You have an unusual definition of a troll- But I guess what I’m about to write you will consider trolling- you don’t like being challenged, but my challenges aren’t to belittle you as you seem to think- I’m only trying to get as close to genuine information here as I can- the quality of Cresthaven isn’t very important to me, but the quality of info on this forum is, and I apologize for my obsession if it offends you.
IMO, there are no real experts on how peaches perform in universities that exceed anyone who spends just as much time evaluating peaches as they do. Often in Clemson-type evaluations they talk about the brix of peaches with numbers that are absurdly low. Land Grant university experts are primarily paid to advise commercial growers. They are not experts on producing the highest quality fruit in the manner a home grower does. They tend to breed brightly colored fruit that ripens in a way that doesn’t require multiple pickings and ships well.
That guy in Clemson probably doesn’t know nearly as much about how a peach variety will perform in your orchard as the nearest commercial grower to you, or any serious hobbyist near you that has experimented with a wide range of varieties based originally on what a wide range of “experts” suggested but followed up by experience in their own orchards for several decades. To me, the folks with the most expertise on taste are small commercial growers who make their living selling superior fruit for a premium price directly to their customers from orchards that they spend most of their time in when they aren’t selling their fruit-. people like Olpea. Desmond Layne is only knowledgeable about peach performance in the domain where he tests them and his focus is on commercial performance of varieties. His evaluations haven’t proven an especially useful guide for me, and I’m best off running with Rutgers because one of their two test orchards is close to my own climate. Olpea’s evaluations don’t tend to be very useful to me either, but they certainly would be if I grew peaches in the mid-west.
It doesn’t take a pomologist to evaluate how fruit tastes and they don’t get their pedigrees by exhibiting the talents of a great “taster”-, experts on producing wine are not the people who are paid to evaluate their quality on the palate.
All that said, I’m not a fan of videos, and prefer text, unless the video was produced by a talented expert on videography .
It looks like he didn’t take the time to thin them
That doesn’t look like a small operation that sells all the fruit they grow directly to customers. I bet some of those peaches are being shipped out. I don’t think you can treat ripe peaches the way those are being handled and that they are hard as rocks. .
So you do think this is a competition, somehow. That does look like a tiny peach- mine are way oversized this year and often full of water- half my crop I let rot. Some have weighed about a pound with most of the crop bigger than you see in stores. Thinning is expensive for commercial growers, but those peaches seem too small to obtain a premium price or to achieve supreme quality.
3 inches as stated clearly. Which according to the text as you prefer…is its intended size.
From all of their clearly positive likes, loves and comments it appears that their intended size and obvious quality seems to be working for them. Which is likely their goal.
No. I have just been waiting for you to share your experience with this cultivar. So i guess i will have to share with others your experience for you.
"I manage what I believe to be a Cresthaven that must be 50 and still cranks out hundreds of pounds of absolutely delicious peaches. "
Yup, you think this is a debate, and I guess in a way it is because you’ve made it one, even searching up old posts I’ve made… wow. Of course, I’ve played along- you probably think I instigated it by asking for clarification from you. Do you ever go to farm markets where people come to buy highest quality of fruit? How about the roadside stands in your area- do they sell 3" diameter peaches there? Certainly that is not what Olpea shoots for or what I grow. Is that the size you consider to be best in peaches?
That size does not represent the potential of that peach, of course, and if those peaches have something over 14 brix, I’d be very impressed, but in my experience that’s pretty tough to do if you don’t do much thinning.
However, I will be happy to find out how you rate your Cresthaven fruit in a few years. I’m sure it’s a fine peach, if one of many.
BTW, this year I figured out that old tree cannot be Cresthaven, it bears nearer to Red Haven’s window, but about a week later. I’m puzzled on what it is, because it gets up such high sugar. And the peaches only get up to about 3-4" diameter, even when thinned- but that may be because it’s old. It has the big, beautiful blossoms and high flavor of Loring, but ripens sooner and is too young to be one of its sports, unless there was an early Loring before the John Boy series.
Gosh darn they’re small.
That’s not what I originally said, but I’m sure you can infer what I did say.
I’m surprised that place would get anywhere near full price for that fruit.
It sounds silly to judge fruit by size alone but from what I keep reading underthinning peach trees dramatically effects taste…and not in a good way, and it looks like that place didn’t thin anywhere near enough.
Bad grower practices really are embarrassing.
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