The info I can find for Red Haven is 800-900 chill hours.
I don’t think I’ll risk trying to grow something above 500…though as you know chill hours are a bit hard to get a handle on, both on information provided online and experience in warmer climates.
Yeah I don’t get that many chill hours but it would have broken itself producing peaches, I thinned hundreds off of it. Just saying it performed great for me, but it could have been an anomaly this year, as it was it’s first full season in ground.
I’m curious now… What city does OBX stand for? I’m going to look up last year’s winter info.
Kill Devil Hills, NC
By Kitty Hawk. Nice.
Yeah you definitely get more chill than me… And I’d imagine it’s much, much windier there…
Yeah it stays windy here especially during the winter, which can create chill hours, my point just being that chill hours aren’t an exact science and there are ways around a lot of them. I doubt your area gets much less chill hours than mine (not accounting for wind) and while if I knew what I know now I prolly wouldn’t buy that $14 tree but it produced the best so far in its first producing season. Also in Colombia they get two “seasons” of production out of their deciduous fruits by the rainy season and manual defoliation mimicking dormancy. For me I like trying a lot of fruit, I would love to grow one of everything which isn’t possible on this tiny yard I have, so if I can’t have one of everything (even tho I try haha) I want stuff that produces a lot of tasty fruit with the least effort. And so far that cheap grocery store tree checked that box. Do you have FloridaPrince? I intend to add a few lower chill varieties, but I don’t want to sacrifice much flavor for quantity. I think anything under 1000 chill hours is gonna be workable in 9a-8b but I could be wrong but I’d imagine you get 600 on average, and usually commercial growers want some trees with 1-200 hours more and less than their area that way late frosts and etc don’t wipe out their crop. As backyard growers we have a bit less window for error as we likely don’t have space for a huge orchard, I have 4 stone fruit trees that I keep small but 11 varieties on those 4 to date and I try to add a couple each spring. Just don’t worry so much about exacting the number I think, get what you want and what you like and figure how to make it work. With that said I wouldn’t get a 1500 chill hour tree and expect it to hit that chill without putting it in the coldest spot in your yard and etc. the thing I’ve learned about pushing my zone is almost anything is possible it just depends how much effort you feel like putting forth. Sorry for the long winded reply haha I’m also curious in the answers here as I haven’t made my mind on the 4 varieties I’d like to try to graft on next year, so I’m paying attention to your answers also 
I do think you get quite a bit more chill than here as you don’t get as much temperature swing in the daytime as here.
As far as wind, it doesn’t add to chill directly, but it does mix the air at the surface to eliminate microclimates in your yard. So a spot that on a still day would retain latent heat longer gets cooled more quickly.
I am not currently growing any peaches or nectarines (minus about 15 inches of an arctic star nectarine graft I added this spring).
Regardless of the practicality and accuracy of chill hour numbers, if you plant a tree with a chill estimate way below what your area receives, you risk a prolonged warm spell in winter waking the trees up and getting damage from the subsequent frosts.
If you pick a tree with a lot more chill requirement than you get, the tree doesn’t bloom well, blooms sporadically over a longer period of time which can effect pollination, drops fruit that do get pollinated, or doesn’t bloom at all.
That red haven is blooming again haha, it dropped about 90% of its leaves a few weeks back from a week of steady wind (nothing crazy just 20mph for a week) and we have yet to have a single chill hour
. I’m not pushing you to grow a red haven at all haha just demonstrating that in my experience chill hours aren’t a reliable metric, and other factors are more important than those. I also manually defóliate my trees come December to make sure they have enough dormant period. Granted it’s just 4 stone fruit and like 8 blueberries so it’s not a lot of work
Not to get too off topic, but some of my blueberries seem to retain leaves most, if not all of the winter in z6 so unless you have information saying so, you might not need to pull their leaves manually. I’d be interested in learning if you do have guidance.
As far as your experience with Red Haven- I’m wondering if the high winds facilitate fast enough removal of moisture after rains that it doesn’t give brown rot enough time to establish. Could also be the honeymoon stage with a new tree before the diseases move in. Regardless, glad to hear you had success!
@Shibumi I haven’t checked for chill hours but Edible Landscaping in VA has a decent list of lower maintenance peaches you might want to check out. At least, last time I looked they did.
Thanks @disc4tw
I have enough rootstock on hand that I probably won’t be buying a new tree for now. I’m looking more for scion to graft onto existing trees. In a few years as I see how what I’ve added is doing I may dedicate a tree to peach/nectarine.
Also I’m still a bit miffed at E. L. about the mulberry…that is assuming it’s not Gerardi as many are implying here. I emailed them on Thursday but haven’t received a reply.
I was more implying to check their listings as a lower maintenance list as they generally appear to prescribe to a more organic spray schedule. I hope my Dwarf Gerardi from them is true to type… I’ve nursed that twig for 2 years now.
Gotcha
