Dang, that’ll be tight here. Can you tell by feel or smell or something, or do you just know based on schedule? I think I’d read that they stay pretty hard, so feel isn’t reliable?
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They are like most peaches, look for a little softening right by the stem on top.
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I agree with Scott, also they start to smell pretty good as well.
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That’s interesting.I’m near Seattle and the Indian Free fruit,off my small tree,ripened about a week ago.
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Crazy long cold Spring in Spokane this year. Really all of Eastern Washington, I know the potato harvest was delayed by two to three weeks as well.
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Want to add another data point.
I have Black Boy and Indian Free (both from RT) planted next to each other. (Along with an Autumn Rose - renamed BB? - from OGW/Northwood Nursery before they stopped listing it - the AR turned out to be a mislabeled Galaxy peach.)
The Black Boy ripened 7 days after Indian Free. IF was +58 Redhaven for me. +65 for BB.
Pretty sure O’Henry is supposed to be +40 or +41 to Redhaven, (@Olpea look right to you?), which would make your IF +51 or +52.
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I have Indian Free at +47 give or take…
Is your Indian Free coming in a bit earlier now? No longer at 11+ days to O’Henry?
My +65 for IF and BB this year is at the end of September. So I probably could ripen something even later, though there aren’t many peaches that ripen this late.
I’m now wondering if there are different strains of IF. I have a few other red-fleshed peaches that I am waiting to fruit to compare.
When I had Indian free I had a similar experience to you. First week of October was when I would pick fruit.
I have O’Henry at +33 here. But peach ripening times can vary quite a bit based on location. Plus my +33 for O’Henry is based on an average. Ripening times can vary a few days from year to year, even in the same locale.
I have Indian Free at +55 for me.
Like @murky also mentioned, it was a disease prone peach, as grown in my locale. It got terrible bac. spot for me, and as I recall it seemed to rot. It also cracked badly here.
Others have not had the issues I had with it. It is a very unique tasting peach, imo. If one can grow it, it’s definitely worth the space.
I don’t have Indian Free but my black boy peach has done very well. I harvested about 2 bushels from my 6 years old tree this year. I definitely see the black spots on some peaches but are they peach scabs or bacterial spots? The other yellow peaches in the picture are Sweet Bagels and also have black spots, and some even cracked. But I don’t see any shot holes on the leaves of both trees if the black spots are indeed bacterial spots.
My black boy is otherwise very healthy and disease (even PC and OFM) resistant.
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Not sure if this counts but there is Red Indian Peach…but the description says that it ripens in July…its a freestone but it says it has ‘red flesh’.
I can’t claim to be keeping meticulous records, but I’ve used +36 for O’Henry and +47 for Indian Free. These numbers seem to get me in the right ballpark. I picked the last of my O’Henrys last week. I anticipate picking Indian Free next week, and Victoria. Although Victoria seems to be ahead of Indian Free a little this year. Those are my last two peaches and the weather is rather iffy for peaches in October here.
I think their description might be wrong, or it’s not the actual original ‘Red Indian’ (1923 origin) which was described by Okie and is listed in the old 1928 Arp Nursery Catalog as a red-fleshed clingstone. In Okie’s book he lists Red Indian and Old Red Indian as separate cultivars, the latter being a syn for Indian Blood Cling and Blood Cling.
Given the lack of actual feedback about people growing ‘Red Indian’ from Texas Pecan Nursery, I’m more inclined to trust Okie and the old catalogs - either they have a mislabeled Indian Free rebadged or are mistaken and it should be listed as cling.
Roger Roger. My notes aren’t meticulous as @olpea, but I try… Everything is buried in my logbook in some nonsensical nonlinear manner.
Is Victoria your latest peach? Mine ripen nearly at same time as IF.
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I found a nursery selling it fairly cheap and im going to give them a call this week to get more info on it if i can.
The signs are kind of there with it saying it needs a pollinator… the early July ripening is what makes no sense.
Ripening in early July seems odd. The ‘real’ Red Indian is listed as August by Arp, and they were based in Texas.
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Found a nice review of Indian Free peach…and the writer leads to believe in order to get the dark red color in his area of the PNW the less watering leads to that coloring and he also notes smaller peaches with less water.
The years with more watering leads to less of a red flesh he thinks.
His thought process in the comments at the bottom.
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It’s a toss up. Victoria and Indian Free ripen very close to one another.
Generally if the leaves look good and there are spots on the fruits, it’s a sign of scab. However, some varieties the fruit is more susceptible than the leaves, or vice versa.
I grew both those varieties and both had terrible bac. spot.
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