I am looking for 2 to 3 peach varieties to add to my backyard.
I like yellow peaches that have intense flavor and acidity. Sweet too of course. And aromatic. Who doesn’t love these attributes?
No canning/grilling or nonsense like that. Fresh eating is what I’m going for. Who even cooks peaches? That’s weird. And canning? Why the heck would you can a tree ripened fresh peach? That’s for elementary school kids.
I purchased an Indian Blood Freestone Peach based on positive reviews and it seems to be a popular peach, but I am wanting 2 to 3 more cultivars.
I was recommended to grow Baby Crawford, but that one is sold out everywhere. Will try again later. But what are some others that are considered top tier peaches?
I know in the world of figs, Smith, Bourjasotte Grise, Col de Dame, are considered top tier cultivars, just to name a few. Why have we not figured out this for peaches yet?
I can’t give you any advice on which peach cultivars to choose from. But, I can give you a good website to purchase peach trees from (Vaugns Nursery Tenn) They have a huge selection, and they are selling bareroot trees for 10 dollars a piece plus shipping. If I was going to buy 3 trees, I would watch the ripening dates. You want to stagger your ripening date, so all 3 don’t ripen in the same window. I have ordered 16 peach trees from Vaughns, and they should be coming in the spring of 2022.
I do all the time. I can’t eat 400 peaches. I lost some trees so now only get about 80. I need to request some scion soon.
We did years ago, Fusion lists some, and many others out there. This site is loaded with reviews.
Redhaven to compare all else to, even ripening times. Peaches don.t always perform in all areas so it’s hard to pick. An example is O’Henry. It’s great in the west, late ripening large yellow fleshed, excellent flavor. One of the best, but in the east it tends to get bacterial spot so bad it’s hard to protect even with sprays. It’s not worth growing in the east unless you like a challenge.
I want to test June Pride. I had it, but lost the tree it was on. I could use scion.
Loring is another I wanted to try, but it again tends to stand out in the west, and south more than the Northeast or Midwest. Much like many figs. So many top tier figs are very late ripening they make no sense for most in the colder zones. I grow them anyway but it’s hard to watch half the crop or more not ripen. Another peach like those mentioned is Red Baron. Wow I would love to have this double flowered peach, but it might not be hardy enough for my zone? Fruit is excellent btw.
Winblo is praised in the south, and the 2 other peaches from the same program are said to be as good or better. Foster was one, I forget the other? Oh Clayton. I could use scion myself! Pretty much only available from other growers. All this info came from here. Many other killer peaches out there. Rio Oso Gem is another top tier. Kaweah needs to be tested in the east. Great in the west.
All mentioned are yellows. The ones I would like to try. Based on numerous reviews.
My needs are not for commercial reasons. So what many commercial growers would cull, would work great for me. Consider that when reading reviews.
Good point about having too many peaches. I didn’t think of that. I guess I better be careful about growing the same season cultivars or I’ll have too many.
Thanks for sharing those names. I’ll do some research.
I guess my point was made towards those nurseries that describe their peaches as “good canning peaches”. It’s not a priority other than for commercial. Priority is taste and fresh eating. Unless it is horribly disease prone even with spraying. In that case taste is not worth chasing that cultivar.
It’s a good problem to have. I don’t like to cook that many. A couple pies a year, and maybe some scones or other pastry, but besides that…
I tried dehydrating and they are decent. I made some syrup and it was much better than I thought it would be. I use syrup mostly for cordials, although it can be used for anything, such as fruit leather.
Yes, that is important.
Yeah no argument for me, but if it’s your thing fine. Fresh eating for me though is not that important. I want a tree or two for that. Indian Free for me is processed for the most part. It’s rather tart most years.
I keep my trees small at about 7 feet, and they put out about 300 peaches, but I thin them to 60 or so. I should remove more. I had a heavily grafted tree with mostly pluots that produced about 20 peaches after thinning. I used them for fresh eating (PF Lucky 13). It took three years of fruiting before the tree had good flavor, but then canker took the tree. I’m down to only Indian Free, sucks! I lost three trees, and I’m replacing with only two. One is in, the other next year. The other two died from wet feet. I solved that problem now… They are not very easy to grow.
Indian Free jam (fantastic!)
I have Redhaven. It seems reliable. I liked it so much that I added Early Redhaven – basically the same, just 2 weeks earlier. Between these two trees, I have fresh peaches for a month. Your season may be long enough to add a third later variety.
If you succeed, you will find this the trees produce MANY times the number of fruits that you (and your extended family and friends) can eat. That’s why people can/freeze. The alternative is to let the fruit rot. That’s OK, but it can seem a waste. This year I gave excess fruit to a local food pantry.
Darrel, that’s pretty much my list for all the windows. I can hardly disagree with it
I might add that I’m not sure how some of the high chill peaches would do well 7b GA? I think they might do OK for the most part, but some of the higher chill peaches may have a bit of trouble achieving chill requirement in a mild year in 7B Georgia.
As mentioned, Vaughn is a good website, which posts chill hours. I would probably try to stay with peaches with less than 800 chill hours in 7B Georgia. It might be a good idea to look at some of those peaches and post back with some which look interesting, asking for feedback. There should be some good feedback that way.
Fusion’s list is a good bet. But I would get the most reliable peach for your locality, period. I would accept clingstone to get that toughness, too. Nothing beats reliable production.
Might want to give grafting a go. Buddy Tape and a sharp $15 knife, and taking a flyer on an oddball or boutique variety is in the realm of an impulse purchase. I guarantee you you will find willing takers for the extras.
As others note, pay attention to chill hours because we are having shorter and warmer winters. Olpea is on the money that it is probably best to get varieties that require under 800 chill hours.
Disease tolerance is an important consideration, especially if they will have limited sprays. Do your due diligence as my list has a few that could be a problem to grow.
Of the peaches in the list I posted, most are good for fresh eating, but it is better to grow multi-purpose varieties. I try to grow some to eat, some to can, some to dry, some to share with others.
The other trait I am arguably most interested in is freestone vs cling. I like the convenience of freestone peaches but some of the best tasting peaches are cling.
You’d be surprised. Some fruits actually get better when canned or dried and are a whole different experience. Also, just imagine opening a jar of peaches from your orchard in January, and they’re so good that it brings you right back to July. Is it going to be the same as a tree ripe peach in July from a fresh-eating variety? No, definitely not. Is it going to be friggin’ awesome? Yes. Very yes. It’s just a different treat for a different season. That’s what a cuisine is all about: taking whatever you can grow in abundance and finding ways to use them that keep you interested. I’ve been thinking about this with persimmons. If I have less than 100 persimmons, I’d probably want to eat them all fresh. But more than that is more than I can keep up with. So then I get to try other amazing treats like hoshigaki, persimmon wine, fruit leather, baked goods, ice cream, and vinegar. I certainly hope my trees start producing more than I can use fresh!
I’m in zone 7b too, but central NC rather than Ga. May be a good idea to determine which varieties the local peach orchards grow and use that as a starting point. Lots of good peach varieties were developed in Georgia and UGA has published a lot of research on Peaches. Most peach varieties with “Prince” or “Crest” at the end of their name were developed in Ga for Ga climate.
I find with most cling peaches, you can process them about as fast as freestone if you make your first cut all the way around through the stem and blossom ends 90° to the suture line, then carefully pull apart with your thumbs at the stem end. One side will be free of pit, and the other you can pop the slices off with your knife as you cut them. This works about 90% of the time for me.
That’s true Jay, and works for most semi cling peaches. If peaches are really clingy, sometimes the only way to get them apart is to cut quarter slices (or even eighths) through the stem end and blossom end, then wriggle the knife back and forth to get the slices to pop out. This works for just about all but the most stubborn clingstones. Some clingstones are so stubborn, they won’t pop off the pit no matter what.
It hasn’t been mentioned but unless you are talking babygold type peaches almost all other peaches are “clingy” for the earlier varieties and more free as the season progresses.
We generally don’t get into fully freestone peaches here until just before the Redhaven season (Clayton, Harken, and Pf9a) all ripen about 5 days before Redhaven and are generally freestone enough to easily remove the meat from the pit. This can vary somewhat from year to year.
Peaches which ripen about a week after Redhaven are always fully freestone here, no matter the weather.
There are a few exceptions to this rule, but unless we are talking non-melting Babygold types (which are full cling) this runs true for 99% of the peaches.
Good to know! I suspected there was more to it than my experience, but I think most if not all of my peach purchasing happens at Redhaven or later, based on when the stuff from the local orchards shows up. When I worked as a baker, pretty much all the peaches we got were cling, so I had to get good at it pretty quick, without a lot of time to think about seasonal variation.
I live in a completely different climate, so take it for what it’s worth. The best peach for me was Baby Crawford with intense peach flavor. The close second was June Pride that I got from Jon. Both have nice acidity. Jaya mentioned Tesoro is in the same league as June Pride but I haven’t tasted it. After those, I liked Kaweah, O’Henry and PeachyKeen. The last one might be too early blooming and too low-chill for your climate.
.
