Rarely does a month go by that a new fruitgrower here doesn’t ask what is the best peach tree for them to plant. While opinions on the questions certainly vary, the one concern most new growers have after doing just a little research on peaches is whether or not (or how often) they will lose their crop to a late freeze. In fact, I think most would agree that a spring freeze is the most common reason for any of us to loose fruit for the year. Those who have some experience know there are some trees that bloom later and/or seem to have a little more tolerance to cold temperatures than other peaches. Most people know Contender is one of the most often used examples of a tree that is at least a little bit less likely to have its blooms/buds killed by a late freeze (because it blooms later and- some say- can take a tiny bit more cold than other buds/blooms at the same stage.
I just wanted to take a moment and reiterate Contender’s value and ability to offer extended protection from late frosts based on my own observations over the last 5 years. Today as I walked through my orchard- which now has over 25 different varieties of peaches, I noticed that once again, my contender trees are the only peaches I have that still have fairly tight buds. Many of my other peaches lost their entire fruit load this year because they were either blooming or about to bloom 2.5 weeks ago when we had a 13 and 14 degree low for 2 nights. I lost some plums, some pluots, and some peaches. But my contenders had barely even begun to show swollen buds and still are a few days away from blooming!
In my 5 years of so of getting some harvestable fruit, there have been 3 years that I’ve lost at least some of my peach harvest due to spring freeze. Contender has still managed to produce at least SOME fruit all 5 of those years. That is a very big deal to my mind.
It would be one thing if late freeze resistance were the only good thing about Contender, but it isn’t- not to me. I honestly find Contender to be one of my very favorite fresh eating peaches I grow. If thinned and sprayed properly, they grow very large, sweet, juicy, and colorful peaches that anyone would be proud of. They are heavy producers (and therefore do require heavy thinning) and the trees always seem very healthy. In my experience, they are not immune from peach leaf curl but absolutely are more resistant to it than many of my trees. If I spray them the same as other trees, they always have almost no peach leaf curl whereas some trees sprayed just the same will have quite a bit. They are about equal in getting brown rot, but not the worst and certainly it is 100% controllable with spray.
I know this is old news to most of you, but I guess this post is more for new growers. Today if someone in my part of the country asked me what the best peach tree is for them to plant in their back yard, it would be easier for me to answer that than any other fruit they might ask me about. For my area, Contender Peach Trees are far and away the best choice and offer the average grower the best chance at getting some good, fresh peaches off their trees when peach season rolls around every year. They are dependable trees, reliable fruiters, and wonderful tasting. If I were going to plant a full orchard of one variety, Contender would be a very easy choice!
I tried planting a Contender years ago. It was a large tree that arrived bare-root much too early (Mar. 20) and already leafing out, so was probably stressed when planted after a month in the garage. It did not thrive and died the first winter. I also tried Reliance years later on sale, which thrived, but died the first winter, too. Then I tried a Siberian C, which froze the first winter, but resprouts a skinny little top about a foot tall each year. I wasn’t ever going to order another peach tree, but somehow a Contender and a Reliance got on order on my computer again! I am hoping to grow it close to the ground so I can mulch it or cover with snow. Who am I kidding!
Turns out I now have 28 different kinds of peaches! I was guessing when I said 20…here they are:
Ruby Prince
Double Jewel
Reliance (mislabel, so ?)
Cresthaven
White Lady
Fairtime
Early Elberta
Blaze Prince
Kaweah
Belle of Georgia
White Princess
Elberta
Ruston Red
Red Haven
Saturn
Harvester
Fay Elberta
Harvester
Harvester
Parade
Ruby Queen
Carolina Gold
Indian Cling
Seedling-1/2 Indian Free, 1/2???
Majestic mislabel (probably Florida King)
Intrepid
Contender
To be honest, I’ve added most of my varieties in the last 3 years so I haven’t had time to evaluate most of them. This is a good year to find out which of my older ones are more hardy since several trees got wiped out this year, so whatever still has blooms would be at least a little better than those that don’t. I’ll take a closer look tomorrow and get back to you.
BTW, just when I get a collection of fruit trees I can be proud of, @Olpea and @fruitnut both say today that its mostly weather and not variety that matters anyway! haha. I’m just kidding you guys, because the truth is I agree…with some exceptions, I find my fruit varies a lot more from year to year than it does from variety to variety. In fact, I often find myself going from tree to tree and tasting peaches and thinking most of them with the same ripening windows taste the same in a given year. Again, there are exceptions, but in general I cannot argue that there is much value in having 35 varieties other than satisfying my curiosity and perhaps helping me observe things like disease resistance, hardiness, and so on. But taste difference…not so much, just like you both said.
Do you know what rootstock your contenders are on? We have red clay soil, and I’m wondering what is the best rootstock to go for when buying my Contender.
North,
I admire your tenacity. Growing peaches in ground in zone 5 is already pushing it. You are in zone 4. I think you may want to consider growing them in pots.
I am sorry Brandon, but I don’t. I must confess that for the first few years I was planting fruit trees, I either didn’t know or didn’t keep up with root stocks. The last 2-3 years I have kept that information and have it on pretty much all my trees now, but my contenders were all planted back in the “dark days” when I didn’t. Sorry.
@northwoodswis4 I had to laugh when you said in spite of your best judgement and all your failures, 2 more peaches just jumped onto your order form this year! If it makes you feel better, I’ve told myself every year that I already have more fruit trees than I can handle and I won’t buy any more until something dies…then I always do! ha. I also have zoned pushed several times and while it fails quite a bit, I’ve also had some pleasant successes so you never know…but @mamuang is right…you are really pushing it up there. Good luck!
We’ll, thanks for your post. I was getting really down about two years in a row of losing every single bloom on my Redhaven and was thinking about switching to contender. I think I’ll go for it now
Well, this made me happy - I just ordered a Contender to replace a mystery-variety baby peach tree that dropped dead on my watch last year. Contender seemed like a fan favorite, so I hoped it would be a good choice … I’ll be extra careful not to kill this one!
(muttering to myself: “Don’t over-water, don’t over-water, don’t over-water…”
I didn’t even notice that!! I do have 3 contenders. My list is supposed to show each variety only one time no matter how many trees I have (I have about 40 peach trees total so clearly I have 2-3 of several varieties.
The funny thing about your question is that I’ve planted a harvester each year for the past 3 years and have never got a single peach from any of them yet (looking good for this year tho). You’d think I would wait and only plant second or third trees once a variety has proved itself! Hey…I said it was a list, I didn’t say it made sense! haha
Brandon - Where are you located? I am in the Virginia Piedmont region and have red clay soil also. I have trees on Bailey, Lovell, Halford, Nemaguard and seedling. For the most part it does not matter, all of the mentioned rootstocks do well here. Nemaguard supposedly has some issues with cold temps north of Georgia, no issues for me yet. If I had to pick one I would choose seedling, the trees seem more vigorous. I planted my first trees on Guardian rootstock this year so it is too early to have an opinion. I have not tried Citation rootstock but I cannot imagine it doing well in Virginia.
Kevin,
If I had as much land as you do, I would plant one variety each, just for the fun of it. If I were your neighbor, I would not plant anything. I would live off your generosity, ha, ha.
I have a Contender out of four peaches. It is still in pretty tight bud stage, although I see a few tiny green leaves peeking out. My other three trees are in a similar state, but last week’s warm weather has given them a bit of encouragement.
The Contender and the Blushingstar (both third leaf) ought to produce some peaches for the first time this year, if we can avoid the late freezes. And that’s a big if. We usually get those in mid-April here.
Here in Z5 Iowa it is the god-awful -15F and below winters that kill peach blossoms. My experience is that Redhaven and thus also likely Contender bloom at about the same time as early apples, and would probably give fruit more often than not but for the frigid mid-winter temperatures.
Contender is supposed to be up there if not top of the list on mid-winter hardiness too.
I will post about my experience and that of my dad who has Contender with the other NCSU peaches once things start to show life here. All of the NCSU peaches were selected for late flowering (highest chill).
We had a test winter of -32F here, and it might be that all of our peaches are dead. Last year we lost one of the newer NCSU peaches and had some branch die-back on other NCSU peaches (Challenger, Intrepid, and Carolina Gold). I believe lows were around -19F last winter.
That is mostly true, but I might offer a few caveats. I think some of the heirloom peaches can have some pretty distinctive flavors, as well as some of the NJ donut peaches. And there are some peaches which just build more consistent sugar compared to other varieties in their window.
By and large it’s the weather which makes most peaches good though. For example, Risingstar is probably the sweetest yellow peach for its window that I’ve grown. But if there is a lot of rain up to and during that harvest window, that peach won’t be anywhere near top notch.
There are some relative differences in flavor for harvest windows (i.e. Blazingstar tends to be really good for it’s window as well as some others). But it’s just really hard to grow a top flavored peach if there has been a lot of rain.
Re: Contender
I agree with all the praise of Contender. But one drawback is that it is a pretty furry peach. Not a big deal but I prefer less fuzz, if I can get it.
My Contender is also my latest blooming peach. Most of my other peach trees are in bloom now. Contender is just in the bud stage, but should start soon. The higher the chill hours, the later the bloom time. Contender has a high chill hour requirement.
I’ve about given up on stone fruits, though. They bloom way way too early, and get frozen out almost every year. I’m lucky if I get a stone fruit crop once every five years. Our location just isn’t conducive to them. I’m debating now as to whether to take a chainsaw to all of them.
