I started with one genetic dwarf in a #25 pot last year, golden glory. I liked the look of it so much I ordered another seven this bare root season: garden annie apricot (not as compact, still has a half functioning gibberrelin reponse I think), golden prolific nectarine, empress peache, dorado peach, arctic babe nectarine, necta zee nectarine. I won’t get much fruit from these for a couple years so I can’t help you decide if they’re any good, but all of these are reportedly good in my climate except the two new zaiger ones at the end of the list. I have a large greenhouse that can fit them for our spring rains so I can avoid leaf curl (biggest peach problem here) and odd frosts. I also value being mobile although I do have a few peaches in the ground.
the yield efficiency of genetic dwarf peaches is the same or better than regular peaches, see this article:
my guess as to why they haven’t been used commercially is that regular peach trees can already be held to pedestrian size with good pruning, and genetic dwarf peaches require huge amounts of thinning which would be costly to do commercially
I have grown a lot of the dwarf peaches and nectarines, including Honey Babe, Necta Babe, El Dorado, Bonanza, Pix Zee, and Necta Zee. I found that Necta Zee is the best and a very good nectarine of the mentioned varieties. The other really good one was Necta Babe nectarine. The peach varieties were not all that tasty, but decent anyways. I am still growing Necta Zee, and have an Arctic Babe, and Arctic Sprite ready to plant. The Sol Dorado looks really good and I will probably buy that one too. I think the newer nectarines should be very good, but we will see. The trees are really cool and look great during the bloom, as well as fit in small places you can’t fit a full size tree. Also, the newer nectarines ripen up at times when other fruits are not available, like a sweet low acid white nectarine in late May, awesome!
The reason I was considering a dwarf was the root system. I am zone 5 Colorado so if I were to grow a genetic dwarf peach I would have to over winter it in the garage. Family would not like it but if it is only 6 feet it is not the end of the world. I saw varieties like elderado are said to be excellent tasting on certain peach sites but have also heard genetic dwarf taste worse. The differing information is why I asked.
I think it would work great. I did with Pomegranates for me, so peaches should be a piece of cake.
I’m in 6a/5b
many nurseries are suggesting growing the dwarfs in containers. I want to put one in ground here. They are very cool trees.
I have an old genetic dwarf peach in ground. It is now about 15 foot tall. It will not stay small unless you cut it and if you have to cut it then it is no different.
Yeah. Raintree nursery called me back today as well. They said they trees would get way too big for my pots even on a semi dwarf rootstock. I plan to just get the elderado and honey babe because even on that thread someone else showed they said the genetic dwarf peach trees still taste better than store bought peaches. They also state on other websites the taste on elderado and honey babe are excellent.
I like honey babe and el dorado. I have not tasted them side by side but i think i like el dorado better.
I also have grown garden gold. I got a new tree of that last year. I cant grow regular peaches so it’s these or nothing. These are real home grown peach flavor. The peaches have always been smaller even with thinning - like Asian plums.
I have grown them in containers. They need a big container, like half a wine barrel. smaller needs too much watering and fall over due to top heavy.
Photos are Garden Gold, El Dorado, and El Dorado in container on deck. I should have thinned it better that year.
I have got several Honey Babe and Nectar Zee fruits this year (the first year I planted them). I like them.
I have a harvest and tasting video here.
I should have mentioned that Nectar Zee has a special aroma, like rose or Lechee:) So far I have picked another Nectar Zee and it was sweeter than the first one. So I am sure I picked the first one (in my video) too soon.
I also have a Bonanza (maybe) and a Snow Babe tree but they didn’t have edible fruit so far. I may post on this thread in the future.
What do Garden Gold peaches taste like? Do you like them compared to Honey Babe? I am ordering a Garden Gold for the next spring. I hope they ripe later than Honey Babe so I will have a longer time span of picking. Thank you!
6mt6royal yes I have that tree. Good tasting early white nectarines but are quite small. They will probably be better in the coming years as I only tried the first harvest last year.
I got tired of scrolling down, Has anyone straightened you out with the fact that all fruit trees become productive dwarfs on any root stock when grown in large pots filled with the right growing medium and properly fertilized? Fruitnut has been doing this with great success in a large greenhouse for decades now… I’ve been doing it for over 30 years in my nursery- not to get fruit but to grow trees for sale, however, they bear heavy crops if I don’t remove the fruit once the trunks get much over an inch and a half.
Perhaps this is why breeders haven’t invested much time on creating naturally dwarfing peach varieties for pot culture. There are naturally dwarfing rootstocks for peaches, of course, but they were bred specifically for in-ground planting. Why would you need a “miniature” peach when there are already dwarfing rootstocks for the species?
I would say for some, it’s more of a want than a need. For short people like me or when i was also in Colorado knowing that i wouldn’t stay by choice because the weather sucks for all things gardening… I too, kept all of my plants potted and moved them with me. Also some people aren’t aware that keeping trees potted will keep them small.
I have a Japanese apricot tree who i thought was a goner but it shot up 2.5 ft in every direction after i treated it heavily for whatever fungus it came with and i pruned it back to just 1 stick with 0 branches. Within less than 2 months, it created branches and grew over 2 ft. I think when people think growth habits, they think of what is on the label vs the fact that it’s also dependent on treatment of the tree. No idea the root stock on my tree but it’s surpassed all my other trees in vigor.
I still need to keep the majority of my trees potted until we can clear out the land as well. I’m also going to keep my mini’s potted because i love the look of potted trees
You may be missing my point, which is that when you keep a fruit tree in a pot it will almost invariably function as a tree on very dwarfing roots planted in the ground. Even the type of soil and climate greatly affects the vigor of all species as well as the variety.
Anyone growing plants in pots doesn’t really need to consider relative vigor as grown in the ground, Pots force all roots to a dwarfing habit. When a tree cannot support vigorous growth, it fruits. Much better to use the roots for dwarfing than variety at this point and with pot culture it isn’t an issue at all. The hard thing is keeping trees adequately vigorous in pots. .
I do have it and it fruited this past season but unfortunately something got the fruit before I did so I did not get to taste it. It is also a nectarine and looks juicy so I believe its going to be good. I would highly recommend you don’t buy any of the peaches as they were all pretty dry, bland, and tasteless. Although some looked really nice, and I did not try them all, but did try most.
you’ve reignited my want to grow them in pots 
SO CUUUTE! and short. I’m getting them all now