A peck is 10-12 pounds and a bushel is 42-48 Pounds of apples. I sell a bushel of pears for $32 to the local grocery store. Wholesale is different from retail. Say there are roughly 4 peck in a bushel at $14 peck would be a substantial profit for the grower in a good area.
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Many peach production budgets exist and I attached one below:
https://www.clemson.edu/extension/peach/commercial/peachenterprisebudget.pdf
The info you want starts around page 14. 4 pecks/bushel so a peck weighs about 12 pounds. $14/peck is a little more than $1/pound
$1.00/pound is a safe estimate for price. $50/bushel - so each tree has a potential value of $150 IF the fruit is sold. Assuming the trees are in excellent shape but given the very compressed season, I would not expect to sell any more than 50%, so a pretty safe revenue estimate is 3 bu/tree X 50 lb/Bu X $1/pound X 50%. This assumes no frost, a good spray program and lots of picking labor. Pruning and thinning are a huge expense and I don’t believe the attached budget captures these cost fully.
The attached budget estimates harvesting/marketing at $2k/acre and production cost at around 1K/acre.
Growing tree fruit for a profit is a risky business even for a very experienced grower. Its may be profitable most years, but its more of a labor of love than a profit center.
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Seven year peaches may have seen their best days already. In my area I would consider those at half their life span.
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Yes you’re the norm!
Detroit is reviving and many new restaurants are looking for unusual items. If I had a couple acres I would grow specialty fruit for the restaurants and have no problem unloading product like hot peppers, sun dried tomatoes, white strawberries, and figs.
AS always, this has been wonderful information. Again, I wouldn’t take it on no matter how much profit the numbers showed. I don’t have the expertise/knowledge or time, equipment, etc. But its really fun learning about the chances of making a living from this orchard. I do have some friends that I might could talk into trying this and they’d have most of the equipment (tractors, sprayers, etc). And its fun to day dream about such things, and its human nature to be curious about whether or not the owner probably does well with his orchard.
Along with all the risks and problems you all have pointed out is the fact that this is just not a good area for peaches as a dependable, income property. Just going by memory I think he has last his whole crop 1 out of every 3 years and very likely more than that. I suppose that’s why peach orchards aren’t more popular around here. Its one thing for me 20 or so HOBBY peach trees to get hit by frost and not produce. Its a whole other thing if I’d spent thousands and thousands of dollars on labor for pruning, spraying, oiling, mulching, and so on. So in addition to all the risks you guys have alluded to, the weather here is even worse for peaches than you might think. In the 4 years I’ve had peach trees, frost killed them twice! I’m comming up on my 5th leaf and who knows if a late frost will get them again.
All that being said, I really love seeing this guy try, and I very much hope someone takes the orchard on and tries to make a go of it so he doesn’t end up clear cutting the orchard. In spite of all his problems, I must tell you that in the good years, he has some of the biggest and best peaches I’ve ever had. I love taking them to my city friends in Nashville! They just go ape-Sh#! crazy for them and ask me all year long when they can get more.
BTW…one thing this orchard owner is a major major supporter of is THINNING. He strongly believes that thinning is the single most important thing he does, and he thins like you would not believe! I don’t know the percentage, but I know he plucks off a lot more than he leaves on the tree. As a result (and perhaps partly due to the variety, though I haven’t read that Canadian Harmony is known for being extremely large) he honestly does have the largest peaches I’ve ever seen. Seriously, its just insane how big his peaches are. They honestly are often as large as a softball. If you haven’t seen a softball lately, look at one…that is GIGANTIC for a peach. And they are sweet and juicy like you cannot believe. INCREDIBLE.
One other interesting thing is that he doesn’t pick them until they are very, very ripe. He was never able to do this when he had a contract with Kroger Grocery chain. In fact, he had to pick them green, deliver them, and then he would put them in the back of his semi and pump some kind of gas in with them to make them look ripe. He hated doing that and its a big part of why he went to selling them roadside. Now, he lets them get completely soft before picking. They are so ripe that you can buy them one day and by the very next day 24-36 hours, they are seriously starting to go down hill fast. You basically have to eat them or prepare them into something the same day you buy them. For me, I love it that way. And he sells all they pick the day they pick them, so it works for him to. Those giant, dead ripe peaches have to be eaten outside or over a sink and juice still runs to your elbow and down your chin. They are just incredible. I will give him that.
btw…no one has commented on Canadian Harmony peach trees and I rarely hear of it. How would you all rate that variety of tree. Having been developed in Canada and often blooming a bit later than other varieties (according to what I read on Dave Wilson and other sites) it seems like it might be perfect for late-frost-prone areas, but knowing he has lost many crops doesn’t bode well for the frost-resistant properties.
Obviously I could easily get some scion from him, so I’m curious how you all feel about the variety. OF course, I have absolutely AWFUL luck grafting peaches, so it probably doesn’t matter!
Anyone ever notice I tend to blather on a bit? (Understatement of the year)
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Most of the Canadian peaches are good. I have Harrow Diamond and
Harcrest written down as cultivars to try.
I have a few trees of Canadian Harmony. It ripens w/ Contender (about +21 here). It’s susc. to bac. spot. From my notes, it didn’t do that well in the sort of “test winter” we had here when it got down to around -12 or -13F. It had a poor bloom. On the plus side the trees so far have seem to set a light crop on a normal winter, so doesn’t require as much thinning as Contender.
The peaches are good quality, but nothing really exceptional here.
On the rent discussion, I agree w/ Blueberry, the big thing is being able to sell the crop (retail). I’m really surprised Kroger agreed to buy all his produce in a week. Around here all the retailers want stable production (year to year) and certainly throughout the summer before they will commit to buy wholesale peaches.
If the orchard were here, I wouldn’t even rent the orchard if the rent were free. There are so many costs and time associated w/ running an orchard. The equipment is a pretty big item. Even if one has a tractor and mower, an airblast sprayer would be needed. A small sprayer for the herbicides.
The budget Blueberry posted may be close to accurate for a large orchard, but the fixed costs per bushel go up substantially for a small orchard. According to the budget even the variable costs (sprays, labor, fertilizer, etc.) are listed as close to 3K/acre. Assuming the trees are planted at a traditional 100 trees/acre, he has about 2.5 acres of peaches. That translates to 7.5K in variable costs. But I would even submit the variable costs listed are pretty low for a small orchard. For example, they list thinning costs as $240/acre. I think one should expect to spend double that.
There are tons of incidentals in starting an orchard. Harvest containers, boxes, scales, signage, insurance, etc. etc. No way to make a profit selling the peaches for $1/pound.
The farmer’s not making any real money leasing it for $1000 either. My guess is he just doesn’t want to see all he has put into it bulldozed.
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Olpea
Thank you for jumping in. I know you have a lot of experience growing and selling peaches. I’m just learning, but we are in complete agreement on higher than expected costs. Probably lower than expected yield as well. Three Bu/tree is normal here, but it may be too high for that area.
Last year a young couple in an adjacent county bought a farm that contained about 5 acres of mature peach trees and some apple trees. They also got the equipment, consulting from the previous owner and the customer goodwill that came from many years of the previous orchard owner selling excellent quality fruit. They are doing fine, but they indicated its a lot more work than expected. I’m not sure about the money side.
The peach orchard would be much more attractive with more variety and a longer harvest window. I don’t understand how its even possible to sell a huge quantity of something as perishable as peaches over a such a short time frame. It would be impossible for me, which is why my season extends from early June until late August and I only have 120 trees. I believe every large supermarket now requires a GAP certification before they will buy local produce, so that might kill the wholesale aspect.
It may still be a good opportunity for the right person (people) with serious help and advice from the current owner, but its going to take someone who loves to work and someone who learns real fast! Also, a price increase to $20/peck would help on the revenue side.
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Kevin, It’s one of your endearing qualities. smile:
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What I want to know is what one guy and his dog are going to do with 20 peach trees worth of fruit once your own come into full production. 
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Muddy,
Everyone and everything get tired of my 5 peach trees worth of peaches. I grow reliance, flat wonderful, contender. I usually can blackberries in peach juice so o use them like a sweetener.
@MuddyMess_8a , I can’t quite explain why, but that may well have been my favorite post I’ve ever read on here! Literally made me laugh out loud. Perhaps it was the inclusion of my dog, or the extremely gentle way you were trying to tell me I’m crazy for planting so many trees (something others have also noted- though not so gently!). I guess my only answer is that based on my luck so far, production isn’t going to be a problem! Its also like puppies or kittens…they are cute and fairly easy to care for when they are very small. It’s only when they grow up that you realize you are in over your head. Anyway, between that and @Chikn ’ s comment that folks are willing to tolerate my long-winded posts, I’ve decided I might just start liking this forum.
But I also want to thank @Olpea and @blueberrythrill for their informed posts- that was the kind of information I really wanted. Hearing Olpea say that he wouldn’t take the orchard even it were free sort of confirmed my suspicions and helped clear my mind of the idea that there was this great opportunity available down the road if only I could find someone to take it on. So I appreciate everyone helping me explore the details of the offer- if only to satisfy my curiosity.
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Yeah sorry about that! Hey it’s not my business, it you’re happy, I’m happy!
I was probably jealous! I now have about 25 figs in pots, they can’t go in the ground here, well a couple could with lot’s of work, what am I thinking? So I’m just as guilty as you. My wife is going to kill me when she sees all those pots! Most just rooted and are hiding in my grow room. She never goes in there.
We can only park one car (hers) in the garage because my trees take up half the space. It’s worth it 
haha. No hard feelings whatsoever. If you were wrong, I might could argue, but you just weren’t. When the guy with the least experience of anyone on this site has the most trees (or close to it) there is something wrong with that picture! Of course, my neighbor tried to help me thin out my trees last year, but I’ve just used that incident (and the money from it) as an opportunity to buy new trees- hopefully better ones. I very much appreciate you admitting that you may have overdone it a little bit yourself (with potted figs) and its nice to see we both have TOO MUCH passion if anything!
Oh, you mean garages are for cars? I thought they were for storing junk and keeping plants warm in the winter! Who knew.
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Oh so you were compensated? Awesome!
Yes, guilty! If I had your room, I must admit, I would probably way overdo it!
My postage stamp has forced me to try grafting and such to add cultivars. And I have a Hit with an S load of scion to graft this year. It sucks though the struggle for me is keeping them viable, I might have to abandon grafting too. Grafting season is so late here the scion struggles to survive.
You’re describing my garage to a tee. It’s been 5 years since a car was in it!
This is a fascinating discussion, and really what I was looking for. I’m obsessing about a very rural property I like, but it has eleven acres of fruit trees (cherries, peaches, apples (at least 1/4 of total), plums, apricots I do not have the energy (or knowledge) for. Sounds like I couldn’t even break even if I had to hire someone for most of the work (tho there would be housing). So possibly more of a liability than any added value. Also bothers me that there apparently are no records at all and no idea what the varieties are.