@Melon I have a short season too - I am crying right along with you. I have red cherries now and little peach and nectarine fruitlets. Just started getting strawberries too.
Have you tried Alexandria alpines and if so, any opinion?
I planted a whole packet of seeds and have ONE plant lol!
I found out a nursery I am visiting soon sells yellow wonder alpine plants and seascape. I have not tried either.
Well itās been a strange year. Super excessive moisture over winter including ice storm and two spring flood events, plus all the rain inbetweenā¦ The last frost was the last frost and about 2 weeks earlier than the average last frost.
I wouldnāt discount your peach tree just yet, give it another season. Just about any tree ripe peach is better than just about any store bought peach. Ok iāll just going to say it outloud, store bought peaches are horrible!
Hard to get accurate info on june gold and harrow sweet. So much conflicting infomation out there, makes it hard to reseach 
one green world says jun gold ripens in August, which I know is not correct.
Iāve owned a couple June Gold trees over the years and received one that was supposed to be a June Gold that ripens in August. The real June Gold ripens in mid June- July 1st and is finished when the Contender starts @ 1000ā alt. in NW NC. It is semi cling; an extremely aggressive tree in terms of growth, production, blooms in the last week of Feb.
The flower petals are large and the overall flower size can exceed 2 inches in diameter. The flowers and set fruit laugh at frosts. Temps regularly drop to 24 while blooming and 22 once the fruit are set and I still have to thin like crazy. Mine are full size and on Halford rootstock. The fruit are medium-large and with a good balance of sweetness and peach twang. My wife grew up on Red Havens and Elbertas, but those donāt exist in her mind, It is either June Gold or nothing.
If you get a small cheap fridge without auto-defrost storage shouldnāt be hard. I cut my wood in very late winter (early Mar in S NY) in a size that fits a gallon freezer bag nicely and just take enough air out of it so it doesnāt take too much room collectively. I use a small garbage bag with a moist rag in it to hold a bunch of gallon bags of scion wood it in and keep the fridge close to freezing.
I used to wrap scion wood tightly with stretch rap and finally realized I was rotting peach wood. Other species did not rot so easily. Since I started storing the wood more casually and grafting once peach trees are in active growth with at least small leaves my success rate has gone from abysmal to good- I do maybe 80 peach grafts a year using a simple splice and electric tape to hold the scion wood and wrap the whole thing with a parafilm called "Buddy Tape)ā¦
Thanks, there are aspects of that which match the tree I have. But others which do notā¦ We appear to be in similar zones so presumably ripening time would be close. Iāll add a note to my records that my āJune Goldā tree likely is not that specific cultivar after all. But as long as it produces tasty peaches, Iām not upset in the slightest 
Maybe we could trade vegetative budded only peach scions late winter. I would really like some true june gold scions, if you have any available?
Thanks
Thinned our single redhaven today. Bird damaged and the smaller ones. Had only 3 with bird peck, didnāt see any insect or scab or brown rot, so hopeful.
I have one reliance peach tree, it set fruit for the first time this year maybe 30 peaches are hanging. I noticed this morning that it has grown like crazy. It doesnt need thinning. Iām glad reliance produces for you, its encouragement to me.
Last year we weāre basicly robbed by cicadas.
That shouldnāt be a problem.
Compared to what? It always let me down because compared to other relatively cold-hardy peaches it is of sub-par quality here. On the rare seasons peaches have failed to set fruit (below -15F when trees are properly hardened off) its virtue of being last to freeze didnāt help, being only slightly more cold tolerant than several other varieties. Olpea doesnāt grow it, does he?
Here the Paul Friday series offers several high quality, cold hardy peaches and Red Haven also tastes better than Reliant and was bred for border-line areas. I also grow Veteran. However, if Reliant was the only peach I could grow, I would love it.
Flower buds do not reduce takes for me, I donāt even remove them until after grafts start growing- usually the come off by themselves. Most of my best wood includes flower buds and may have more stored energy in it.
You and @Olpea are a zone more or less more cold tolerant than my zone. In comparison to flat wonderful and contender, and othersā reliance is reliable. In my very hot summer climate, it is delicious. It tolerates my cold -25f winters. I need to bring you to my place to stay for a year and it would open your eyes to the differences. @fruitnut climate is very different from ours also. Last night, i got a 2-inch rain. This is backward since my rain should have been here early spring. We have been in the mid 90s for weeks.
I used to grow Reliance, many many years ago. Then removed it because of quality. This spring I replanted 3 trees of it to try it again. Weāve been hit with very marginal peach production the last few years, so are trying everything possible to get better peach crops. We even replanted a tree of Flat Wonderful this spring to try it again.
This year is very early. Itās not even July and we are done with Earlystar, Harrow Diamond. We are just about through Risingstar, Early Redhaven, Garnet Beauty, Glenglo. We are picking Eighball.
No, I fully understand the importance of site. I never said that reliant wasnāt the best peach for you at your site, I only asked what you were comparing it to because for me, it wasnāt meaningfully more reliable than Red Haven where I live. Back when we used to often get to -15F during winter and test was below -20. Reliant did not once give me a crop when other relatively hardy peaches failed. No peach here has ever born fruit when winter temps get below about -17 F. However, itās never been lower than -22 since Iāve lived here. You are the expert on your own land, of course.
Bottom Line (Reliability Rating)| Cultivar | Literature Kill Temp (Dormant) | Realistic Field Threshold (Observed by Growers) | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reliant | -20Ā°F to -25Ā°F | -17Ā°F to -20Ā°F | High |
| Redhaven | -15Ā°F to -18Ā°F | -14Ā°F to -17Ā°F | High |
Thatās Chatās take, but bud hardiness is very complicated- Olpea has spoken of losing crops at surprisingly high temps and Iāve had problems with lows going to only zero when winters have been very warm preceding that. I only tested Reliant for about 5 years and dropped it because itās rare for reasonably hardy peaches not to crop here. Nectarines tend to be more tender.
My desire to try Reliance again, is primarily because it ripens in a different window relative to Redhaven.
I realize this is totally a commerical grower perspective and has little to do with backyard orcharding. But I need a reliable peach for each weekly ripening window. In my past experience, Reliance ripens -5, which is a much needed window for me. Clayton does OK (same window as Reliance) in marginal weather lots of years, but Iām looking for something a little more reliable for that window.
Seedling tree germinated in 2019. Second year fruiting, about 20 peaches this season. Very juicy, great taste, essentially freestone (when very ripe). Heavenly smellā¦
Hereās our one lone relience peach in itās 4th leaf. I pruned it a little before bud break and its grown like crazy.
Iām no where near as experienced as you are. I can only have sucess grafting vegetative only peach scions (W&T or Bud). Why this is I do not know?
