (+23) Light production. Good flavor. Poor size.
Baby Crawford (+23) Practically blank this year, which was unexpected. Normally this variety produces something no matter what.
Sweet Breeze (+23) Light production. Excellent quality big peaches. Very flavorful, but somewhat subacid.
PF24c (+24) Somewhat light production but the trees are getting older. Normally this variety produces well in challenging years.
Sentinel (+24) Very little production. Appears to be prone to bac. spot.
July Prince (+25) Light production.
Biscoe (+25) Full crop. This is the second year of evaluating peaches off this now mature tree. The fruit flavor was pretty horrible. My employee pointed out the fruit didn’t taste right. He has worked for me for 5 years, so he knows how peaches are supposed to taste. I tasted some of the fruit and it was pretty bad. I’m sure it had to be weather related. The weather was really weird, from drought to heavy gully washer rains. Cool to blazing hot. I’m going to keep this test tree because of that.
Glowingstar (+27) OK production. Fruit quality is decent.
Cresthaven (+27) OK production. Fruit size and flavor is good. Bac. spot magnet.
Madison (+27) Production good. Fruit appearance is poor. Flavor is decent.
PF25 (+28) OK to light production. Fruit quality is decent.
Redskin (+28) Decent production. Flavor decent. Fruit appearance sucks, like normal. Most of these late varieties drop fruit easily. Redskin is no exception, so must be picked firm ripe.
Carolina Gold (+29) Light crops. Fruit quality is very good. Lots of cracking on this variety this year.
PF27a (+30) Very light production. Fruit quality is decent.
Encore (+33) Full crops. Fruit quality was good this year. In most years fruit quality is sub-standard.
PF35-007 (+35) Production good. Good fruit size and quality.
Laurol (+38) Productive this year. Good size and quality.
Autumnstar (+43) Some production. Good size and quality.
Victoria (+45) Trees practically blank this year. This variety doesn’t produce much in challenging years, so no surprise there. Quality is very good though.
thanks for the summary