This is my first picking of PF24C for the year. (Although I have been sneaking a few off early for the last 4 or 5 days). The fruits are running about 3.25 to 3.75 inches in diameter. It is a really nice size.
This is a REALLY intensely flavored peach. Much more so than Redhaven. Lots of sugar and lots of acid. I think it is near the maximum intensity for my tastes. My wife, on the other hand, thinks it is about perfect and has referred to it as “her” tree for the last three years.
I am curious if other PF24C owners find them to be a more acid variety or if it is something to do with my site.
They seem even more acidic than normal this year. I am letting them sit on the counter for a few days. Hopefully they will mellow out a little. Brix is running 14 to 20. With most around 16 or 17. At 18 or so it seems a little syrupy, but still intense. My wife agrees that they are quite a bit more acidic this year.
As you can see there is quite a bit of red near the pit. This peach is quite a bit firmer and finer grained than Redhaven. This makes it a little harder for me to tell when they are ripe. (9 of them on the ground today after work was a pretty strong hint though…).
They look perfect! Good report, I have a three year old PF24C that I’ve not had a fruit from yet, but I have great hopes for next year… can’t wait now!!
The fence behind it is 6’ tall. I think I over fertilized a little this year. It is a little unruly. Probably not getting high marks on Summer pruning either…
Are all three (four?) trees PF24C? What year are they? The trees look very healthy. I have a tendency to over fertilize myself. Thanks for posting the pics,
It is actually just one tree. I am pretty sure this is year 7 for this tree. It really grew a lot this year. Probably way too much energy going into wood that I am going to have to remove later.
For me it’s pretty good balance of acid and sugar. But my wife like sweet ones better. This year has been pretty good due to early drought, but later rain make them less sweet, but still very good. My daughter and I love them.
I bench grafted two PF24C trees this year, one on K1 the other on Prunus Americana. The one on Prunus Americana was looking bad, and I noticed I forgot to take off the twisty tie I had around the graft union. UGHH! It was girdled pretty bad, maybe it has enough time to recover. Anyway, your PF24C peaches sound a lot like my McKay peaches. They have been ranging from 15 to 20 brix with lots of acid and much firmer than my other peaches. In fact, I’m not even sure they are fully ripe yet, but the brix is up there.
Your fruit makes me feel like I should move to Spokane.
My PF24 C was planted in 2010. It started fruiting in 2011 and every year except 2015 when weird winter and funny spring killed all stone fruit buds.
Looking at how clean your fruit are, I felt like we grow the same varieties in two different universes. This year has been tough with very wet from late July to almost all August. I sprayed the 4 th Indar last week. Still, most of my 24C that have dropped so far, have shown signs of brown rot. Had it not been Indar, I would have lost all crop to brown rot like in 2014.
With lot of rain, they don’t taste very good. This one was quite acodic with a hint of sweetness. Brix was 14 but the acidity made it taste like 10 for sweetness.
In other years, I like it well enough because it tasted balanced between acid and sweet. I would never say it is my best tasting peach. At least, Foster, with the same growing condition, tasted sweeter and more peachy,
Interesting choice on the K1 rootstock. Olpea posted a lot of information about his Harrow Diamonds with and without K1. He had issues with cold hardiness. Still, after doing a little research, I am intrigued by the possibility of getting a sugar boost on a super early variety like Rich May.
Subdood, I think you are right about the limb supports. Looks like more than one tree.
They have been pretty helpful. 2x4’s with a 2.375" hole saw taken to one end. Got that thick sticky backed felt pad you put on the bottom of furniture to prevent scuffing floors and lined the hole saw hole with it to prevent rubbing the bark off the branches.
Tippy, I agree. It does seem like two different universes. Reading about everyone’s challenges East of the Rockies teaches me to be thankful and not to complain!
Yes. I did thin heavily. Battled oriental fruit moths early in the season. Once the rain clears up in June, it is pretty dry all Summer long. It rained on Aug 27th. That is the only day. The lack of rain helps keep fungus and bacteria at bay with the exception of powdery mildew which starts showing up in September (it was earlier this year). I have added O’Henry, Rio Oso Gem, and Indian Free, so it will be interesting to see if those varieties attract more problems. I can already see that O’Henry and Indian Free are more susceptible to powdery mildew.
I picked the last of my PF24C today. These are all of the slow to soften interior hangers. In past years, if I wait, they never seem to soften. They just get mealy and stringy. Figured I would pick them and put them on the counter to soften this year - maybe this will work better…
Newbie here,
Kevin (SpokanePeach) is responsible for my new peach obsession.
I believe I may actually have eaten one of those peaches today as Kevin was kind enough to drop a bag off to me this week. I will attest these are the sweetest, juiciest peaches I’ve eaten.
Inspired by him I planted a Contender and a Redhaven this Spring. Then he told me about Growing Fruit. Great, now I’m neck deep in it and after all the reading here I now realize how much there is to know and even then we’re still subject to the whims of weather and pests. Thanks Kevin!
Actually I’ve really enjoyed the journey so far and look forward to the future growing…and hopefully a few more of Kevin’s perfected peaches. I’ll be asking lots of questions that I can’t find in past threads. Thanks all, for the incredible amount of information here.
Mike
Thanks for posting the pics,
