Anyone growing Indian free in California? Wondering if these are traits of the tree. or is it just in shock from planting in January from a 5 gallon nursery pot. It’s growing extremely slow and I’m surprised it set fruit. It bloomed later than all my other peaches. Waaaay later like at the end of April till early May. It says it needs a pollinator but nothing else was blooming at the time.
I have one the same way, if it’s on citation too that might be the culprit. Mine is on citation rootstock.
The Indian Free peach is not one I would grow again. Most peach are self fertile which makes most better in my opinion right there. The Indian Free needs so much time to mature its fruit and is one of the last if not the last to fruit which sounds good but it means many folk just can’t grow it. Mine personally sat there for a year and then died.
This one is on Lovell rootstock. I was at the nursery in march and they had Indian free on citation in full bloom. Mine was still asleep at the time.
I feel you! I have to try tho with all the good reviews and my success of growing high chill varieties in my area. I told my self I’d give it 2 years to improve.
Is New Zealand Black self-fertile? It’s supposed to be otherwise fairly similar.
Mine is the same way up here in Oregon. It wakes up late which is nice for peach leaf curl. It is slightly later than my Salish summer and Charlotte peaches but the Indian free still sets fruit. And it ripens them months later for my like end of September into October here compared to the other peaches I have which ripen in August. So in that sense it is nice to stagger the harvest times.
I really like drying Indian Free. I like it almost completely dehydrated. Tastes like tart candy, not too tart though.
The tree never fails to set fruit. I have two nectarines Fantasia and Arctic Jay grafted and each have a sccaffold or secondary scaffold of the tree.
Heavy thinning needed,it produces a lot of fruit.
I grew out a few seedlings and one ripens about two weeks earlier. Fruit is similar to Indian Free, not as red.
I prefer these dry but try to eat a lot of fresh fruit too. This is one of the seedlings. It was perfectly ripe in zone6b September 22
Indian Free is an acquired taste. It can be tart but in a dry year it can produce a lot of sugar. It has a short shelf life. Soon becomes mealy. But will dry to perfection at that point. So after 7 to 10 days I dry them…I blanch and peel first.
These are signs of insufficient chilling. Dave Wilson list it as requiring 700 chill hours, how much do you get?
