My comment is about Rich May peach. I’ve read Rich May has trouble setting enough fruit in some places. I am seeing that already. I have 10 trees of this variety right next to 10 trees of another early variety -PF1. The difference in the amount of fruit buds is stark.
Even if we don’t get any severe frosts, Rich May will have a light crop. It is supposed to be one of the best peaches ripening in the extremely early window, but if production turns out to be so slight that some years it doesn’t fruit when it should, this would be a drawback to commercial and home orchards alike.
I am still looking for a good very early peach. PF1 is nice that it’s so early, productive and grower friendly. It gets points just for being early in my opinion, but the flavor sure doesn’t compare to some other early peaches.
I have Desiree as an early peach, but it hasn’t fruited for me yet. Also I hear all kinds of different numbers as to when it actually ripens.
Olpea, whats your favorite early peach? I have no really early peaches, Gold Dust is my earliest. Many of them I tried didn’t taste very good so I never got too interested in planting a really early. But if there was one with good flavor I would definitely be interested.
So far I like Risingstar, for a very early peach. But there is a caveate. I’ve only fruited it off one tree in my backyard and the ripening window is not what is published on the Stellar series peach site. Mine at the house ripens somewhere around -20, but the Fruit Acres website says it’s supposed to ripen around -5. I fear this may be yet another mislabeled tree. I’ve discovered quite a few of those.
I have several more Risingstar planted at the farm which haven’t fruited yet. When they fruit, perhaps I will know something definitive on it.
I grow both Rising Star and Desiree. RS ripens about with Harrow Diamond and I think Desiree is a few days later. Desiree seems to be the superior peach to me. Harrow Diamond also seems more highly flavored than Rising Star, but the final verdict is a few years away. My HD died so I haven’t been able to make comparisons directly.
I am quite impressed so far with Desiree and always cherish my early peaches, even if the quality usually doesn’t compare to the best of the season. On a good year, even PF1 is a treat- small but sweet.
Got down to -10 here last night. First night of the season to threaten flower buds- hopefully the last.
That’s encouraging Risingstar is ripening about the same time for you, as me. Maybe Fruit Acres has it wrong about the ripening time of their own peach. A little weird, but not out of the realm of possibility.
I’ve heard you mention Desiree before as a good peach. It’s strange, in the Adams printed catalog, they list Desiree as -28, which is very close to PF1. The difference is probably irrelevant to a home grower, but for me, I’m trying to fill all the harvest windows with the best peaches I can. If Desiree does ripen close to PF1, and it’s a good peach grown here, I’ll probably eventually replace PF1 w/ Desiree. I like PF1 for it’s earliness, but it has some flavor problems here, especially with a lot of rain.
As I’ve mentioned, I planted Harrow Diamond in 2013. I’ve made quite a few copies of it already, as it’s one of the very few good early peaches (based on your recs) which is not under patent protection.
Olpea, I’m not real sure about the harvest time of Desiree because I picked fruit from a relatively shady part of my nursery, so it may be 5-7 days earlier in the open sun. I have one planted in my orchard that should be just old enough to give fruit next season and I will take note of exact ripening sequence.
I also have some Desiree (planted in 2012) which will fruit this summer (if I don’t get frosted out). It will only be one year’s data, but may give me a better idea of ripening time. I believe I’ve read somewhere that Desiree does ripen a little later (something like +22) than what Adams lists.
Hi Matt
Yes, I have a great peach ‘ Springcrest ‘ in my part of the world for me it’s unique and a very welcome piece of fruit in my garden.I bought it 15 yrs ago as holiday souvenir from South of France.
It’s an early species ripens mid-June location: Netherlands. Taste is very good (for early peach)
Let me just send some pictures
Not in the mid-Atlantic but I’ve grown plenty of Candor in the northeast and it is not as good as Harrow Diamond here. I stopped offering it form my nursery.
I have grown Candor which was popular in the Peach growing area of NC but it had a lot of splits and had to be thinned hard to produce good size fruit. Derby ripens about the same time and is a little larger, but still has a lot of splits. I have Flavorich which which is my early Peach and I was told is very similar to Rich May, but this will be my first year with fruit so I don’t know how good it is. I’m new to Peaches and trying to determine which variety will do well in my area.
They also both rate the peach with very low brix, but I don’t put too much stock in those numbers since they tend to pick them so early. I hope they taste good here.
Matt, it has been a long time since last July and and awful lot of peaches later. It was just a good sized sweet (high brix) peach with better flavor than most in its season. Not an amazingly good peach in general but it may be the best I’ve tried in its season, but that call will take a few more years. Since there is so much interest in it I will take notes if I have any this summer and try to be more descriptive.
