Frost has been our best performing peach. We’ve tried many different peaches. We have one nice big red haven tree that seems to have been an outlier to the others that were planted. Seems like Veteran is almost identical to frost, but a week later. Its seems promising as well. Got first year fruit in a Salish Summer. It looks like a good grower, but the fruit texture is a bit mushy for my taste.
Camano Island , WA
I think my peach tree that was on the property when we got it 16 years ago was also Redhaven. I’ve propagated it to others to keep it going, but it fits the description.
The peaches taste better and have a better texture than the Frost but the pits split, more them are mis-shapen or rotten and other issues. But they are big and delicious, the fruits, or parts that ripen cleanly. Curl hasn’t been a problem on it, but it gets canker and gumosis - but didn’t succumb to them for many many years for a peach.
Apologies if I’ve said it all before.
My Hana Fuyu has persimmons for the first time! It started with three flowers and dropped one fruit at about dime size, but the other two seem to be doing well. I hope they hold on and ripen in time.
JohnS - Contender is all the rage now in PNW. It can be had just about anywhere and is even being sold in many box stores. Watch out for the rootstock selection though, it is being sold by many nurseries on Citation.
Of the 14 peach varieties i grow Contender is the only one that will reliably produce commercial quantities of fruit every year. Some years some of the other varieties dont produce any fruit. Frost peach has always been a good producer of at least a few peaches in years when others failed but the eating quality of Frost is sub par. Contender is a top quality peach and is a true freestone unlike many others that advertise as such but turn out not to be.
Salish Summer is extremely frustrating, I’m grafting over 15 trees this year. Not only does it turn into one big bruise regardless of what ripeness it’s picked at, it’s yield is terrible. I got about 1,500-2,500 pounds of peaches per 300 foot row off of my 3rd and 4th leaf peach trees this year. Didn’t end up picking any of the Salish other than when I was out working and wanted a snack, but there was maybe only 100 pounds for the equivalent area. It’s a really weird tree too, I have a feeling it’s not very self fertile and blooms so late that nothing pollenizes it. However, the flavor is great, so it does make for a nice smoothie or other processed stuff, but that’s about it.
Contender is sold out at One Green World and $65 at Raintree. Home Depot is just getting a shipment in. $41. I bought one. Thanks for all your responses.
John S
PDX OR
Im not sure if we ever trialed Salish Summer at Mt Vernon but of all the many that we did there was definitely a positive result with later blooming varieties in regards to fruit set. Contender is my latest blooming variety out of 14 and it always performs well.
This is the first time I have gathered ripe American persimmons in August. I know it’s common down South, where it is hot and humid all day and all night for 6 months in a row. It’s a first for me here in Portland. Gotta watch them now.
John S
PDX OR
Do you have to spray your contender for curl?
I have tried (3) contenders now and they have all got curl so bad they died on my second leaf. One from raintree, one restoring Eden, and one from flower world in maltby. I have 12 other peaches varieties and 6 nectarines and never lost another tree to curling so bad it hurts me to look at the tree. It is so prone to curl.
I live on a salmon stream and my peach trees are a few feet from the bank parallel to the creek. I cannot spray anything that would hurt the fish. Never copper. Sorry for the long explanation, but do you spray yours @jcf , and if you do what’s your routine?
Copper is especially toxic to the baby salmon. I do use copper, actually Bordeaux mix, but my trees are quite a ways from my salmon stream. I know for a fact that none of the varieties i have now would survive without spraying or protection.
Can confirm citation is a poor rootstock choice for this area. Every tree I’ve had on it perished due to waterlogging. Lovell has been ok. I would like to find a rootstock that handles both flooding and drought, but I think the only real solution is to plant them on a bit of a hill.
What about myrobalan? It definitely survives both drought and flooding. Note: I’m referring to the species P. cerassifera in general, not a specific clonal rootstock.
I have several plums on those, but have not tried grafting peaches on them.
I spray fungal compost tea on my peaches. They look like HECK in April, but they recover with the compost tea. It takes a few weeks, but it’s not poison. There would be no problem with the salmon.
John S
PDX OR
Home Depot tells me that the rootstock on my Contender is either Lovell or Guardian. I have never heard of Guardian rootstock. Do any of you know if those are good rootstocks for the PNWet?
Anyone going to the fig meetup in Seattle this year?
I brought in my first orange H118 last week, its probably counter ripe now.
There are fig meetups in Seattle? 
‘Australian Green’ mulberry pushing a second crop here in Victoria. They’re a relatively quick to ripen fruit but there’s no way this will ripen in time, right? I assume this isn’t normal - I just planted it in-ground after two years in a pot around May.
I posted about this yesterday. I’ve got some strange happenings as well over in the Gulf Islands. A winter banana apple tree is currently in bloom, and a Rhodendron was in bloom up until a few days ago.
I’m sure we’re going to see a bunch more weird things before this year is over.
