I am in the same delimma with this variety that I get into every year. It’s pretty cool now (high 60’s). They never seem to fully ripen. If I wait too long, they get mealy.
Some have started to drop, so I have started picking. There is still a little green in the skin color and they taste like they are not quite ready yet. Still rather firm, but close.
Plan is to see how this batch does on the counter for a while.
Here in S. NY they ripen fine and aren’t even our last peach of the season. I’m still waiting for my Victorias to ripen, probably on couple on the tree today and they will have the normal luscious texture of a good peach. Indian Free and another late white whose name escapes me will come in a few days later.
What are your day temps now? Ours are mostly in the '70’s on sunny days, which are plentiful this peach friendly season. Is the tree in full or nearly full sun?
O’Henry is a wonderfully flavored peach here that seems to be reluctant to bear and may be tender. Mine died this season after two excessively wet summers and 3 springs. Roots didn’t drown, but maybe bacterial leaf spot somehow weakened it.
I’ve not seen it bear a heavy crop anywhere I’ve grown it, which is rare for peaches here.
I have three trees that I believe are O’Henry. They were sold as O’Henry, but none of the apples varieties bought from that online nursery were true to name, so it’s just my guess that’s what they are. Here in Niagara county by lake Ontario they ripen about the second week in September, have good tartness and are very sweet and juicy. They produce like crazy and like most peaches need to be heavily thinned. They are very freestone and are excellent for canning. I also have Contender which is a little earlier than what I believe are O’Henry.
@alan Is Indian free or the other late one you have, a freestone? Since I can’t eat a whole tree worth of peaches before they rot, I only want freestones for easier canning purposes.
My parents come from TN for fruit every year. They canned over 80 quarts of peaches and 70 quarts of pears in the last 2 weeks. I’d like another later peach, to coincide with the approximate ripening time of a bunch of my apples so they can take apples home and not need to spend a month at my place. I’m very lucky and grateful to have such loving parents, but a month is a long time. They say TN doesn’t have the fruit like WNY, something they really miss since moving 30 years ago.
Neither of these would be very good for canning, the name of the other white is Heath Cling and Indian Free is a shy bearer of small fruit. The most acidic peach there is with high sugar so quite an interesting one to eat out of hand.
The one for your purposes is probably Victoria. Bears good sized free-stone yellow peaches. At least a week later than OHenry. Probably 10 days.
My O’Henry ripened about 14 days ago but the tree has full sun all day long.
Is anyone growing Fairtime? Mine is still kind of green but already way bigger than Indian Free.
This tree gets a little bit of shade in the afternoon from a neighbor’s tree.
I’m fairly confident that just a little more heat or sun would get it over the hump.
This probably doesn’t bode well for my Indian Free with a Victoria (and an Empress Plum) graft on it in an even shadier location, but I wanted to try them…
Last year the rain was relentless- and the year before… and this spring. But the spigot got turned completely off about a month ago. Perfect timing for a brief drought.
In two weeks I can start complaining about needing rain.
The first week of October is looking record coldish for a large area of the Pacific Northwest. Ridging over the east should keep us in the heat for a while longer. I’m sure we’ll flip at some point and i’ll be watching snowflakes falling. I’d love some cold air over here. Last night could have been any day in July.
I can’t imagine an O’henry producing like crazy anywhere except a perfect Meditaranian desert climate. I suspect its a mislable. I have varieties which produce like crazy and O’henry isn’t even a small refection of anything like those.
That said it was once a viable commercial variety in Cali. But they have a loving climate there, I dream about it, especially on Monday Monday. All but the most pitiful peaches produce something there.
Mark, after having this variety for a few years, I see what you mean. By comparison to my other varieties, it produces very few blooms - maybe 1/4 to 1/5 of Redhaven. Not that my winter lows have been hard on the tree at all, it just doesn’t produce a lot of blossoms. To be honest, that part has been really nice for me because it requires very little thinning. In a more challenging winter, I could easily see how productivity would fall short.
The other issue is the tree’s susceptibility to fungal infections and, if my Summers had more rain, it sounds like I would have to battle bacteria as well.
Many years ago on the old GW, I tried explaining why I don’t grow
O’Henry, that is was a disease magnet and a poor performer, and
I was widely criticized. I know of only one commercial orchard in SC
that grows it, and they grow on a very limited scale.
There are too many great varieties of peaches to grow and OH is not on that list.
I found that thread you referenced (it was back in 2014). I wasn’t one of your critics on the thread, but I do recall liking O’henry at some point (for the flavor - not for the productivity).
I’ve made some bad variety recommendations for sure. The fault always boils down to not allowing enough time before evaluating a variety.
These O’Henrys are it for me. Once they are done my season is over. I have a young Indian Free that I expect to fruit next year. We will see how it goes.
I just started harvesting my Victorias and they are sweet and juicy- not colossus like types you like to grow, but big enough. They also don’t have a lot of red in the skin like so many new varieties, but they aren’t excessively fuzzy either, like some older ones. The texture is pleasing- not mushy.
They will be done by the weekend, I think. Then there will only be White Heath and Indian Blood, which are almost like other fruit types altogether. The will keep in my fridge into Nov. The Vics until about mid-Oct.
After that my main stonefruit will be frozen nectarines until hopefully there are Flavor May peaches in the last week of June 2020.
If I have room, I’ll also freeze a bunch of plum halves to add winter variety to my blueberries and nectarines out of the freezer.
I’m very lucky and grateful to have such loving parents, but a month is a long time.
They say TN doesn’t have the fruit like WNY, something they really miss since moving 30 years ago.
