Scott do these look familiar? I believe you grow a few.
FN is not going to like those brix readings…
I have one variety (from Scott) that i grafted a few years ago and i’ve noticed that the leaves are much darker green then the nectarine it is grafted to… must just be a characteristic of them?
Those peaches look more pink than honey peaches I have seen in the US, but it could just be the lighting. The looks are not very different from a white peach, its the taste which sets them apart. I have not noticed more green leaves on my honey peaches. They are also different even amongst themselves, some have beak tips and some don’t, some have smooth and some have rougher skin. They all tend to have a big seam.
My Shui Mi Tao honey peach has very few peaches on it this year, the cold spring was not good for it. The Pallas and Athena always overset in the extreme, no shortage of peaches on those trees! Now all I need to do is avoid rot and squirrels and I should get lots of honey peaches from them this year.
Honey peaches are not particularly high in brix, they are also milder in flavor. Its mainly the unique flavor that sets them apart, similar to how the red-fleshed peaches taste quite a bit different.
I think i might have Pallas, but i forget…i’d have to dig through my notes. I have no fruit on mine…but it has put on a ton of growth. I also left the nectarine its grafted to grow out some and i did notice a distinct leaf difference…the honey peach was much darker green. I’ve noticed this with a few seedlings too over the years, but i’ve always thought it was just soil differences …in this case they are on the same tree. Not that it matters…just an observation.
Interesting about the brix. I just assumed they were high sugar with the “honey” in the name. They do sound very good and i hope to try them at some point. I didn’t notice any dieback on mine, but it was a mild winter. I got to get them grafted to a container tree so i can protect it better.
Is Pallas considered a honey peach? We grafted one this year, from its stats it looks like something that would be good in our area.
Yes, Pallas is a very old honey peach from Georgia.
Rob, Pallas is very vigorous, that might be related to the leaf color. I also have Athena which is a child of Pallas and it is also very vigorous. But Eagle Beak was the opposite, so not sure how much its tied to being a honey peach.
I did have about forty ‘honey peach’ blossoms on my Shui Mi Tao this spring. I was left with one peach which got pecked by birds and fell off of the tree. So ends my lesson in Honey peaches for this year!
A graft was successful that I tried from Robert Purvis’s scion wood.He calls the cultivar,Chinese Honey Peach.Does anyone have more information about this one? Brady
Brady - I am curious about the same thing - the cultivar name?
On that same site that you mention, I just noticed that he also said, “survived temperatures of -34F without winter-injury in SW Minnesota during the past ten growing seasons.” I have Shui Mi Tao and I thought it was much more fragile than that so I’ve been growing it in my high tunnel over the past 2-3 years. We are a zone 6A but have been known to have stretches of -27 or - 20. The Shui Mi Tao peaches are excellent.
Does anyone know the cultivar name of the Purvis orchard one?
Scott - is there a honey peach that you like above all others?
Bob told me that it was a siberian peach… not sure why that name is on it. Here is what he emailed me:
It is one and the same as Siberian C peach, which has been used as a rootstock in years past. Fruit is about 2-1/4" diameter, a silvery greenish color with very pale yellow flesh and red staining around the pit. It is of passable quality if ripened off the tree, but its main virtue is that it is cold hardy to at least -34F.
In other words it is not really an eating peach.
Bob hasn’t much information about the Peach’s name on his site and for me,so far, it doesn’t match it.The flavor is bland and not very sweet.The description is fairly accurate,from what he wrote.
I’m using the thing,mostly as an inter stem,because of the vigorous growth.bb
Thank you, Scott, for clarifying. I would imagine that folks would be disappointed to think they were buying a Chinese Honey peach and then find out it was cold hardy - but not necessarily tasty.
Did you find a favorite Chinese Honey peach? Last summer our Shui Mi Taos were luscious.
Thank you. I was excited, although a bit incredulous, because I thought he was saying he was selling Shui Mi Tao and it did well in -34 in Minnesota.
My favorite is Athena. The Shui Mi Tao had too many growing problems, it is not a good mid-atlantic peach.
As Scott knows he and I had fun tracking down Honey Sugar peaches from China. I finally bought a Shui Mi Tao, a very large white Chinese peach in that category. Scott had that one a few others. They were not the easiest peach to grow to fruition for me as they were true magnets for every insect and fungus available in Newport, RI. I will try it again here in the south of France, where our heat is extremely dry with no mildew! The are large peaches but have more than one Chinese name. Check with Arboreum to see if they have any trees growing for sale. That is where I bought mine. The rest came from Davis. After the Chinese Honey peaches I discovered the red peaches that grow here like weeds! Going to the festival this year!
Thank you for that recommendatio9n, Scott. Do you remember the source for Athena?
Hi Mrs G - nice to hear about your adventures! I got my 2 Shui Mi Tao from Arboreum. They are doing very well in our high tunnel greenhouse. They were delicious last year. We got only one the year before that but it was also very good.We’re a zone 6A.
I am going to be moving my Shaa Kar Pareeh aprium and my Inca plum outside this year. I’m also searching for the possible pollenizers for our Tlor Tsiran plumcots. Any advice or experience with those?
We’re still in a freeze - but I’m wishing you and us an early spring! Please send photos of the festival fruit!
It is not widely available, CRFG was selling it but I don’t think they are any more and it was in person only anyway. It is not too much different than the one you have in terms of flavor.
I promise I will, every spring and summer there are an incredible amount of fruit festivals. Each taken very seriously! I love them.
Thanks, Scott. Always looking for good peaches. Love reading your reports. Lots of work. Thank you for posting.
You have a lot of courage to pick up and start another orchard all over again. I was telling my husband that I don’t think I could start it all over again. We have a lot invested in our small @ 130 tree orchard. And of course, it takes time for the trees to grow and fruit out.
These -20 degree days (just 1 this winter, but enough cold & ice to make one sick of it) have made me wish we had an orchard and gardens in a warmer place. February is always the worst. But - at least we do have an orchard - and it is starting to produce nicely. :-))
