I had one peach variety ripen this year after very little sunlight and about 8 inches of rain over a 10 day period. These peaches were not great. When the rain quit and the sun returned everything improved. We were very honest with our customers about the decline in flavor and sweetness as a result of the rain and they bought the rain drenched peaches anyway. We were expecting to see a lot of rot as a result of all the rain which did not occur.
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I just measured a delicious PF 28 peach from my orchard with over 16 brix. Usually only nectarines and plums cross the 15 threshold on my property, even on years without the relentless rain of this one. It didn’t have fruit last year, but the year before I noticed it was good quality although I didn’t measure it. Olpea says it doesn’t set well enough in KS, but here it hasn’t been a problem at the few sites I grow it. Last year set lots of varieties back. It is so much better than Madison it isn’t funny, but my Mad is located in a wetter spot. The PF 28 is on a pretty steep hill which doesn’t store lots of water.
A short while later I measured a Fantasia nectarine with about the same reading- maybe 17. The Fantasia is more acidic, of course, but I couldn’t call one better than the other.
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