I think it’s due to difference in climate/weather, too. The Midwest has warmer spring and hotter summer than New England. Since you are much closer to Mark than me, I believe your peach ripening time will be similar to Mark’s.
I’ve found that Tony’s or Clark’s same fruit, same varieties as mine ripen about 10-14 days earlier than mine, too.
I’m curious, what did your temps get down to? We got down to about -16/-17F where my orchard is at. I think one has to go back to the 80s till it got that cold.
That is cold for zone 6 Kansas, isn’t it???
I am not really sure what we got down to. The nearest reliable weather station 30 miles south and 250’ lower in elevation registered -15.
Topeka to the east about 60 miles had -17.
My new ‘weather station’ I got at Christmas doesn’t have a feature to show me min and max values over a period of time, so not super helpful there. It registered -13 around 6am on 2/16/21, our coldest overnight so far. However this morning at 7am the weather station told me it was 24 degrees. 
Which it most definitely was not. My phone weather says it was 8 degrees.
Emporia airport historical records show:
Record LO: -21°F
on December 22, 1989
What are you expecting in terms of tree damage; wood, fruit buds, trunk splitting, etc?
I think Tony’s zone 5 in Iowa is warmer, half zone warmer, than zone 5 in Chicago. His trees wake up earlier, bloom earlier, and he gets to enjoy fruits earlier
I was checking the temps of nearby weather stations pretty much all morning. It actually got a little colder as the sun was just starting to come up. That, or just after sunrise is generally the coldest part of the morning. The closest weather station registered -19F, but given the other stations around there were a little warmer, I don’t think it actually got that cold. I’m guessing it was a couple degrees warmer at the orchard.
The orchard is on the MO side in zone 6B. I live very close to the KS/MO border on the KS side.
I’m not quite sure what to expect from these lows, since I’ve never experienced those types of lows as far as peach growing goes. I suppose I’d expect what Bill Shane reported, but sometimes there can be a significant amount of variability in damage, worse or better, depending on how dormant the trees are at the time of the event.
I went to the orchard that afternoon (after the -17F cold that morning) and cut some peach shoots, put in a vase inside, to see what, if anything, is forced. I did notice some of the shoots I cut looked a bit desiccated. My understanding is that with long winters farther north, it’s not uncommon for the wood to desiccate on the trees, if the temps stay too low for too long.
After I put the peach shoots in the vase, they did plump back up some, but again I have no idea if anything is alive on the shoots. I’ve been tempted to cut some flower buds open, but I expect they will be dead.
There was once a peach grower up in MN who tried for years to grow peaches in a zone 4. He noted that sometimes the trees will go ahead and send out new spring growth, only to collapse shortly after because they were dead at the soil line. I’ve seen that a bit before when I overly pruned some really young peach trees going into winter.
Olpea, do you think because it is colder in Michigan that the trees themselves grow at a slower pace?
Mrs. G,
That could very well be. Plus I think we actually get more total hours of summer sun than MI. Lastly I’ve noticed the soil isn’t typically as rich in MI as it is in corn country in KS and MO, where I’m at. But that’s a good point, maybe they just don’t have to prune as much up there, hence the 15% figure he mentioned.
I really know where you are I went to Stephens! In Columbia.
Wow, not many from the NE would know towns in MO. 
I’m not too familiar with orchards in Columbia. I don’t get there too often. There are a fair amount of orchards which follow the Missouri river from KS to St. Louis.
Spent a lot of time between Kansas City and St. Louis. Lots of beautiful land!!! And Farms!
This is what I have read too, but I know you speak from experience. Maybe a good thing we have going for us is the prior 2 weeks were extremely cold. I know I was concerned with the mild December through January weather in terms of the trees’ ability to deal with cold temps when/if they came. And sure enough, winter arrived.
I don’t understand the complexities of trees reaching “full dormancy” – what temps have to be and for what lengths of time, etc. I don’t know if the those 2 weeks prior to the -13 for me, -17 for you, helped the trees prepare, but I sure hope so. Time will tell. In the meanwhile, I will keep praying for the trees to pull through, and for you and the other forum members whose livelihoods depend on your orchards.
Fruit specialists classify dormancy in two different types. Endodormancy and ecodormancy. Supposedly the way it works is that trees experience endodormancy before they have met their chill requirement. Trees in endodormancy can move back and forth from minimum to maximum dormancy. In this sense slow long cold spells can mean that the trees have moved into maximum dormancy.
Supposedly after a warm spell when peach trees de-harden, they will re-harden about 2 degrees per day, until they reach maximum hardiness in endodormancy.
Once peach trees have met their chilling requirement, they move into ecodormancy. At this point, once they de-harden, they won’t go back and re-harden.
As much as I hate to admit it, I think with the fairly warm January, our peach trees had already moved to ecodormancy. It may not matter though. I wouldn’t expect much, if anything, from peaches which suffered these kinds of temps.
Thank you for that explanation Mark. I will look into it further and try learn more about it.
One mistake that I have made over the years is choosing scaffold branches directly across from each other which many times have formed a dreaded rot spot which eventually does the tree in. I am doing better with that now on newer trees that I have planted. That was point of emphasis in the video that I really appreciated.
There is no doubt that being relatively cold before the Artic blast probably helped temper some of the damage, sure beats going from 60s to -10. Olpea is certainly more well versed on peaches and I think I have also read about a trees inability to reach full dormancy again after passing a certain threshold.
True. We can get some giant temperature swings for sure.
This is the longest cold spell this part of KS has had in 40ish years I think is what I read.
What was the coldest temp at your orchard, @TurkeyCreekTrees ?
Topeka said they got to -19 we had -12 at our house the best I could tell. The nursery sets on a hill so I hoping for -12 
Warrensburg here!
Sorry, forgot to respond re. the demise of my PF24C. It was my first peach tree. I made so many mistakes. A few big ones were:
With all these mistakes (and more), the tree was in decline particularly the last two years. I am not very sentimental when it comes to peach trees (they grow and produce quickly). I would rather plant a new peach tree and try not to repeat my mistakes.
I understand that! I have several trees I wish I could go back and get a “do-over” for them! At least we are always learning, right? That’s a good thing. That’s what I keep telling myself. 