I grew Silver Logan once here. I can’t remember why I ditched it. I know it wasn’t because of flavor though.
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There is acid in my “Spring Snow”. But it’s not the kind of acid flavor one might expect with Lady Nancy, or something like Indian Free, or even something like Oldmixon Free. There is no hint of tartness in the acid of Spring Snow. It’s more like very sweet and very intense flavor. It’s the combination that makes it taste so good, imo.
Yes. The trees weren’t productive enough. And in really wet years, in all but the first picking, the peaches were just plain tart, or even sour. The first picking was always very good though.
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Peach trees don’t callus very much in the 70s, so healing is very slow at those temps. Peach trees callus best at the mid to high 80s and low 90s (as long as it’s not a drought) imo.
But callusing is never an issue here. We have reasonably low canker issues here because the growing season is long, and trees are generally very vigorous. We do get canker, to be sure, but the trees seem to stay ahead of it. The worst thing canker does for us is weaken the scaffold at the canker point, so that the scaffold breaks prematurely, had the canker not been there.
The big issue about late pruning I learned for my area this year is that, late pruning dehardens the trees going into winter and makes flower buds more winter tender, and makes the wood more winter tender, both of which I’ve read about before, but never been hit so hard because of it.
I doubt Italy would have issues with winter hardiness. In my mind, I don’t think Italy gets nearly as cold there, as it does here.
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Isn’t the worry for late summer pruning the spurring of new growth that may not harden off well?
I’d imagine it’s a dance between pruning late enough to not get new growth but still warm enough to heal the prune wounds?
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OSU extension has been disappointing. I came across a publication where they were doing trials of PLC resistant cultivar. I wrote to them seeking results but was pointed to a generic what varieties to grow document, upon following up asking for “data from the research” they ghosted me with no response.
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[quote=“Oregon_Fruit_Grow, post:25, topic:57103”]
extension has been disappointing.
[/quote
I’ve known a few extension agents, while they are educated and each has an area of expertise, getting really into the weeds and finer details of something outside of their area they specialize yields mixed results.
Unfortunately there’s multiple ways of calculating degree hardiness, there’s not really one method that works well across as many climates as the US has, and especially when it comes to fruit trees unless someone’s been studying and applying it to the numerous fruit crops that are grown you’ll get the answer OSU gave you
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I second @thebentonpeach comments above.
It’s all relative. We know the systems and information we find online for chill and variety selection is largely based around commercial fruit production and the areas where they are grown. That’s great for those of us who live near those areas and in similar climates.
The rest of us must make a pick and try it out for ourselves. Unfortunately that is a several years experiment for many of us.
I’m currently looking up a few peach varieties for my zone 9a hot and humid summer with mild and humid winter conditions (say 3 varieties for now, scionwood availability only as I have rootstock).
So as I’ve posted elsewhere I looked at my state Ag department for guidance and found a publication that is 16 years old. There are many choices that have need developed since then to chose from that are not in that publication.
I then emailed the best known local LSU Horticulturalist, who was kind enough to respond to me with a reply.
“… I’m retired now and not always aware of what is going on, but I don’t know of any plans to revise the LA Home Orchard publication. Indeed, I thought to ask the current fruit specialist about this, but I can’t find a fruit specialist currently listed in the faculty list.”
So that local expertise is not anywhere close to where I am and my climate.
This forum provides a better chance of getting specific info than the cut and paste descriptions from online nursery sites.
So here I am as with many reading about others experiences with different varieties, knowing they live elsewhere, and asking questions to narrow the possibilities.
I’m thankful for the forum.
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Florida has some good low chill peaches. That’s the first place to look. Texas A&M would be another place. Their stone fruit breeder has been working on low chill peaches and nectarines for about 30 years. Florida weather is closer to yours. Texas peaches are mostly grown west of College Station, somewhat drier and less humid than LA or FL.
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I want to clarify that I found an article from a researcher who mentioned the department is running trials comparing Peach Leaf Curl resistant peach varieties. I wanted to read the outcome of that research more on the lines of reading academic research paper.
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I already have the Florida page pulled up for peaches and I’m looking around for some more info…
Thanks
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Not so much with peaches in my experience. We really don’t get dieback from new peach shoot growth, regardless of how late the growth occurs.
It’s well established that peach fruit buds are much more winter tender than leaf buds, or peach wood.
The research I’ve read is that peach trees are more winter tender when pruned in dormancy (when no new growth occurs) or late in the season when trees aren’t dormant, but terminal buds have set.
Some info I’ve read says that peach trees will recover winter hardiness after many weeks from dormant or late pruning. I’ve also read late pruned peach trees never recover winter hardiness for the winter vs. unpruned peach trees.
I never really worried too much about it because I never experienced it so negatively, until this year. Probably because our winters are generally mild. Many years it only gets to zero F or maybe -5F. Minus 10F is pretty cold for a winter low here, and it is generally predicated by slow cooling weather.
A few winters ago it got to -19, but this is definitely an anomaly. Last time it got that cold was 30 years ago and that set an all time record for my area.
A different danger of pruning too late for peach trees is that new growth won’t set fruit buds. Late shoot growth simply doesn’t produce many fruit buds. Instead that late growth produces mostly leaf buds. This is a general rule, there are varietal exceptions.
I’ve found young peach trees don’t produce many fruit buds in their new growth. And late season growth of new shoots on the outer canopy of the tree of mature trees don’t have many peach fruit buds (they have mostly leaf buds).
I’ve also observed that once peach trees have set terminal buds, they rarely start much new growth at all, even if they have been pruned heavily.
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Where did you find scion of all those early varieties?
Do you know if any of these are early for real and any good?
Early Amber
Early Treat
Early Redhaven
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Been reading your threads bc looking into planting a peach or two in a backyard orchard. Any idea why this is? Are there more durable tree species? We don’t need commercial production, just want something that can grow peaches for awhile.
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As far as I know their Peach breeding program is not active. Their last release was something that sat idle for a good while before it was virus tested and released as “Montgomery Gold”. I have not seen the trees or tasted the fruit but it looks like its about a week later than Carolina Gold. I do know that one parent is the same older Spanish variety as with Carolina Gold.
We normally prune our Blueberries last and Peaches before Blueberries. May swap the sequence on some of the early Peach varieties with Blueberries and see what happens this year
I did see a picture of huge orchard in Pennsylvania where they were pruning hard during bloom. They had piles of branches up and down the rows full of flowers.
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Since will only be grafting this coming spring for my first peaches, I have a long way to go before thinking about pruning.
Thanks for the thorough reply.
Also while freezing is freezing, the lowest temp in an average winter for me is mid 20’s, though low 20’s and even upper teens happen every once in a winter for one night, maybe two.
I may get as few as a dozen freezes in a winter or as many as 20-25.
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I haven’t tried Early Amber or Early treat. I have Early Redhaven. It’s not as good as Risingstar for that window. Risingstar tastes better, looks better and is more productive.
I’ve actually brought very little scion wood into the peach orchard. I always figured there was more risk getting scionwood from individuals vs. nurseries. I have enough peach trees I prefer not to risk scionwood. I have obtained some peach scionwood from members, but only those varieties I wanted to trial and wasn’t able to procure from a tree nursery. I’m a bit scared of bringing in something like X disease, or some other virus.
Other fruits I’m less concerned about and have obtained scionwood much more freely, like apples.
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Even though my recs are from a commercial standpoint, I think they would cross over to a backyard orchard with a similar climate. My biggest factors for evaluation, in no particular order, are flavor, size (small size isn’t a deal breaker, but I place some small weight into this since big peaches sell better) productivity in marginal weather, bac. spot susceptibility, amount of drops (again not a deal breaker if the variety drops badly, but I prefer peaches which don’t drop badly since there is less loss if they don’t drop).
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Thanks Rick, I’ll have to look for that.
I got some Carolina Gold from one of the TN nurseries (can’t remember if it was Vaughn or Cumberland Valley) a couple years ago. He charged me patent fees on one of the NCSU varieties that had expired patents. I mentioned the patent had expired for that one and he said his contract with them still required him to collect patent fees and he didn’t mind it because he wanted to help their cash starved breeding program. Based on his response I had hoped the program was still in business, but I guess not.
I would prune during bloom, but we get too many late frosts, so we may need those flowers which would be pruned off during bloom.
So for us, the pruning window going forward will be after the risk of frost is gone (about May 1st) to terminal bud set (sometime in early Sept.).
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Thanks! I found a good deal on some 6-7’ redskins, so I might try those. It seems like they are pretty resilient (we’re up in 5b) and pretty flowers and tasty and reliable, and if the biggest issue is the fruit color isn’t what would catch your eye in the store, seems okay. I’m also open to other peach suggestions if you have any — basically, hoping for a low-maintenance (we’re new to fruit trees), relatively hardy (for weather and probably suboptimal soil), tasty (we like tangy-sweet yellow), low fuzz peach. But no pressure, I’ve been learning a lot by reading your annual update threads back in the archives.
(some other options at slightly less good but still good deals at this nursery are Reliance, Contender, and what they call Frost Proof which I think is listed elsewhere as Frost)
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You might also consider a mid and early season peach. One advantage to mid and early peaches is that they are generally juicier. Early season peaches aren’t freestone, so that’s a big deal to you, just stick with a mid season peach.
Later season peaches (like Redskin) are firmer by nature, and a little less juicy. Later season peaches are still good, but they aren’t so juicy you have to eat them over the sink, like early and mid season peaches.
Late season peaches can also be quite good, but because they are less juicy, they are also good for pies/cobblers. They don’t bake down and lose their texture as bad in the oven, and you generally don’t want your pies/cobblers to be juicy. Gooey is OK, but juicy not so much.
Reliance is a mid season peach. It’s not necessarily one I’d pick for a mid season peach. Redhaven ripens near Reliance, and Redhaven is a much better quality peach, imo. Redhaven is such a popular peach, just about any fruit tree nursery carries it.
One disadvantage to late season peaches, if you are just going to grow a couple varieties is that late season peaches generally require more spraying (if you are in an area that requires you to spray your peach trees). That’s something you may also want to think about.
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