If you could only grow 1 peach, what would it be?
And what would your choices be if you could grow 2 peaches?
Single trees or an orchard full.
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Z,
I only have Red Haven in southern Indiana, just 3 trees. The really produce and grow fast. We picked approx 1500 peaches from those 3 trees this year.
“single tree vs. a full orchard”. That’s kind of a loaded question. If you have a orchard, you would want to have many types that ripen at different times. Harvest season on my Red Havens was just one week from start to last picked peach.
I really like my peaches but I’m glad it’s over for the year!
Peach trees require a bit of work
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Redhaven and or Contender.
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I love peaches. Last year Tropic Beauty -yellow and Silver Logan-white were the best. Modesto Ca z9b
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Saturn donut peach is so sweet and fragrance of a ripe peach should be. My kids loved them even the oldest is at 29 yrs old and still asked for them.
Tony
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Sounds like that is the downfall of Red Haven. A short season. But everything else about it seems to be good.
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For some reason I never paid much attention to Contender. Wish I had more space to try one.
How is flavor compared to Red Haven? I see you have to be careful where you buy your Contender tree!
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I would pick some nectarines, they have more flavor. For example Freckled Face or Arctic Glo. Or Flavortop or Sunglo.
For peaches Red Baron is about as good as it gets and you get some great blooms as an added bonus. It has a lot more flavor than the standard varieties. There are many other great peaches of course, Rio Oso Gem, Dixon Cling, etc.
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For me the Redhaven and Contender are two good choice. Redhaven ripen early for us and they have a good balance of sweetness, acidic, and size/color. Contender because they always produces for us even after most late freezes that wipe out our other peach varieties but does not taste as good as redhaven. Anyone know of a variety that taste good when pick early and have a good sweet/acidic peachy flavor when the flesh is still crunchy?
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Contender if only one
Add Winblo for second
Red Haven for third. A great Peach for us but not completely freestone
Ripening order is Red Haven, Winblo then Contender with some overlap.
Contender and Winblo were developed in my state and are very well suited to my conditions. Contender has tendency to overcrop and requires heavy thinning in some years but booms late and crops when heavy frost kills blooms on many other varieties
We have only tried about 20 varieties but found that we prefer the midseason Peaches that ripen here in late June/July compared to the very early or the late Peaches. Sun Prince ripens after Contender and did not make the list but produces large delicious Peaches here. Customers like the large size which also makes packing the Peaches faster. Our Contender season just ended and my son picked these Sun Prince this morning.
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My usual odd ball answer: Valley Sweet. Why, because as Scott says, it tastes somewhat like my best nectarines. And it’s big and beautiful.
I tried Redhaven, Winblo, Gold Dust, and many other peaches. They were awful in comparison. Winblo and Redhaven were very disappointing. I can’t comprehend why they were so bad.
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in oregon: suncrest. the quality is high enough that it sometimes exceeds the california peaches we get at the supermarket (which are higher and higher quality every year), and it comes at the peak of summer here
and, out of left field, my 2nd would be nanaimo. it’s a marginal peach but it has real, durable leaf curl resistance so if I’m lazy and don’t spray for a year, I’ll still get peaches (in a heavy leaf curl area where all normal peaches get 100% defoliated)
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In the deep south really limited on choices. Started out with five different varieties really only have two left both were developed at LSU. La Feliciana is definitely the star of the show. It was budded in 1981 and introduced to the market in 2017. It is resistant to brown rot and a heavy producer. Not sure how long it’s gonna last, but I will enjoy it while it’s still alive, terrific flavor.
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Intrepid,very peachy flavour,cold hardy and late blooming but doesnt need to be thinned as much as Contender.Not quite as cold hardy as Contender though.
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I got Freckle Face and Snack Time nectarines from Andy’s orchard. Between these two if I were to grow one it will be Snack Time. Skin is a bit astringent and looking at the flesh which has the consistency of a rich syrupy mango I suspect it’s grown using water deficit method.
I can vouch for Nanaimo’s toughness. I have one in a 5 gallon pot and the vigor is amazing, it grew from a 8" stick to 4 ft tall tree just in one season.
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I couldn’t agree more. Nectarines out-flavor peaches for us. People say that nectarines are harder to grow. I disagree. At least, I have never found that to be true.
If you’re in the South, it’s Winblo and July Prince. You won’t
find better peaches any where. But it’s all in where you live.
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July Prince gets my vote. Huge, and not as susceptible to rot as most. Drawn out ripening too, still picking them after three weeks.
Nanaimo is a very tasty peach growing in mid Atlantic region - our sun and heat probably make it even better.
I like the taste of both. I will tell you more about the taste difference here in the next week or so. My Redhaven’s are just starting to ripen and the Contender’s will be right behind them by about 10 days or so.
** Update**
The taste of the RedHaven peach is not very flavorful and sort of watery, even though they are a lot smaller than normal because of lack of rain.
The Contender is a lot more flavorful and sweeter with that great peach taste.
I had given a few to a neighbor that loves peaches and she said the Contender had a great taste and was one of the best peaches they have had in years.