Has anyone grown and eeaten them? thoughts on the breeding route? Seems pretty good to see someone working on making peaches more acclimated to colder wetter weather. Of course they won’t be as big and fleshy as the usual ones anytime soon.
Im probably going to pass on a green fleshed peach.
1 Like
Yeah I am not too excited about what is now, but more so what could become of this breeding in some years.
Many peaches can handle quite a bit of cold. Sure the Babcock peach is only hardy to zone 7 but many peaches go down to zone 5 and some into zone 4. My Stark Saturn donut peaches are flowering and we had -15, -10 and -8 days 3 days in a row this year with many other days in the negatives too. Keep in mind that was a zone 5 peach that handled that kind of weather. Reliance is zone 4 so should be able to handle -30 and it is self fertile so that is not an issue. Not many places in the USA are past zone 4. Places like Minnesota come to mind but I don’t see an overall market with a zone 2 or 3 peach as it is just a few states. In fact once you go down to plants that can grow in zone 2 or 3 you can start to have issues with warmer areas. I am unaware of a zone 2 in America as well.
1 Like
I think there focus is more so on breeding wet climate tolerant peaches. I understand that most peaches can handle cold but without spraying most peaches also will not live long because of diseases in wet and humid climates.