Anyone growing Carored peaches? The Clemson peach doctor really like these peaches. I found them to be jucy, but not as sweet as I expected. My Rich May were much sweeter
How is your Carored doing? Mr. Jerry Frecon recommends it highly, but I am finding that it is hard to come by.
The peaches are excellent and the trees are doing well but they bloom early and got hit by the frost last year.
In full bloom now and we have had a few low temps in the 25 degree range so Iām not sure what to expect this year.
Got my trees from Vaughn Nursery in Tennessee
They have pretty low chill hours and are probably better suited to an area further south
Thank you very much for your help. I checked-in with Vaughn Nursery (not too far from me) and they still offer Carored, but only on Guardian rootstock.
Hopefully your stone fruit harvest turns out better than expected this year, and thank you again for your input.
Have a great weekend.
Russ
I just bought a Carored peach and to be honest about the only reason I bought it was it was the earliest ripening peach they had in stock. But after googling and watching some useless you tube videos, I still havenāt found much at all about this peach. Of course its a cling and probably not as good as a āregularā season peach, but Iād still like to know more about it. Anyone who has it, Iād sure love a report.
@Litsinger did you end up buying it. You mentioned being a little concerned about Vaughnās being on Guardian and I share those concerns but took a chance anyway. Curious if you did as well?
@blueberrythrill it sounds like you were pretty happy with it as of last March. Did it do well last year? Overall are you still fairly happy with it. Anything else I should or would enjoying knowing ?
thanks!
Cityman:
I have ordered it (though not confirmed) from Freedom Tree Farms in McMinnville as they have it on Halford stock. If I receive it this Spring, Iāll let you know how it does- who did you end up buying yours from?
p.s. FWIW, Mr. Jerry Frecon (āMr. Peachā) swears by Carored for its ripening window. Where I am at, he was a bit concerned that it might get caught in early warm-up but still thought it was worth a try.
Carored did well last year. Not the best peach I grow but it ripens early, just after Rich May. Carored has done better than Ruby Prince which ripens next. Split pit has been a problem with Ruby Prince past 2 years but not with Carored. I donāt like Carored as much as Rich May and I would choose Rich May over Carored if space was tight.
Sometimes customers whine about clingstone peaches, but I believe a tree ripe clinstone peach is a lot better than no fresh peach which is the alternative!
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Vaughn nursery, not far from you. You mentioned your concern about their peaches being on Guardian and share that concern but Iāve never actually tried Guardian here, and while it doesnāt sound like a good fit for this area, Iāve learned the only thing you can really depend on when it comes to fruit growing is what you personally trial. There are so many micro climates, and soils can vary dramatically within just a few hundred feet, and lay of land can make for wet roots or dry roots much of the year. You get the pointā¦Guardian might just surprise us both and work well here (or maybe not) but I figure we wonāt know for sure until we try it! 
@blueberrythrill that post was really interesting to me. I tried to buy Rich may but they were out. I actually DID buy Ruby prince last year so hopefully I will also get to compare those to. I still want to get Rich May and also Gold Dust, another early that Iāve heard a lot of good things about. But I especially liked your last comment! Iāve pretty much just come to expect that early, cling stone peaches just arenāt as good as regular/later season ones. But I had already come to the exact same conclusion as you. Itās still a GREAT thrill and wonderful culinary treat to pick and eat those first, early peaches after winter. You said it best, compared to nothing (or to grocery store peaches) those early peaches are still heavenlyā¦just not quite as heavenly as the later ones! ha
Cityman
I believe Vaughn calls it āFlavorichā Its just starting to bloom at my house and blooms slightly behind Carored but ripens almost 2 weeks earlier.
Unfortunately, my area is predicted to get two 20 degree days early next week which may eliminate these early peaches. Could eliminate all my peaches after I spent more than 60 man hours pruning them, flailing the clippings and spraying with oil and copper. I enjoyed the exercise but would enjoy the peaches a lot more!
I tried to buy a Flavorich too but Vaughn was out of them. In fact, the earliest peach they had in stock was Carored and thatās why I bought them. They were also out of the very late peaches like fairtime and autumn prince, though I did get a Parade. You ever grown Parade? I love the idea of these really early and really late peaches for reasons we have already discussed- whether they are comparable to regular season peaches or not, it is just wonderful to have ANY fresh peaches before or after the others are gone.
In spite of me having a pretty big variety of peaches, almost all of them still ripen within a short 2.5 week time frame. Iāve tried hard to spread that out and bought a few that were reported to be outside that time, but either they turned out to ripen in the same window or I lost them for various uncommon reasons. If you havenāt grown parade, Iād love to hear if you have ANY varieties that are substantially later or earlier than others. I can read the ripening charts but Iām more interested in actual, personal observations since ripening charts havenāt been real dependable for me. Thanks Rick.
My peach season starts about June 1 with Rich May and ends around Aug 30 with Flame Prince. I have about 6 or 7 varieties in sequence between these two. I have never grown Parade peaches but they should ripen here in September.
Iām not crazy about Flame Prince. Hard to tell when its ripe. Also, we had some type of internal rot problem last year after many days of rain in a row. May have had SWD for the first time ever on peaches with that variety last year. Finally, its more difficult to sell fruit during mid to late August here because of āback to schoolā activities.
My experience is that the 1050 chill hour peaches from NCSU like Contender or China Gold EDIT: (should be CAROLINA Gold or China Pearl) are slightly more reliable than the normal 700-850 chill hour peaches during some years, but a major freeze (like the one coming next week) normally kills Contender too. Carored is only about 650 hours so its a good candidate for damage from a early frost.
How far along are you contender trees, Blueberry?
Spud
Many buds on Contender are not showing pink yet but are very close. Just a small amount of pink on a few buds on Contender. For comparison, Carored are blooming with most close to full bloom
My Contender trees are not showing pink tip yet, of course I am couple hours North of you so my trees should not be as far along. Do you think the teen weather forecast for next week will damage your trees at pink tip?
Spud,
This chart has been posted on the forum a few times. T is useful tool.
For stone fruit say, peach buds, temp in the teen will kill them. How much damage depends on how low the temp and how long it stays cold.
Cityman:
You are exactly right! When I asked Jerry about Guardian, he thought it would be suitable to our area, just maybe not ānecessaryā relative to the nematode resistance. My only hesitation in using it was in trying to optimize later blooming and higher winter hardiness (i.e. Lovell, Halford, Bailey) due to weather like we are having nowā¦ that said, it may only impact bloom dates by a day or two, so it will probably be a non-factor in the overall scheme of things. Iāll be watching to see how it works out for you.
Have a great week.
Russ
In my deep south location, my trees on Guardian is the last rootstock to initiate bloom with the same varieties. For instance, Arctic Star on Nemaguard and Lovell has finished blooming and set thumbnail size fruit. The one Guardian is only @ green calyx.
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That is very interesting and helpful information- the only research data I am aware of that has studied this is the NC-140 program, which if I interpret the data correctly has the calendar days to full bloom within a day of each other for all regions when comparing Guardian to Lovell.
I am happy to hear what @jaypeedee said and hope it translates that way for me (us). I also have quite a few trees on Citation which I also think isnāt ideal for our area but itās about all that Peaceful Valley sales (Dave WIlson Trees). And I have a few Lovell. Honestly Iāve never noticed a difference in bloom time or water/drought tolerance, vigor, or anything else between Lovell and Citation on my property, though others seem to have a big preference one way or the other, so who knows. Anyway, Iāll keep an eye out and let you know how my Guardian trees perform, @Litsinger .
BTW, Russ, and if you already said this Iām sorry, but do you know what rootstock Freedom Tree Farm uses for their peaches and/or plums? As Iāve told you before, Iāve bought a lot of their trees over the years from Kroger of all places, but have never known what they are on. Do you?