Any estimate on how much longer these peaches have till they are ready. I’m thinking of one more spray but concerned about harvest interval. I’m trying to avoid my previous brown rot disaster. So far things look clean as I’ve done dormant copper along with infuse twice and fruit tree spray twice.
The seed peach trees are still green with no smell. The new elberta tree is starting to yellow and smell sweet
Single elberta peach pic is for comparison to known variety
Thinking of fruit tree and plant guard (14 day harvest interval) or a 3rd dose of fruit tree spray (21 day harvest interval)
It is difficult to answer because there is no data of ripening dates of peach seedlings. Some seedling peaches do not ripen at all.
Vaughn Nursery in TN is a very good source to call and find out when Elberta ripens. This chart from Vaughn said Elberta ripen mid July in GA. It looks like it could ripen within 2 -3 weeks from now for you.
I had an Elberta and it was ripe when I could smell its fragrance while on the tree. The Elberta will turn yellow. I had one seedling peach sent from a nursery going out of business. The peaches were worthless.
The first to pick are always tricky. A small number will always ripen a bit earlier than the main harvest. same for the tail end that seam to hang on. I recall, Olpea uses the rule of just a hint of green at the stem area holds true for me. But sometimes as I twist the peach to look, it falls in to my hand. Picked too green and they never “counter ripen” to get the nice peach flavor or sweetness.
For me, I like to pick them so I have time to box them up for my rounds of delivery. Too soft and they are hard to handle and need processing immediately.
I had about 100 peaches that ripened last. I checked them daily. Then finally they plumped up and most were very good. So don’t rush picking
For many years I only picked the ones which gave easily when pressed at the top. Now I am getting enough bird etc damage that I am picking when they are not rock-hard on top, and letting them counter ripen. As long as they have softened at least a bit they get fully ripe on the counter.
I agree background color is a good indicator of a peach which will counter ripen optimally. We also use the pressure test at the top sometimes. This season the really hot dry weather screwed up ripening badly. We were getting peaches getting too soft of the bottom (which is generally the first place to ripen. So I’ve had my picker put slight pressure on the bottom when pressure picking.
Some varieties have more green in the background color than others and can be still ripe enough to pick. Some have no green in the background when they are ready to pick.
That is a constant battle. Customers want some peaches ready to eat. They are a bit disappointed if they can’t start eating their peaches for a day or two. So we try to leave some on the tree long enough so we can get them some to be able to eat immediately. But they want to bruise badly. We try to minimize this by selling in flats, not boxes. It helps a lot to avoid stacking them. If I have to transport them, I drive like a granny.
Here’s a pic I came across the other day of another KC orchard on their Facebook. They are a new orchard and haven’t quite figured out that soft peaches can’t be stacked. Peaches look pretty rough.
We fight the same battle. Ripe but not too ripe. My son who is running things now likes to pick the peaches slightly less ripe so they are less fragile. It’s harder to tell about the ripeness on Sun Prince and Flame Prince which look to be more ripe than they really are. Peaches are always firm enough so they will stack several levels deep in a peck box which is shown in the photo. Some larger growers in my area pick peaches pretty green into a half size bulk bins which holds about 10 bushels. NOt sure how long it takes for them to ripen but I would guess at least a week
Getting the right spray on the trees when they are near harvest is always a big problem. We only use things with short PHI once we start picking. Unfortunately most of these chemicals are only available in larger sizes and some are restricted use. Admire Pro is one with a short PHI that can sometimes be found in smaller sizes labeled for peaches. Indar is a very effective fungicide for brown rot with a short PHI but I have only seen it in larger containers.
