do you know who is selling the Oldmixon Free peach tree?
alternatively, can you suggest a sugar-sweet white peach that’s as disease resistant as possible? we’ve had GREAT success with the Cresthaven (if that means anything in terms of disease susceptibility)?
** after reading several posts i selected the Oldmixon Free as my one white peach. then i went looking for it . then, i found others looking for it
i followed leads to nurseries (vaughn, CVN). no go at vaughn or CVN.
I second the Saturn donut peach. I’ve only had it in for two years, so my experience isn’t determinative, but I grew mine completely spray-free and it produced a nice crop of mostly clean, delicious, sweet peaches in it’s second year in the ground.
There is not much plc pressure where I live, so I can’t judge that if it’s an issue for you. Mine had minimal plc when grown spray-free. In early to mid summer, I picked out a handful of curly leaves every week or two, but it was not enough to seriously affect the tree in any way. So far, there has been no rot or cankers.
I’ve grown many white peaches. Saturn is the sweetest. However, many folks on this forum have mentioned Saturn rots for them. I’ve never had a problem with Saturn rotting, but mine are sprayed regularly with fungicide.
FYI, Cresthaven isn’t considered a very disease resistant peach. It’s known derogatorily as SpotCrest among some commercial growers because of it’s very high susceptibility to bacterial spot. It’s also considered fairly susceptible to brown rot.
If you’ve had good success with Cresthaven without sprays, it may be because many times it takes some years before insect and disease pests move in, if you haven’t been growing it that long.
Alternatively, pest pressure is generally directly correlated with the number of trees. So if you don’t have many stone fruits growing on your property you may not have much disease or insect pressure.
@Olpea thank you for the heads up! yes, she’s young but grew very fast and fruited so well. it was selected without research (I had a voucher for a free tree at a nursery, little to select from so i said, what the hell, let’s try this).
no sprays and yes, we just started with the stone fruits. so impressed with the plant i decided to get a white peach, 1 nectarine, 1 apricot and 4-1 cherry.
we’re a bit primitive – if it’s sweet, we eat it (bacteria and all). but i appreciate the heads up; we will will be diligent.
we started an exhibition garden so we’re growing a little of ~every edible plant that can survive zone 7, 30’ elevation in Maryland.
again, thank you.
That’s cool. That’s how everyone gets started, pretty much. Online research will only take one so far anyway, when it comes to growing fruit. There are so many nuances that it’s nearly impossible to find them all by reading. You have to just jump in and do it to figure out a lot of it.
Nectarines are by far the hardest thing for me to grow. Because they are a fuzzless peach, disease and insects find them enticing. Peach fuzz is actually an irritant to insects and helps repel water from the skin of the fruit, which helps with disease resistance. I’ve had a difficult time growing commercial quality (i.e. nice appearance) nectarines, so I quit growing them. There are a few varieties of nects easier to grow, but they didn’t sell well for me.
You may be aware that some apricots require another variety apricot as a pollinizer.
The biggest problem with bacterial spot for the backyard grower is the damage it does to the foliage. It causes shot hole on the leaves, and if bad enough causes a lot of defoliation. That makes it difficult to raise fruit on the tree with only half the leaves it should have. And it weakens the tree. Of course the fruit will generally have some scabby looking lesions on the surface, but most backyard growers aren’t too troubled by that.
I have some Cresthaven trees which suffer substantially from bac. spot. They are getting older and will be replaced with a different variety when they need to be pulled out.
@Olpea again, thanks. i’m from CA and don’t remember any significant disease issues. we just had birds to compete with MD at 20-40’ above sea level is a whole other ballgame.
the Nectarine may have to wait. any experience with the Arctic Fantasy Nectarine Tree?
i selected the Blenheim apricot. it looks like the safest bet
the only plant that ?reliably defoliates? is cultivar gooseberry. this yr i sprayed Immunox Fungicide on them (& the 1 apple, and 1 mayhaw). cultivar gooseberry performed no different; however, wild gooseberry with no spray.
my original intent was to be zero spray – either the girls adapt & thrive in our local environment or not. the whole exhibition garden is an experiment on what works & what don’t
I’ve not had particularly good luck with most of the Zaiger creations I’ve tried (Floyd Zaiger developed the Arctic series). They all get bacterial spot too bad in my orchard. And/or they tend to be shyer producers in my climate. So I’ve not tried any of the Arctic nects.
The only Zaiger developed fruit I have left is a peach called Spring Snow. It’s my favorite white peach for flavor. It gets zero bac. spot. But like many Zaiger cultivars, it doesn’t produce very well. I’ve only kept it because it tastes so darn good. But it’s really not profitable in my climate, so eventually I will be pulling these trees out. There are several growers on this forum, from northern states who’ve had good luck with a few of the Arctic series nects.
One other thing. I speak a lot about bac. spot because it’s a problem in my orchard. But backyard orchardists generally don’t have as many issues with bac. spot as commercial orchards. Large monoculture allows for lots of efficiency but it also increases pest pressures vs. smaller backyard plantings.
Here is an old article from Bill Shane (MSU fruit specialist) where he writes about peach and nect varieties for the north. Technically MD isn’t “north” by much, but the info in the article would still be relevant.
I will mention that my Saturn donut peach is like biting into sugar cubes. It’s that sweet. Not a lot of acid, but the peach flavor is there.
They do to get split pits here if we get a lot of rain when the fruit starts to ripen. And they also stay on the tree very well, to the point that they get tears in the skin when you pick them. We process them or eat them the same day as picking. Haven’t had any issues with bacterial spot or brown rot with Saturn.
Issue with babcock peach is it is only hardy to zone 7. Great for warm season growers but bad for colder climates. Plus with the snow in Texas last year who knows how cold it will get or how hot it will get.
Peaches do not do well with no spray and insects are even worse. Any more than 10 inches of rain and your peaches will get peach leaf curl without copper fungicide. You need to do dormant spray for bugs as well. Nectarines are even worse because the peach fuzz acts and a deterrent for some pests. The nectarines are fuzzless peaches so they are more prone to insect damage. That is why people recommend spraying nectarines with spinosad.
@Kellogg_Hill_Farms all excellent points. thank you!!! as y’all seem to know, the Saturn Donut is popular. i’ll leave the Babcock on my radar but Saturn Donut is looking good! take care.
. then, i found others looking for it 
(bacteria and all). but i appreciate the heads up; we will will be diligent.
MD at 20-40’ above sea level is a whole other ballgame.