I had same problem with citation when I lived in San Jose. Lovell was much better. I noticed before I left many of the dwn trees at retailers had switched to Lovell over citation, where it was reverse a few years before. I wonder if that was due to negative reports of citation.
If we did not thin our peach and nectarine the branches would break from the weight of maturing fruit. We’ve no motivation to utilize the immature fruits - especially with Citrus ripening at this time.
Excellent, @Richard, great pollination. I thinned my belle of georgia about 75% last year, but I can already tell this year will be much lighter.
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wow…that sure sets a lot of fruit…This reminds me, I need to get out and thin my tropic snow.
Most of the good varieties are still sold on Citation. Others are on Nemaguard but very few are on Lovell.
Another major problem is Crown Gall. @Girly lost a lot of trees to it as did I. I ordered Myro 29c rootstocks for plum/pluots.
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Bay Laurel is offering a lot of varieties on Lovell. I guess thats due to their customer complaints on Citation. Some of the new varieties are only offered on Citation even from DWN which they can’t do much about.
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Lovell is a poor performer in my location.
Not sure if this is specific to our location here. I even heard from Andy Mariani that he saw the same problems with Citation in his orchard. I don’t have any issues with Nemaguard. Young trees on Lovell are doing great. Trees of the same age on Citation are struggling. This is only peaches and nectarines. Apricots and Plums on Citation are doing fine.
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Is your latest picture of Eva’s Pride Peach,I assume,photographed today?
Yes. It’s very early here.
I know that southern California has the climate to grow a lot of different things,but it is somewhat surprising to see near ripe Peaches this early.Even Dave Wilson Nursery has Eva’s Pride’s harvest window from late June into July,I guess in Hickman.
That’s a beautiful tree too.
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Big difference is that Hickman has a winter, cold period. Warms up in say March or April. If Richard’s location is anything like my parents in Orange County, they can get 90s in January… season starts EARLY.
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Ultra-low chill fruits meet their chill requirements early in the winter. As soon as the temp warms up a bit (which is early in So. Cal), they break dormancy and start to grow. If you see which trees are the worst violators of DWN table as observed in Hickman and Vista, its varieties like FlordaPrince and Eva’s Pride, specifically bred for low chill.
I’m curious to find out from @Richard if these early peaches sweeten up well. In my short experience here in coastal Bay Area, (yellow) peaches top around 15-16 average brix until we hit Aug when we see 100F temps.
@californicus
I am also growing Mid-Pride which ripens here in towards the end of May. It is a sweet freestone peach with very good flavor - comparable to the original Saturn (not the donut) in quality.
Eva’s Pride is a rich flavored peach. It is perhaps not as sweet as a traditional yellow freestone but it excels in flavor. It’s a prime example of why Brix is an incomplete measure of fruits.
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Thanks. I have similar preference - I choose varieties/species based on overall flavor and not brix. However, brix is definitely useful to me, in comparing within the same variety. It sounds like contradiction, but on the same variety, when I see improved brix (with watering, fertilization, age of the tree, etc) I usually find better taste.
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Have you tried any of the specialized Brix meters from Hanna?
https://www.hannainst.com/search?search_query=Brix
I haven’t. I use a cheapo version from Amazon
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