I’d like to plant a couple of peach trees this spring. I understand that peaches are challenging to grow no matter what, but I’d still like to pick ones that are as forgiving as possible when it comes to disease. From what I understand, brown rot and bacterial spot are the two most important ones for the deep south. Unfortunately, there is very little literature out there on brown rot susceptibility of different varieties. Here’s a list of varieties that I am considering. Which ones show the least susceptibility to brown rot and/or bacterial spot in your orchards? Other suggestions are welcome too, but I know I can get these on the root I want this year.
La Feliciana
harvester
fire prince
red globe
july prince
early august prince
flame prince
red haven
Hi Barry,
I live in the deep south in the metro Atlanta area. I was recently on a post about 2 weeks ago, talking about how I bought a lot of trees from the big box stores as well as a nursery called “Burgers Market”. I did not know the rootstock of any of the trees I talked about but since then, I called someone at Burgers Market, and the person I spoke with told me that they primarily sell most of their trees with the nemaguard rootstock. I told her that I had purchased a hale haven and an elberta (both dwarf) and she said that they were most likely on nemaguard rootstock. I don’t really know if she was 100% accurate, but I tell you, in the last 4 years, I have had no problems with either of these trees. I spray regularly for a fact and I inspect my trees often. So far, so good. I don’t know if because my trees are young, that I have had no problems with brown rot. On one tree that I bought at Lowes, there was a hint of bacterial spot, but that was it. So, in answer to your question, I would suggest Elberta & Hale haven. I believe we have a few deep south orchardists, gardeners, etc. and you will hear more. I’m no expert, by all means, I’m just sharing what works for me. For the last 4 years, I have gotten nice size harvests from most of my peach trees. In all, I have about 23 fruit trees with 12 of them being peach trees…Hope this helps you a little: 
According to this newsletter https://www.hort.purdue.edu/fff/FFF15/FFF2015-7-20.pdf Babygold 5, Elberta, and Glohaven are somewhat resistant to rot. Elberta is fairly susc. to bac. spot, as is Babygold. Glohaven is not.
Of course Elberta was developed in the south, so seems to do well there, in spite of it’s susc. to bac. spot.
Barry do you know your your avg chill hours at your location? That is an important piece of this puzzle. I can say that lafeliciana has a really good reputation for being rot resistant and has been highly recommended for a long time in central Texas and Louisiana.
Barry
I’m not sure of your exact location, but I attached a PDF from the USDA research farm in Byron, Ga. where many of the *.prince peaches were created. The article was written by W.R Okie who was the plant breeder responsible for several of these peaches. It includes suggested variety for Ga as well as information on chill hours and bacterial spot. I grow fire prince, flame prince and red haven in NC and they all do well.
http://www.ent.uga.edu/peach/peachhbk/preplant/varieties.pdf
Thank you for that link, Blue. I’d recommend that as reading for anyone who is interested in trying to understand the significance and meaning of the various chill hour models. Much of the chill hour explanation carries over to other fruit trees, as well.
There is a significant amount of information within those few PDF pages.
Here’s the most detailed university report I’ve seen on brown rot (also covers scab, scale, and split pits, but not bacterial spot).
Thanks
Bob
Thank you for that link! I just learned from that link that the new peach variety I just planted (GaLa) is very susceptible to brown rot 
Another strike against GaLa, and another reason to plant Glenglo in that ripening window instead.
Wish I had purchased Glenglo! They were not available, so I bought the Gala. I have some Glenglo on order for next year and I will probably replace half of my Gala with Glenglo. Gala appears on a list of suggested variety for my area, but its not listed as a preferred variety by the large NC peach grower who helped produce the list. For some reason Red Haven is not listed as a preferred variety on that list either and I really like Red Haven. Here is the list:
http://jones.ces.ncsu.edu/files/library/52/peachvariety062.pdf
Thanks for the great info everyone. I wish there were more reports in the literature like the Arkansas trials that BobVance posted. I did quite a bit of searching myself and could not find much. I ended up going with Harvester and Flameprince based on ripening date, availability, and good overall cropping reports from my area, but I could not find any info on brown rot susceptibility for these. Harvester ripens in late June and Flameprince in early August. So, I have no idea how these varieties hold up under brown rot pressure.
Anybody happen to have this saved to their computers as a pdf? The link doesn’t work anymore.
I was able to locate an updated link on their site:
http://arkansas-ag-news.uark.edu/pdf/520-2.pdf
Just in case, I’ve saved a copy of it here.
520-2.pdf (103.5 KB)
And if you have time or interest, I see a bunch of other articles (mostly on blackberries) from that year’s report (just change the 2 in URL to the number of the article you want):
HORTICULTURAL STUDIES 2003
TABLE OF CONTENTS
FRUITS
Propagation of Thornless Arkansas Blackberries by Hardwood Cuttings
Early Performance of Peach Cultivars in Southwest Arkansas
Evaluation of Post-Harvest Disease Resistance in Blackberry Cultivars
Evaluation of Size-Controlling Apple Rootstocks for High-Density Orchards in Arkansas: Results of the 1994 NC-140 Uniform Apple Rootstock Trial
Do Students Learn in the Introductory Principles of Horticultural Science Class?
A Short Retrospective of Blackberries in
Arkansas
Genetic Similarity Among Arkansas Blackberry Cultivars Based on Pedigree Analysis
Evaluation of Resistance to
Erwinia Amylovora
and
Botryosphaeria Dothidea
in Eastern U.S. Blackberry Cultivars
Propagation of Thornless Blackberries Utilizing Adventitious Shoots from Root Cuttings
The Canadian breeding program is the only one that makes great effort to evaluate brown rot susceptibility, I believe. A lot of it depends on the weather preceding ripening- so here, Sept. ripening peaches sometimes suffer less as well as the earliest ripening ones (less humidity in early summer).
The best rot resistant peach I’ve grown is Harcrest. .
Thank you for posting it again.
It doesn’t look like ACN sells that one anymore. At least, I don’t see it in their catalog. It looks like they are planning to release 2019 inventory soon.
They’ve not sold it for years. Only a few nurseries in the country do. I have one client with a huge tree from my nursery- I removed its best graft wood while summer pruning it last week but I could still give you better than I got form you- by better, I mean wider diameter. Another customer has a very old, big peach tree that due to lack of communication between customer and spray service didn’t get any spray this year until I gave it a single fungicide app. It’s amazing how clean the peaches look compared to two other’s on the site. Seems like one of the Havens and a very tasty one. I liked it enough to graft it to one of my trees even before this.
That sounds great- thanks! The big old tree sounds good too- I love fruits that can handle a bit less attention. It’s one of the reasons I’m so fond of jujubes (aside from the high brix).
I gave you the best the tree had- but Citation for peaches just doesn’t grow that fast and it had quite a few peaches for a tree that size (2nd year). Were you able to get some to take? If not, I should be able to send better wood this winter, as there are fewer peaches on the tree now, than last year. Evidently, I worked it a bit too hard last year.
Don’t worry about it- everyone sends me skinny wood except Mamuang. The peach, Carnival, I think, did not take well and just has a couple of leaves but there’s a J. plum graft that is thriving. I had difficulty with peaches this year anyway. I still haven’t figured out perfect timing, I guess. You’d think my percentage would be rising with experience but I only got 50% this year with less vigorous growth than usual, even though trees are growing vigorously.
I hate citation rootstock for anything but very vigorous plums. Flavor Grenade needs a more vigorous root for me for sure. Most of my clients have room anyway, and by the time I plant trees they are ready to bare fruit.