I am in zone 9b. Have an Eva’s Pride peach. Beautiful tree, bees love it, loaded with fruit each year but it stops there. Even the fall off the tree ripe peaches have no flavor. Brix always around 6-9 tastes like water even after I completely cut down on watering this year. It is impossible to get a ripe fruit off the tree without bruising the fruit / losing some of the skin (making it impossible to store)
I would like to graft another yellow peach over it. Any recommendations? It is for fresh eating purposes only.
I already have a 1 year old Baby Crawford that hasn’t fruited yet.
I have a Sam Houston peach that fruited really well this year. I didn’t think well so the peaches were small but they were fantastic flavor and sweetness. Sam Houston is a southern peach that only needs about 250 chill hours!!
Why don’t you keep the tree and graft to it a bunch of nectarines/peaches that you would like to try? I would consider ripening time and acidity in my choice criteria.
Thank you!!! Will try to see if I can get my hands on either to taste. So tired of the DWN varieties which is all I see at my farmers market / Andys Orchard.
That’s the plan I have some good picks for nectarines but still cant find a good yellow peach that I really like.
yes & no, yes surrounded by lawn but lawn sprinkler has been running only once a week since Jan. It used to run daily last year. Blenheim, Snow Queen and Honey Kist all had much better brix. So I am blaming it on Evas Pride
I wanted to mention the same thing, but @bleedingdirt beat me to it — it’s possible that the tree gets too much water overflowing from the lawn. One more thing — you say that the tree is loaded with fruit, how well did you thin the fruit?
This doesn’t tell me much. Depending on the tree size, this amount of thinned fruit might be ok (a very young tree, first or second harvest) or completely inadequate (an older tree). What’s important is how many fruits have been left on the tree.
Too much chill hours for me, Youtube videos from Clemson University made it sound amazing!
Its a small 2 in 1 tree. one half is Honey Kist and other half is Evas Pride. Its around 5 feet tall, second harvest. I left around 40 fruit on Evas Pride after thinning.
Peaches and nectarines need 4 to 5 years to get really good fruit. A small peach tree around 5 foot tall should have no more than a half dozen fruits. When thinning your peaches you need start early, when they are about 1 inch diameter. As your tree matures you will get better fruit, proper thinning will be the only way to get good fruit. Water management should come after your tree grows to good size, or it will stunt out, providing small, bland, fruit. I have a few peach and nectarine trees next to our lawn and as long as I keep them well thinned, they provide excellent fruit, usually between 20 to 25 brix, even though the lawn gets watered every day. Neither of these trees gets watered by lawn sprinklers, but their roots must be exploring under the lawn. You can limit your water and get even better fruit, but you don’t need to kill your lawn doing it. If you need some scion wood message me in December, happy to give you some. Evas pride is a wonderfull peach, mine were 18 to 20 brix and this was on a 2 year old tree, planted this spring. Were yours streaked with red and orange flesh?
Last year there was good red streaking on the very ripe ones, this year very little streaking even on the over ripe ones and overall size was smaller but still very juicy, fragrant, etc but just no brix.
@stan@fruitgrower
I have been thinking about what you said on thinning. That might be the issue here. My HK & EP are in the same hole, 2 in 1 planting. HK by itself produced so little that I only removed the doubles & fruits too close to each other. I thinned EP a lot (removed over 150+ fruits) but there was still a lot of fruits left! HK brix on the good ones hit 18-22. EP never went above 9. Given the trees are right next to each other thinning & variety genetics are the only difference. Same soil, same water, same sun, etc.
Similarly I did extreme thinning on CHP but light thinning on FK & FG. All are not ripe yet, few more weeks to go but CHP has brix of 22 already and FK & FG brix is under 10. Too late to thin more now?
tastes like water even after I completely cut down on watering this year. It is impossible to get a ripe fruit off the tree without bruising the fruit / losing some of the skin (making it impossible to store)
I have some good picks for nectarines but still cant find a good yellow peach that I really like.
yes & no, yes surrounded by lawn but lawn sprinkler has been running only once a week since Jan. It used to run daily last year. Blenheim, Snow Queen and Honey Kist all had much better brix. So I am blaming it on Evas Pride 
