I didn’t actually misread it- most of what I wrote is about staying low-spray but still getting high quality fruit. Now if you don’t care at all about how many sprays you have to do, maybe someone else will benefit from the info.
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just to piggyback on this thread, I too want to pick (a couple ) of peach trees. Last spring I bought Elberta and Belle of GA, then about a month later bought Contender. All seem to be doing well but like an idiot, I failed to note that they all ripen within a week or so of each other. Now I want a few more that ripen earlier. I am considering
Risingtar(-14) or Early Redhaven(-12),
Starfire(+1) or Redhaven(0),
Clayton(-5) or PF9A-007(-5), and
Winblo(+14).
Any opinions, other suggestions? Taste and disease resistance are primary traits I am interested in. I plan on spraying in any case.
I really want one of the first pair.
One, instead of two of the middle four would be OK. Clayton seems to be hard to find.
Not sure I really need Winblo ripening only.a week before Contender. but it seems to be very popular.
I have never grafted peach but if I decided to try, would you recommend grafting to Elberta and Belle of GA?
You can see what olpea says about some of those in the peach report:
As far as I can understand, peach doesn’t have much variability as far as rootstock unless you are on sandy soil and need the nemaguard. Peaches also grow really fast and are easiest to graft young. It would be easy enough to order a rootstock or get one from a trade or friend.
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Glad you are going to spray your peach trees when you get them. If not your harvest will be dismal at best. I’ve just come to realize, for me here, I have to spray all my fruit trees if I want decent fruit to use. If not the fruit looks gnarled and misshapen and useless. I am not going to grow fruit just for the bugs to enjoy.
My goumi berries, blackberries, clove currants, mulberries, strawberries, gooseberries, figs, and jujubes all come out pristine without any spraying for pests and disease, assuming I keep the birds/ squirrels off them.
No fruit from my persimmons, pawpaws, cornelian cherries, blueberries, heartnuts, and pears yet, So I can’t report to their quality as no spray yet.
Based on reports in Virginia (zendog), I expect I may need to spray for plum curc to get quality fruit from my sweet thing bush cherry if/when it eventually produces fruit.
I expect the more I get into growing fruit, the more I’ll want to challenge myself with fruit that requires spraying, but with a full-time job, and two young children in daycare, and all the other responsibilities of maintaining all my other hobbies, it’s just hard to commit to growing a fruit tree that I know is going to need regularly scheduled sprays in addition to all the mulching and weeding and fertilizing and watering that I have to do. It’s a very rewarding hobby, don’t get me wrong, but it’s still a lot of work even if I’m not spraying.
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Good thread Big Mike.
One thing I would mention is that it’s pretty common for people starting a backyard peach orchard to think they absolutely must have the best varieties.
That was the case for me long ago. I’ve also seen that in many examples of others starting to grow peach trees. The downside is that it can be very difficult to get that “perfect” peach tree.
Like many, I’ve posted a peach report for many years. The more experience I’ve gained with varieties, my opinions of various varieties have changed. Here is my latest one, which I posted 2 years ago.
I’d avoid “dogs” (like Belle of Georgia, PF24-007, Flavrburst, etc.) but a lot of the “really great” peaches are pretty close to others. Sometimes very very close.
As an aside, I’ve probably invited all kinds of disagreements mentioning the “dogs” above, i.e. “I grow Flavrburst and it’s really great for me.” Let me just clarify, the specific “dogs” I mentioned above, were losers for me here on the KS/MO line.
At one time I grew over a hundred varieties. I’ve probably trailed a hundred and fifty so far, if nectarines are counted. Currently we have 62 varieties. I’d like to get that number down to about 30 or 40.
Re: Winblo
This is where more experience helps. I’ve been all over the board about this peach. Initially, I thought the peach too stingy in production. Then it seemed more consistent. Now I’m back to not being so happy with it.
In 2023, it production wasn’t very good. In 2024, we didn’t have any peaches. In 2025, production was pretty much nil. I have a whole row of 25 trees which produced basically nothing. Plus some Winblo in another area of the orchard which produced nothing. However, Ernies Choice (which ripens at the same time) produced well this year. Likewise, Intrepid has really started to produce well (also same ripening window). I don’t have a whole lot of experience with Intrepid, but right now I’m pretty pleased with it.
Neither one of those peaches is as uniform as Winblo. But Intrepid is a great tasting peach. Ernies Choice is a very intense peach, which tastes better some years than Winblo. Though some years Ernies Choice can be tart. Peachy, but tart.
I’m just saying, I wouldn’t get too hung up on Winblo.
I plan to do a peach report for this year (we just finished 2025 peach season). When I do, I’ll post the link here, in case anyone is interested.
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I don’t have a lot of comments on disease resistance since we have a commercial spray program, though we don’t spray for bac. spot.
But as far as the comparisons. I much prefer Risingstar to Early Redhaven. Risingstar is much sweeter than Early Redhaven, and more productive.
Starfire vs. Redhaven - Both are good peaches and productive here. Redhaven is a bit more productive in challenging years here. Starfire is a little less susc. to bac. spot, and very very slightly better quality fruit. But either one is a good choice here. Since Redhaven is a bit more consistent here, I no longer grow Starfire.
Clayton vs. PF9a-007
Clayton edges out 9a-007 in my opinion, but it’s very close. Clayton is more productive, but has smaller fruit and wants to drop fruit. It also gets soft fast. But it produces better in bad years, so currently it’s my preference. But I grow both of them and plan to continue to grow both, but Clayton has been kinder to me. It tastes slightly better than 9a-007.
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Thank you for the info and your wisdom. I’m the king of “overthinking it” so this definitely helps. I’ve read through your peach evaluations in the past and absolutely love them. I’m very much looking forward to the 2025 evaluation update!
I called CVN and asked for their 2025 catalog when it is available (I was told it is still in the works). I think when I pull the trigger, I will just try for some very early, freestone, yellow, melting peaches. maybe Sweet Joe, Souvenirs, Crimson Joy, or something similar
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is there a common name for this peach?
Actually that is the name. PF stands for Paul Friday (RIP). He named all his selections with his own nomenclature. The 9 is the numerical order of his peaches, which roughly translates to 9 days + Redhaven. The number in this column doesn’t absolutely correspond with +/- ripening Redhaven, but it mostly does on most of of his varieties.
I’ve forgotten what the “a” stands for.
The “007” is supposed to share some genetics of the PF24-007 peach,which for a time Paul Friday won the Guinness World Record for the largest peach.
Paul Friday’s idea was to create these somewhat obscure names for his peach line, and have growers buy his whole line of PF peaches. Then have growers advertise his peaches simply as “Flamin Fury”. If growers bought his whole line of peaches, he would of course collect more patent royalties.
He was a master of marketing, and this was basically a marketing plan. But, few growers bought into it, and instead ended up buying just a few of his peach varieties, with some really unexciting peach names, like PF9a-007, which customers will never remember. So the marketing plan sort of backfired.
Paul Friday seemed to have recognized this, so he more or less abandoned his naming nomenclature, and started naming his new releases names a bit more interesting. Fashionably Late, Legendary, Eight Ball, etc.
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Here is an end season peach report for 2025:
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Great peach variety review. I appreciate your honest assessment about these varieties. It’s tough when you pick a " wrong" variety. Feels like a big waste of time and space when you finally gets some fruit and it is worse that what you expected. Ugggg
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Thank you for your response. Do you ever sell scions, specifically of Clayton?
Just read the 2025 peach report, the yearly reports are very helpful.
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I don’t sell scions, but do ship them for postage. The caveat is that if the variety is available as a tree from a reputable nursery, then I suggest purchasing from the nursery (I’ve purchased lots and lots of new trial varieties from reputable nurseries).
The other caveat is that the receiver of the scionwood has some experience, and success, grafting peaches.
My last caveat is that the request be from a member fairly active on the forum.
The reason for my rules is that I’ve sent a lot of scionwood to folks who aren’t interested in investing the least amount of money in their backyard orchard, and view scionwood as a way to get free trees with little effort or expense.
Not interested in that because I’ve spent a small fortune on my backyard orchard, before I ever scaled up.
My thought is if someone is unwilling to dive in and invest in their orchard, why should I donate my time to donate to something they aren’t that committed to.
Secondly, if the person isn’t an active member on the forum and is requesting peach scionwood, they are likely not giving back to the forum and just looking what they can get. Sort of leaves me cold. This doesn’t apply to you. You are an active member.
Lastly, peaches are the hardest to graft, and someone who has no experience grafting peaches will likely waste my time and theirs trying to figure out how to graft peaches via scionwood long distance. This “requirement” of mine is the least important, for me. The first two requirements I take much more seriously.
If a relatively new grafter, active on the forum, seems to grasp peach grafting but can’t get the variety in question, except on the fruit forum, I’m much more likely to send them wood, even though they haven’t had a lot of experience grafting peaches.
I know this all sounds terribly unempathetic, but I’ve wasted countless hours sending peach wood to people who have no knowledge of grafting and don’t mind wasting my time so they can create some “free” peach trees.
I’m much more empathetic to someone who is serious about investing in their own peach orchard, and looking for a new trial variety. I’m all down for that.
Clayton is an unavailable variety via a reputable nursery. Contact me in early Feb. and I can cut you some scionwood.
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I have butted in on several occasions to make this point because I think it’s very important. You have a ton of experience with a very large amount of varieties and you are whip smart, but one thing that made all that experimenting necessary is that you live in an area where peaches can be more difficult than places with less fluctuating weather. You probably couldn’t even have begun your peach journey with a good list of ones that would flourish where you grow them- not enough growers already doing it there.
I live in a much different climate and get much different results from varieties than you do with some of your “dogs” although I totally agree with you that once you start with peaches considered quite good, flavor variability is limited, unless you include the differences provided by saucer peaches and the contrast between low acid and regular peaches and white and yellow ones. .
IMO, the best way to choose varieties if you have small commercial growers nearby who attend farmer’s markets is to visit their stalls, taste and talk. Perhaps equally useful is to learn from serious hobbyists in your own region or regions with similar weather, especially on this forum.
This really comes home if you manage a lot of orchards even in a single region. Home growers usually don’t grow trees in sites like commercial growers do, with full dawn to dusk sun, good drainage, and air circulation to dry off dew. What works well at one site often is very difficult at another nearby based on these factors along with soil type and a host of other things- some of them mysterious.
However, if Bigmike runs with Scotts favorites as a guideline, I expect he will save a lot of time. That is, if his site has similar qualities. At least they live in the same state.
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I think @Bigmike1116 is near Scott, but I think @Chunky is (in Missouri?) near Olpea. Also, even though I’m geographically closer to Scott (I’m in VA), when I read Clark’s posts or Olpea’s, my conditions seem very close to theirs - I wonder what other people in the mid-Atlantic think.
Regardless, it is totally worth reading https://growingfruit.org/t/scotts-stone-fruit-experiences-through-2022/. @Olpea and @scottfsmith actually mostly agree when they both mention a peach they have in common. I noticed they both like Clayton and Ernie’s Choice which are mentioned in this thread. Scott’s varieties tend to be more heirloom and unusual though, and it seems like Scott prefers nectarines. =)
I have really enjoyed reading through everyone’s peach (and other fruit) reports in general and always try to read them. I also know that when Olpea or Scott reports the taste as “ok” they mean: it’s “ok” when compared to a tastier yard ripened fresh peach. I’m sure their “ok” is way better than the supermarket.
So I tried to avoid getting too picky about the exact right peach and planted what seemed “good” that I could get easily and inexpensively. This coming spring (2026) I hope to graft some of the less easily available varieties to my one year old trees so I can try them too.
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Thank you. I retired 8 years go and thought it would be nice to have some blackberries, then added other berries, then started adding fruit trees, and still adding and like you have spent a considerable amount building my orchard. I counted the other day, I went from zero to 26 species and 147 cultivars in the last few years. I hope I am getting close to the end, but then I read about something and think “I wonder if I could grow that?”
I have never tried to graft peaches, I had never grafted anything until spring 2023. Since then I have grafted goumi, pear, apple, pawpaw, jujube and persimmon all with good success. I realize peaches are one of the harder trees to graft, they may not take, and I may be over confident but I think I can.
[quote=“Olpea, post:55, topic:62952”]
I know this all sounds terribly unempathetic,
[/quote]. Not at all, spending your time, effort and money trying to help someone, only to have them waste it all is disheartening and a pointless.
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not super close, but not terribly far. per the map he is in north Baltimore, and I am just south of Annapolis. zendog and hambone are both slightly closer to me.