Redhaven peaches

General Fruit Growing
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I asked at the farmer’s market and the Redhaven’s hadn’t been in storage for long- just a few days. In fact, they just finished picking them earlier this week. He said that they are on All Star now and will soon be picking Johnboy and Johnboy 2, then moving on to Glowhaven. He told me that he’d be sure to bring a few Johnboy’s next week for me to try. He said that they were his favorites (it’s not just Alan who like them).

They sometimes under-thin, so maybe that is part of why the Redhaven weren’t that good. They had Burbank plums this week which were barely bigger than marbles and pretty low brix (8-9, ugh). Last year they were full size and very good (16+ brix and great flavor).

They did have some Tango II’s this week. I have to say that they blew me away. Much better than my Tango I’s. The II’s they had today were in the 14-15 brix range, with strong kick and good sweetness.

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Isn’t TangOs II green skinned/white flesh? I really want to try that one. Nice you have a place to buy a lot of different varieties.

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I won’t begin to sell anything half that bad. And can hardly believe anyone else would. What kind of reputation does that leave one with.

Today I sold 25 brix Honey Punch pluots for $2 per lb at local farmers market. But the buyers are mostly my friends and scraping along.

There were pathetic green apples slightly bigger than golf balls and obviously never thinned at $1 per lb but I didn’t see him selling any.

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I agree with Alan. With so many good peaches to choose from in every ripening season, one particular variety is not always the best. Clemson evaluated hundreds of peaches in multiple orchards during many years. Its amazing to read how the quality of the varieties change from year to year or even from orchard to orchard in any given year. This year we performed several blind taste test between Fire Prince, Winblo and Contender. All are excellent peaches that ripen within several weeks of each other. No one was able to consistently pick the same variety as their favorite.

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I agree, but at the same time I also agree with Rob- it’s nice to have a place where they know what they are selling and have quite a few varieties. Most of the vendors at the farmer’s market grow a few things (like tomatoes and green stuff) and sell fruit grown by others.

I wish there were growers like you around. Nobody has a 25 brix Honey Punch pluot, no matter the price, let alone $2/lb. I did find some Honey Punch at Whole Foods a few weeks ago which were pretty good. I think it was ~18 brix for $2.50, which I considered a bargin (they also had Flavor Grenade). There is a specialty grocer relatively close to me that sells organic fruit from CA that is top notch (Frog Hollow Farm) for ~$7/lb.

At this morning’s farmer’s market, I bought white and yellow nectarines and euro plums (11, 14, and 15 brix) for $2.50/lb. I think it is pretty tough to grow anything with more than about 16 brix at this time of year, in this area. Most of the fruit I’ve picked recently has topped out at 16, including St. Edmunds Pippin (16) and Sansa apples (15.5), Faith grapes (15), Bublegum and Satsuma plums (both ~16), and TangO (15 was the highest, but most were 11-12).

This place often under-thins. The guy who owns it (the uncle of the guy I talk to) likes to get a lot of production out of each tree, especially plums, though he’s also had some very small pears in the past. I mentioned the Bublegum plums I’ve been picking and they said that they grow it as well, but the owner isn’t happy with it since the branches aren’t packed, unlike Methley, which he said looks like a big bunch of grapes.

At the same time, they also sometimes have very good fruit, like the Burbank’s last year (they thinned some that time). They have some old Comice pear trees which make huge fruit due to poor fruitset. Those are very good. The Tango II this week were better than the Tango I’s which I grew myself.

Rob, yes, the TangO II is greenish white. They were more yellow than I expected, but the flesh was mostly whitish. I’ve heard that they are harder to grow than the other NJF and TangO I already seems pretty tricky due to the brown rot. But the ones I had today make me want to try.

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Bob:

I appreciate you telling it like it is and giving us some honest numbers related to fruit quality.

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Fruitnut, how far are you from Dallas? My sister-in-law and his husband have a restaurant there and are nuts for high quality Texas fruit. I know you don’t grow at great volume but I’d love for her to at least get a chance to taste some of your completely amazing fruit. She would be over the top appreciative and she and her husband are as nice as they come.

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Texas is a big place so it’s about 450 miles to Dallas. A local restaurant would be a good bet but the one I had lined up went broke. I keep thinking there must be a rich rancher who would like my fruit. But the only one that comes to the market looks like he’s more into meat. Puny free range chicken eggs go for $5 per dozen. But the market for premium fruit seems very thin.

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with fruit like yours, take them in to the best bakery in town, be surprised if they turned them down at that price.

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I sold some of these this year. Most people who tried them went bonkers over them. They are very sweet.

I too have heard TangOs II are harder to grow. I don’t know if they still do, but Adams used to post that in their description. One of their reps told me the same.

This is the first year I’ve harvested any fruit from TangOs II, but in our extremely wet year here, they didn’t look any worse than TangOs 1. The fruit of BuenOs II looked worse than either of the TangOs, much worse. The fruit of BuenOs 1 looked pretty much perfect but doesn’t taste very good.

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I just wrote on the other relevant thread that I don’t find TangO’s 2 very interesting, but I just pulled some more off my tree and realized that the birds have been destroying most of the best fruit on this trees limited harvest. I had actually eaten some of the good ones but failed to take notes and because it isn’t up my alley I didn’t pay that much attention to its taste.

Lower acid peaches don’t particularly appeal to me and TangO’s 2, like whites in general, is lower acid… BUT, it is uniquely flavored with a clear tropical fruit punch quality to it. I think Scott would like it because he is drawn to highly perfumed whites.

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I think it is all about zone. Redhaven is a great zone 6a peach. Bob seems to be too warm, Maybe a 6a peach? Seems like Arctic Glo nectarine is another that does better in the Midwest. So far it is my only for sure keeper. Like forever!
At least as far as taste goes, I need more experience with it to evaluate adaptability. So far, so good.

.
I had scion to Redhaven, but my grafts failed, I’ll need it again and will beg this winter

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What’s weird is that my fruit comes earlier than expected. I had my ideas about blueberry season from my grandfather and his sister’s respective patches. Mine come in much earlier. Blue crop and Berkeley are done several days before August and the earliest varieties start around the third week of June. I picked a soft contender peach a few days ago and had a near ripe one to pick the day after. I’d expect my blueberries to mirror my grandfather’s, from one town over, and my peaches to mirror yours. Are your contenders earlier this year?

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I think it is just as much about conditions leading up to ripening. I ate a redhaven yesterday that had to be over 15 brix, sweet as peaches need to be to be their best- that’s for sure. There was some kind of nect on the site that had brix up to 20. The nects were small but the peaches had good size.

Dawn to dusk sun along with being open to wind and breezes probably have restricted the water at this site this year leading up to ripening as the grass underneath looks a lot less lush than on my property. Sun and water.

I’ve long known Redhaven to perform well on some sites around here and not so well on others, regardless of the particular weather of any given season. More so than with other varieties, I think.

It may well perform particularly well in you region, if only because your weather has a tendency to be dry for the 3 weeks preceding RH’s harvest. So you may be just as right as I am, but it’s probably not about the specific zone so much. We are 6A right here.

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Wet, humid weather and over cropping resulted in inedible Redhaven. Hoping heavy pruning and crop thining will help next yr. I’ll report.

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You and I are having the same faith with any fruit ripening in July until the next week, not just for peaches.

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Since it was developed here, yes, it is custom made for my location.

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Our 3 Red Havens produced sweet, juicy and peachy tasting peaches this year even though they were loaded. It was very wet here this spring but dried up 3 weeks before harvest. Only substandard tasting peaches were small ones low in the tree.

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39

Last year my Redhaven peaches were fantastic in flavor. This year the crop had good size and color but the flavor was just ok. Juicy, ripe but just fair on flavor.

I think peach crops of same variety vary in quality each year. Not sure if water, heat or what it is but it varies. A few years ago my Reliance were so mediocre in flavor I could only use them for cooking. The following year they were so sweet we could not stop eating them fresh.

This year the sweetness and flavor of my Reliance was better than my Redhaven crop. All the fruit was thinned so dinky fruit was not the reason on either crop.

Time will tell how the Contender crop fares as not ripe yet (mid september on average).

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40

I had the exact same experience with Redhaven this year. Juicy, ripe but just fair on flavor, just like you said. Mine did not overset, either, I thought they would be much better like last year. I was even going to take the tree out, but I’ll probably just prune it hard to keep it small. I don’t like doing all the spraying for so-so fruit. I should note that other people seemed to really like them. Most were 10-11 brix. I considered that B- grade.

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