Is it fair to say the Loring peach is 80% as good as a Red Haven?

[Zone6]

Or do you think it is closer than 80%?

Loring peach

[Robert]

Loring is better than Red Haven IMO.

[jerryrva]

Loring is more susceptible to frost than most peaches I have tried in over 50 years of growing peaches. My first Loring was grown from budding in my plant propagation class back in 1978. Pretty blooms and nice fruit but did not choose that as a variety when I planted a 400 tree orchard in the 80’s due to frost sensitivity.

Like all peaches the flavor varies from year to year depending on the amount of rain during harvest season. Loring is mild flavored to start with in my opinion so heavy rains diluted the flavor.

[jaypeedee]

Here too.

[krismoriah]

Some may say that Loring is better…in this older post comparing Loring and Red Haven.

I think it depends on the amount of water during a particular season myself… or where it was grown had a water restriction etc.

Redhaven peaches

Below is a link to and article in Growing Produce, which I thought some might find interesting. I’ve seen the same thing Bill Shane describes, namely farm marketers selling all kinds of yellow peaches as Redhaven. A true Redhaven is a great peach, as grown here. It is still the most widely planted peach in the U.S, and for good reason, in my opinion. It has a natural spreading habit, produces large sweet peaches (unless there is a ton of rain) and is later blooming and fairly tolerant of low…

[Olpea]

I agree with all the comments about Loring being frost sensitive (plus it’s more winter tender).

But Loring is generally a very very high quality peach. I would generally rate it above Redhaven in taste. Probably because Loring ripens during the driest part of the season here. I don’t think I’ve ever had a year where they didn’t taste really good.

Another thing which helps Loring’s flavor vs. Redhaven is that Loring almost always sets a light crop here, so it’s super hard to over crop. Because of that the peaches have plenty of leaves to size them up and put sugar in them.

Redhaven can easily be over cropped which leaves smaller fruit generally less sweet.

Would I rather grow Loring over Redhaven? Nope. I still have 3 Loring trees but when they fizzle out from old age I won’t be replacing them. Just aren’t productive enough.

Redhaven is much more productive, and if not allowed to over crop, or get too much rain, also produces high quality peaches, though a very slight notch down from Loring, imo.

Btw, Zone 6, that peach in your photo looks really small for a Loring. Is that from a really young tree? A mature Loring tree will produce soft ball sized peaches.

[JesusisLordandChrist]

We have a single loring peach tree. it’s been in the ground 2 years. It had very little flower set, so few i didnt think it flowered at all. But it did set one peach on a low branch right next to the trunk. I let it hang on the tree till it fell off by itself. It was a huge peach. And we enjoyed it’s taste but it lacked the peach arroma one would expect.

Our Redhaven peaches are smaller and just as favorable as loring if not more flavorable. Also Redhaven has that nice arroma one would expect from a peach. This is my personal obvesrvation from the very first loring peach grown here.

My wife said loring is good and we should keep it. She said it should make nice preserves when the tree produces more peaches. She liked the thick skin and said it would be easy to cut off with a knife for making preserves. Redhaven’s skin is most definitely thinner, so for me redhaven is better for eating out of hand.

[Olpea]

@JesusisLordandChrist

But it did set one peach on a low branch right next to the trunk.

Just an fyi. Peaches close to the trunk and low hanging are the worst peaches on a peach tree. They generally lack flavor and sugar. So much so, we sell those peaches as seconds for baking, canning, jams, etc. We don’t sell those as fresh eating peaches.

[JesusisLordandChrist]

Thank You for that information I did not know that