I grafted it this spring and am looking forward to trying it. Maybe it can give Rich May some competition in the very early season. I used to have a PF1, which died. I don’t really miss it though, as the quality wasn’t that good. I think RM is better than PF1 and a week earlier. But, it still isn’t outstanding, at least so far (good flavor, but only 9 brix). Maybe some of the ones I left hanging will be better. Over-cropping may also have reduced quality.
How to determine that it’s time for a tree to go is the hard part. It can take a number of years for fruit to get started and I hate to give up on that time which has already been invested to start over. If I discover that I don’t like the fruit, grafting over it seems to be a good approach. Except for a few things like grapes, where I’ve had an abysmal record. I still have a big Niagra (seeded) vine along a fence because all of the better varieties I tried to graft on have failed.
Though sometimes I banish plants to rentals in order to reclaim the space.
And sometimes it works out- in fact, I’ve got a Carmine Jewel and Crimson Passion (now the size of several, due to sending up suckers) at a rental which produced more fruit than 9-10 bushes/trees at my house. Of course, outproduced is relative and it was maybe 2 vs 1 pint, so still not much…
I had PF1 for several years. The taste was not good, on a sour side. Split pits often. Then, in 2018, the trunk started to split badly. By 2020, I decided to remove it and put a Freckle Face nectarine in its place.
I don’t have Rich May but I think Spring Snow is not as early as Rich May. I am confident that SN will taste sweeter. The crunchy one I ate yesterday had brix at 12.5.(had enough juice for me to squeeze it out and measure it).
My 4th year Juliet has sent up about 15 suckers. I still don’t know why Gurney charge $49.99 for a potted plant (before shipping and handling). That’s crazy expensive.
That’s exactly right Tippy. Here, PF1 ripens -30 and Spring Snow ripens about -21.
I continue to favor Spring Snow as my #1 white peach for flavor. Like Tippy, I’ve found the variety doesn’t produce very well, but it is an outstanding flavored white peach, as grown here.
Mam, do your potted peaches grow to full size? I am asking as this is the first year I have had the tree for going on its second year in a pot. I’ve never grown trees in pots before.
Dear Mrs. G.,
I don’t think a potted trees could reach a full size due to root restriction. I have little experience (only 2-3 years) with peach trees in pots. For peaches/nectarines in pots, I have a hard time figuring out how much watering they need in addition to rain. I use soil-less mix and fertilize them with Osmocote.
I kept a Freckle Face nectarine in a pot for two years before moving it in ground. The fruit from the potted tree were smaller and not juicy while the fruit from the in -ground tree were noticeably larger and juicier with overall excellent quality.
However, my potted trees are in 15 gal pots. A bigger pot could yield a better result. If your peach tree is in larger pot, it is likely to perform better than mine.
@fruitnut is the only person I could think of who has perfected a method of growing fruit trees in pots. For me, I do not like growing fruit trees in pots.
Thanks Tippy. Pots are now my only choice. I too have a form of osmocote (sp) that I am using. My potted peaches are sizing up but very slowly. We have had little rain so I am watering every two days or every other day right now. The temps are not blistering yet. My mirabelles are a normal size.
Around 20 years ago I broke a large lot into two lots and sold one to a co-worker who never built on it. After clearing it, he just let it grow back to a heavily treed lot. He passed away and his estate sold the lot back to me and I am making it into an orchard as part of my “what to do when I retire” plan.
I have around 26 trees on there now and will end up with 9 or 10 rows of trees with 9 or 10 trees in each row. Have Pawpaw, Several Types of Persimmon, Asian Pear, Jujube, Mandarin Melon Berry and Mulberry. I am being flexible as I go along because I want to set aside some room for raised bed veggie garden and a large Kiwi Fruit Pergola.
If your final plan will consist of about 100 trees, I could not call your orchard “small”. It will be considered medium size, to me. Glad you have space. I am looking. Land in MA is very expensive, no matter where it is.
@PomGranny ,
Since you asked about white peaches on another thread. My favorite is the same as Mark @Olpea’s, Spring Snow. I also like the donut peach Saturn.
At least 87 cm high and 75 cms across. Maybe bigger. Over three feet tall. They are large and hold two giant bags of soil (I add one new bag each year). Do not know how to transfer gallons.
Mrs.G,
If our calculation is correct, you pot is about 100 gallon pot. Your tree is likely to grow much bigger than mine. Those are humongous and beautiful pots.
They are large! They sell small terra cotta balls that you place un the bottoms of these pots for drainage before you put in soil. Empty, they weigh about 80 kilos.
Yup- I get 101.5, assuming a cylinder (v=3.14*r squared * height, then convert cubic cm to gal)). Practically, you’ll have some space at the top and the bottom could come to a point further reducing volume. But it is absolutely huge anyway.
15 gal is already pretty big. Moving anything bigger will need a forklift Most of my potted stuff is in 2-3 gal pots. I’ve got some large figs in 7-10 gal containers, but that is it. I did experiment with a 20-30 gal grow bag for a peach. But it was so heavy that I left it in place for a long enough time that it rooted through the bottom and really became hard to move. It is still there 5+ years later…
Last year, my first Tomcot dropped/ripened on July first. I went out to check my trees in the rain. Right on cue, my Orangered dropped today. Ipicked another 3 that came off easily.
There are a total of 8 OR. That could be why they have a good size. Each weighs about 2.6 oz/72 grams. There were bumps and bruises with no known cause. No worm holes or worm.
They tasted really good, sweet with apricot flavor. The top part on the stem end was still firm while the bottom part was soft and sweeter. Brix was 17.5 and 18 on all 4 today.
You can see how tiny the potted trees look next to the Anduze pots. They were originally made for the Orangerie at Versailles. Still used to this day. Classique!
