Can anyone recommend some peach varieties that have frost tolerant blooms? I see a lot of varieties listed as “cold hardy” but that doesn’t necessarily correspond with frost tolerant does it?
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Good old “Redhaven” manages to put out at least a few fruit every year. Whether it’s frost tolerance or just the sheer number of blooms means a few get through, I don’t know. It’s not particularly late blooming in my area. It’s like it has willpower to produce. “Polly” a white peach from Iowa has this quality. Barely getting ready to bloom here in 6a and it’s almost May.
The varieties reputed to have this quality are “Contender” “Veteran” “Blushing Star”
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This is not from experience, more of a wish list since we get quite a few late frosts here and plenty of chill hours:
Madison
Reliance
Veteran
PF 24c
Redhaven
Cresthaven
Contender
Carolina gold
Intrepid
China pearl
Challenger
July prince
I will eventually have all these and will narrow it down over time based on their performance and ripening window. This year was not a challenging spring for the vast majority of my peaches, so not much info, likewise, last year was a total bust.
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Thank you for the info. I have Polly blooming for the first time here. We will see if it makes any fruit. You’re right about delayed bloom. It’s blooming nearly a month later than my other 2 white peaches. Silver Logan and Belle of Georgia which both lost all blooms to a 28 degree night. The blooms were still completely closed to, pretty disappointing. Jury is out on Ranger and Polly. I know they didn’t freeze but we get some serious wind here to and that seems just as bad as frost.
Last year I lost every stone fruit I had to late frost, so I know all too well what you’re saying. This season looks to be a good one. Everything has fruit except my white peaches. I wanna give peaches one more try but probably try some more frost hardy varieties. I tend to prefer the lower acid white varieties though. Thanks for the info. PF24c sounds like exactly what I’m after.
We had a tough year for peaches and Polly is the only tree that bloomed for me. It’s a good one for sure.
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How does it taste? Typical white peach with low acid and higher sugar?
Yeah that’s the only downside. It’s a great tasting fruit, but if you want that strong peachy flavor with some good acid then it’s not the best. But if you like low-acid sweet peaches it’s great. And I’m just happy with a peach that will reliably survive our winters. I really want to try a Frost peach as well but haven’t gotten around to it yet.
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Blushing Star is the latest variety completing Shuck Split I have. Whether that extra bit of tissue at the right time would make a difference, I can’t say for sure. For flowers, Contender. But most years it was always after blooming that a freeze took the fruit.
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My Arctic Gem white peach is a champ and my favorite peach for flavor. People are amazed after they taste it.
In 2017 we got down to 22 F on May 20. All of my other trees had zero fruit. The AG had 50 survive.
Last year we still had snow on the ground and cooler than normal weather during and past bloom. My other trees got confused and sent out no or runty flowers and I had 0-10 fruits on them. The AG had a normal fruiting.
I don’t know if it’s sold anymore but I’ve made sure to replicate it on rootstock and have backups growing.
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For me, Madison and Veteran have the most cold tolerant buds. Redhaven, Blushingstar, and Contender are the next tier (and taste a little better than Madison and Veteran). I also have Raritan Rose and Wisconsin Balmer blooming for the first time this year. Both of those bloomed noticeably later than my other peaches but I can’t speak on their actual bud hardiness yet.
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Would love to get that variety if you would be willing to sell some scionwood later this year.
I’ll put my vote in for Contender and Madison. Waiting to see how my newly planted Reliance and Redhaven tolerate the cold and frosts
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I’m in 5B and get late frossts.
I’m trying:
Reliance
Frost
Contender
Intrepid
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Very much so if carefully ripened. I really like it and the pounds of off-the-chart brix fruit was heavenly. All things being equal ( they never are) I would like a more conventional peach I think. The fruit on my tree usually had a faint greenish tinge even though ripe.
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planted 10 pits of Siberian peach and 1 plug last fall. checked the plug and its fine. also have a reliance i put in last spring. well see how it does . 2 yeas ago i put in a contender but it died to the ground.
My Contender died to. Also lost a few others. What exactly is a plug?
I called it a plug. just a 1 yr. old seedling grown in a 1.5in x 5in long pot.