So I receive few chill hours in my locale (<150CH…zone10b) and am on the hunt for this year’s bare root offerings.
I realized that I am actually more concerned with fruit set than quality (to an extent) because everything I’ve ever grown is 100x better than store bought even if it is the same variety in the store. So I figured as long as you all give a certain variety decent reviews on taste, then it is probably golden. We are all such connoisseurs of fruit and all LOL
So here is my question…
How is Flordaprince peach? I know it is an early variety and the concern is not enough heat to develop enough sugar…but Im going to plant it near a south wall and we get a bit of early-year heat so it might be worth a shot? DWN lists it as sub 150 CH’s so I am hoping I will get solid blooms and solid fruit sets.
Please let me know if you’ve eaten this variety and any information you can share on growth etc would be fantastic.
Hi Sean, a few of my friends have Floridaprince and they like it and it is super productive. We usually get less than 150 chill hours and their trees produce a lot. Not the best tasting peach in my opinion but still 10x better than a store bought peach.
@brownmola thanks for the good feedback! Ya, i figured even a decent home grown peach would be way better than the store. Hopefully it will get loaded up. Do you think a peach against a south stucco wall would be OK in socal, or will it get torched? It would be my first go with something like that. Thanks!
@ammoun that is excellent thank you. Have you tried any of these new offerings? Definitely gonna check these out
It should be fine. I’d consider Eva’s Pride or Mid Pride peach also if you aren’t fully set on Floridaprince.
I have a flat donut white peach that apparently doesn’t care about chill hours as that is really productive as well, but it is a sub acid white peach which not everyone likes.
Some have had growth issues on Citation rootstock with their peaches but mine have done well.
Something you may want to consider, if your area gets very little chill hours, planting a tree against a south wall may reduce accumulated chill hours for the tree even more.
I think is is a Stark Saturn but not 100% sure. It has been loaded the past 2 years to the point that the branches have broken. And we have had next to no chill hours the past 2 years.
@Olpea is that due to added warmth during the winter? Good point hadnt thought of that…
@brownmola ya totally. I am barely dipping into the low 40s this year. Im trying to find varieties that are rated higher CH but perform with less. Ive seen splash mentioned a lot, so im gonna try that one as well. Do you have any trees in partial shade performing? Ie; backside of a N facing wall? I have some spots on a wood fence, but i am a bit hesistant. Im thinking plums?
Hi Sean, I started with pluots and have slowly migrated over to peaches and nectarines as they have been more reliably productive. Here is strictly my own personal experience with either things I have grown or things my friends have grown nearby - this is by no means a definitive list as I am sure others in my area may have had more success with ones that have not been productive for me.
I have not noticed a big difference of partial shade vs. other locations at my house.
Productive:
Desert Delight nectarine, Desert Gold peach, Tropic Snow peach, Donut peach, Arctic Star nectarine, Eva’s Pride peach, Burgundy plum, Splash pluot, Anna apple, Dorsett Golden apple, Fuji apple, Spice Zee Nectaplum, Fuyu and Giant Fuyu persimmon
It’s well recognized that planting peaches next to a south wall will generally cause them to bloom earlier, in most locations.
That’s because the winter sun is lower in the southern sky, which not only warms the southern wall due to the more direct angle of the sun on the wall, but also reflects more heat on the tree.
I don’t exactly know how this phenomena would play out in your climate, since you are closer to the equator than most folks in the U.S., which is why I mentioned it may be something you want to consider and may reduce accumulated chill hours. Obviously the closer one gets to the equator, the less drastic the sun pivots north/south through the seasons.
Still I would think even in South Florida the sun pivots enough to make a south facing wall warmer in winter than walls facing other directions.
We were growing this for a few years. Bought it at Costco. It is a very early and great tasting peach.
It is extremely susceptible to peach leaf curl disease and gray mold in my growing area. Some years the tree would be entirely defoliated from PLC. It also produced a lot of doubles and over set fruit so it requires extensive fruit thinning multiple times through the early season. Too much maintenance for me, so it was cut down to a stump and top worked over to a different cultivar.
Sean…did You plant the FlordaPrince tree ? Have any success ? One of my fav’s here in interior Metro Phx (for most, it is zone 9B). Regular producer, so very low chill. If you polled most expert fruit geeks in Phx, this variety would frequently be at or near the top of the list…
LOL