So, you can notice it externally or only when it rots?
You can notice most of it externally with some practice.
Lots of pictures on the Internet
Here is an example that is not too bad.
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Your not that far from me, so I’m interested to know if you tried any of these?
Harrow Diamond
Earlystar
Spring Snow
PF5b
Desiree
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Have not tried any of those. Here is an old variety list created by one of the larger peach growers in central NC and the extension specialist for peaches in that area,. We grew Carored and Ruby Prince for a while. Split pits were terrible on Ruby Prince and Carored often failed to produce a full crop.
We noticed that Peach growers in central Va grow different varieties. Here is a list from Saunders Brothers. He grows early redhaven which is about a week after rich may, followed by glenglo
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I know the horticulturist at Saunders (Jason) and I know Marshall.
They’re good guys and starting this year are replacing the oldest peach trees. I mean the oldest ones are 30 years old. Shessh.
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We stop by Saunders Brothers every time we are in the area. We love their farm stand and the quality of what they sell It’s going to be interesting to see what varieties they replant to replace their 30 year old trees. No commercial peach trees survive for 30 years in central NC as far as I know.
Dickie Brothers is not too far from Saunders. Another outstanding orchard but mostly Apples. Dickie Brothers grows Apples on land that has been in their family since before the US Constitution which is amazing to me.
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There are flukes that do happen that add to tree life expectancy…the two growers I know that have been able to keep peach trees living past 20 years were growing in areas north of NC, had decent ground to begin with and planted in ground that hadn’t seen fruit trees (or any kind of trees in general) in decades or longer…
The advice I got at a grower’s convention was not to plant fruit trees in freshly cleared land…the area I’m growing in is heavily forested to the point where at some point I’m going to end up going against that advice… I’m not sure if freshly cleared ground in general is bad…I imagine there are nutrient cycling issues due to having decaying roots and whatnot absorbing nitrogen…I might be skirting around some issues because there’s a lot of pine on the ground I’m clearing and very little in the way of species like black cherry that carry transferrable diseases
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I’ve been meaning to visit orchards in that area for a while (I live near Philly and my weekends get tied up quickly)
One of the reasons is because my classmate(Jason) originally moved to VA was to work for 7k orchards…which got sold to Crown orchards, but there was a period when the future was in doubt and in the meantime he was offered a job at Saunders and he’s been there for years now.
I have desiree in, fourth leaf. It produced extremely sweet and juicy peaches last year with zero care as i was pretty sick, so i got only 3. No split pits but of course, small sample. Last year here was very very dry, more rain this year so i am interested to see if they are as sweet.
The tree has been a struggle to shape since i put it in, it must have been in a shaded section of the nursery block as one side of it turned out to be completely dead.
I have about 2 dozen bagged this year, looking forward to a proper try of them. They are sizing up very nicely. It sets crazy heavy.
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Desiree.
Have I got a story about Desiree.
Adams County Nursery is a wonderful company to work with, Tom Callahan and Jerry Frecon have nuggets of wisdom they’ll occasionally dispense( more on that later).
A trucking company ACN uses seems to lack said wisdom.
So in 2022 I did my thing where I took a week off in April to tree plant…saunders Bros was supposed to come through with 150 peach trees but a lot of the grafts didn’t take so Marshall put the order off for a year and I figured I still have 50 Desiree trees coming in from ACN…the trucking company has a different idea.
I called the trucking company on my last work day before my week off…I was already supposed to have the trees in hand, person from the trucking company said they’ll arrive Monday. I was disappointed but I could live with Monday.
That Monday came around I called the trucking company and asked about the status of the trees.
Person on other end of the line said, ‘we lost them.’ I immediately hung up and yelled at some inanimate object I was standing in front of ‘how the m******** h*** do you lose a 200 lb box of trees!’ I then proceeded to put a an 80 lb log on a fire I was burning at a stump. It really did make me feel better on the inside.
So I called ACN and Nettie (so far the youngest scion of the baugher family I’ve met) picked up and was very kind and helpful and comped me 50 3/4" Desiree trees. I profusely thanked her
So the trucking company did find the trees…they arrived in a heavily broken box on that Thursday…almost too late for me to plant that week. I called ACN, Nettie picked up and I told her I finally did get the box and told her the condition of the box.
She called me back saying she talked to Tom and Tom said said soak them in water for 10 hours. I said ‘thank you.’ and then thought to myself ‘how did he know to say that?’
And wouldn’t you know 47 out of 50 trees made it
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47 out of 50 - great recovery rate on some pretty battered trees !
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Very cool!
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Neat looking Lemon Cling peach. I’ve never seen one like that before. How do they taste?
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Lemon Queen Peach-
There is a guy that is giving out free scions now (for home use)… and he is going to be selling trees Fall 2024.
A lady from Historic Charleston SC brought them back from being lost… he is sharing them with folks that want them.
Unless someone on here gets this going i will buy a tree from him Fall 2024.
I invited him to our group to share…
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Looks like a wonder peach. Glad he is giving scions away and also making the actual tree available next year. I hope they do well. I will try and find the story of this peach. I like the history behind fruit varieties.
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Me too…however i really messed up and posted this suggestion without fully reading its history… so honestly it deserves its own thread…or moved to be talked about as a ‘Late Peach’…as it is ripe in mid September… i apologize…
The lemon cling peach derives its name from its oblong shape and projecting swollen point, which give it the appearance of a lemon, and the fact that its pit “clings” to the flesh (peaches are generally divided into “clingstone” and “freestone” varieties). The precise origins of this variety are unknown, but it is believed to have appeared in Charleston, South Carolina, in the mid-18th century. Evidence for its Carolina provenance lies in the fact that nurseryman Robert Kennedy of New York made the variety available in the northern US under the name “Kennedy’s Carolina,” around 1800. The lemon cling was among the first native-bred peaches recognized by the American Pomological Society, which listed the variety in 1862.
This variety has always been highly regarded for its juiciness and rich flavor. In his book The Fruits and Fruit Trees of Monticello (1998), Peter Hatch reports that the early American politician Timothy Matlack, when sending saplings of the Kennedy Carolina (i.e. lemon cling) peach to Thomas Jefferson, described the fruit as “the most juicy and highest flavored of all the Clingstone peaches. For preserving it is the best of all peaches. It retains more of the peach flavor in brandy than any other.” Indeed, the lemon cling was especially popular for making peach brandy and brandied peaches. South Carolina’s first cookbook, The Carolina Receipt Book (1832), by a Lady of Charleston, includes a recipe for “Peaches in Brandy” that calls for gently simmering the fruit with sugar in brandy and then storing the mixture in jars. All over the country, in areas where the temperance movement was not particularly strong and where the climate permitted, lemon cling peaches were planted for use in distilling. In Carolina’s second cookbook, The Carolina Housewife (1847), Sarah Rutledge specifically indicates that her recipes for peach preserves should be made with local cling peaches. Following the civil war, the lemon cling became popular in the canning industry; by the 1880s it was an intensively cultivated variety in California, and remained so until about 1930. It was cultivated on an industrial scale in parts of the US into the 1950s. However, the lemon cling was hardly grown in South Carolina, its place of origin, after the 1880s; in 1907, a nursery in Charleston offered 35 peach varieties, but the lemon cling was not among them.
In the middle of the 20th century, due to competition from imported peaches and the need to drive down the price of domestic fruit, the lemon cling peach began to decline as growers shifted to improved varieties that were more productive and better suited to mechanized harvest. The lemon cling has not been a commercial variety for half a century and, by 2010, it was almost extinct, with entire orchards having been uprooted in California. Young trees remain difficult to obtain from commercial nurseries. Today, the variety’s survival depends on individuals, associations, and foundations interested in its historical value and enthusiastic about its renowned flavor.
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Great story. Sounds a peach that needs to be reintroduced. Glad someone is doing this to keep this peach from going extinct. .
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Who sells scions for early peaches??
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