I knew a guy who successfully grew lots of peaches in south central WI in the 80s and 90s when winters were real there. He had them on the south side of his house, very near the foundation. He also had a lot of natural rock and poured cement landscape features near the trees. He did keep pretty much every branch and the trunks painted white on the south and SW sides. I’d imagine living in a city also gave at least a few degrees of protection, and some dessication protection as well.
I tried Reliance, Madison, and one other hardy variety on the late 90s/early 200s in an orchard setting with zero microclimate advantages. I think one tree made it 2 years.
I’ve tried several peaches with no success in 4a. I finally planted a Siberian C 5 or ten years ago. It froze, but resprouted. It is still under 2 foot tall. I have little hope of ever seeing peaches.
Im not sure, I know he said hes got mature trees that block a lot of the wind, so that might help him with these… Hes not in town tho. Im gonna snag a branch or two from him and try grafting it onto my hardy apricot rootstock I got from local soil conservation just for giggles.
Can you graft nectarine to wild plum? Maybe grafting up high on an established Am. plum would work. I see some folks in provinces north of us grafting apples on hardy rootstocks at 5-7’ in an attempt to gain hardiness.
I don’t know for sure, but I’ve grafted hybrid plum to peach rootstock. I have Waneta that is doing well on Contender seedling. I also got a Hardired Nectarine planted out this summer. I’ll see how it does. I am a true zone 5a here though.
Peach makes a good rootstock. Also very easy to chip bud.
Peaches will fruit here but long term they all seem to die. I grow them out from seed and if they die they die. I do like they are fast growing and quick to fruit.
Bismark hit -39 *F last February. If his Hardired nectarine survived through that outside, that would be an incredible discovery for northern fruit growers. Do you think you could get him to provide a photo of the tree on his property with fruit? Without more evidence it seems a bit far fetched.
Ill ask him if he has any pictures, he said he ordered it direct from stark, Im gonna try to get wood this winter before it gets too cold also, to keep in my fridge.
I just looked at my bags of peach/nectarine pits and one sprouted. I’ve got a few different bags. I saved a handful of seed from Honey Royale nectarine (Sam’s Club sells it in July). I also have peach seeds from I want to say Colorado grown fruit (i have to look it up–i saved some pics on my old phone). I will probably grow these out any bud them over maybe even this year…i have a few in ground trees that will be perfect for rootstock this year.
First actual post. Story about my peach tree and this year’s bountiful harvest: Four years ago a small tree popped up in my wife’s flower garden. Neither of us had a clue what it was but we let it grow. A quick grower, by the next year the tree was six feet tall and produced some really nice blossoms. We figured maybe an ornamental peach since the fruits were pea sized.
By the third year the tree topped eight feet and really was pretty in the spring, so allowing it to make a mess underneath was OK. This last summer what a surprise when huge peaches were appearing all over the tree. No pruning, no spraying, no kidding. Our other peach tree had died a couple years ago after being hit by lightning. That one I planted about ten years before and the day I had planned to harvest peaches every raccoon and deer in the area cleaned out the fruit before we could.
I expected the same to happen to this one that was just outside the back door. Our granddaughter happened to be visiting on harvest day and we got about 5 gallons of the biggest, sweetest peaches we could imagine. That very day we all pitched in and made peach jam, peach cobbler and still had plenty to give peaches to friends and neighbors.
Here’s hoping this straggly volunteer keeps up the good work.
Just verifying: For zone 4 fruit trees that are no spray and can let grow to 12’ high and drop their fruit (so I don’t have to climb a ladder), am I limited to only Mulberry and Persimmon? I checked the no spray list here:
My Serviceberries, Nannyberry, and nuts are going somewhere else.
I ordered a superior plum, black ice, flavor king pluot and lapins sweet cherry. I’ve had all but black ice in the past. I haven’t ordered any trees since before covid.
