I got the black boy tree from Raintree about 4 years ago. It has been fruiting since year 2 and this year I harvested about a bushel of very nice, clean peaches with only 2 sprays in the spring.
The fruits are medium small and tend to be on the tart/sweet side. I have never tasted anything bitter at all. But the strong raspberry like aroma is wonderful and very unique. It’s like eating a handful of raspberries at once. I would highly recommend this peach tree to anyone.
This tree is relatively easy to grow. It’s quite resistant to peach leaf curl. Also compared to other peaches that I grow (Saturn, Sweet Bagel and others), it seems that the bugs and brown rots don’t bother it that much (this is contrary to Scott’s observation).
I think its thicker and harder fuzzy skin actually makes the difference. It’s hard and bitter from May till September when it suddenly starts to ripe. So PC and OFM don’t bother with it that much. In contrast to Black Boy, my Saturn is almost 50% damaged by PC and then brown rot even with many more sprays.
However this year I observed that Black Boy started to ripe from core, so if you treat it like other peach and let it hang on tree for too long (to get that soft touch on skin), it will rot from inside. That’s probably the reason that Scott found it tend to rot. So pick it when it’s still hard inside and outside but tastes ripe. You can keep it in a refrigerator for a while.
Anyway, this is a very easy to grow peach with a unique taste. It’s just different than your regular boring Red Haven peach. 