Hi everyone. I wanted to compile a list of very early and late varieties. I’m trying to prolong my harvest season and I have a big interest for early and late ripening. Most stone fruits are harvested late June-Sept. I’m sure a lot of people are interested in this topic. It might not apply for everyone here because of different zoning. I live in California zone 9b.
Cherries-I already know most of them are harvested between may-june. Any varieties that can go up to July and August?
Here are my current list of early and late: (note: I’m not 100% sure on this as these are all base from me reading, asking people and not actually harvesting it on those dates) Full and partial sun can also affect harvest time and zoning.
Early:
Sorriso di primavera J. plum-possibly May?
Red beaut J. plum-possibly May-June
Sauzee swirl Peach May
Desert dawn Nectarine May
May pride Peach May-June
Springtime Peach May?
Late:
Octoberfest Peach Sept-Oct
Emerald beauty J. plum Sept-Oct
Autumn jade J. plum Oct-Nov
Flavor finale Pluot Sept-Oct.
Fall Fiesta Pluot Sept-Oct.
Flavorfall Pluot Sept-Oct?
Coes golden E. plum Sept-Oct
Anna Spath E. plum Sept-Oct
White Heath Peach Sept-Oct.
Halloween peach Oct
Feel free to share if you know any very early and very late ripening stone fruits. Also, correct me If I’m wrong on my info but this is based on 9B zone. Thank you.
Two late peaches to add: Indian Free and Sanguine (Black Boy). Late blooming (May) and late fruiting (October). Fruited for me in PNW zone 8a/b but not enough heat units here to get sweet. Would be fine for a warmer 8a/b.
Chill requirements:
Indian Free: 700 hrs below 45F
I have this one in western Washington 8a. I don’t think it’s late blooming as it overlapped bloom with cherry plums here. It ripens for me at the end of summer and has delicious fruit with a great sweet tangy flavor balance like raspberry. It also has a great degree of resistance to peach leaf curl. I highly recommend it.
Yes that would make a difference. Despite being just under 40 miles south-east of Seattle I’m actually cooler here than Seattle cause I don’t get a much of the buffering effect from the Puget Sound. Do the cherry plums also wait until May to bloom in your location or just the peaches?
I don’t have cherry plums. I may be wrong about bloom time for Sanguine. I seem to remember it being the last of my peaches to bloom - may have been its shaded location, too. I replaced the tree in 2021, so didn’t get a chance to see how it would perform in an extended warm fall like last year.
You are in a very warm area. I’m in NYS. Earliest peach I grow is Flavor May which can be a stingy bearer but is by far the most flavorful (highest brix) early peach I grow- that is, better than the ones following in the next couple of weeks… so far. I’ve only been cropping it for 3 or 4 years.
The latest peaches I grow here are Indian Blood and Victoria. IB is an extraordinary high brix, high acid peach with amazing red color. Victoria is a good quality standard peach. Both will keep a month in the fridge if you pick them at first sign of softening so get you into Nov.
Earliest nect I grow is Carene, which also gets up amazing sugar early but has lost favor because fruit tends to be small (I assume). It is a super-sweet, low acid variety that I’ve measured up to about 27 brix, which is about as high as it gets in the east. A key virtue here is it ripens before wasps become active- they are hell on high sugar, low acid nects. I have a flavorful but, so far, very stingy late nect called Liz Late. I’m wondering if it will ever bear well enough to earn its keep- and I’m not demanding since I’m only a commercial grower of trees and not fruit. Well, my customers do pay be pretty big money to get great fruit to stick on their trees. But they don’t need huge cropping either. They pay me a fortune to thin fruit.
You don’t seem to grow Euro plums but some are very late and keep for well over a month in the fridge which can be into Dec. Valor ripens over a long period and the last of its fruit are quite late. President is more solidly late. I may be harvesting a couple of other lates whose names escape me this morning, one ends with golden drop, I think. The other might be Westfield. Scott used to grow them, whatever their names. The earliest quality one I grow is Le Montfort.
Burgundy Queen is my latest J. plum and it makes the most extraordinary colored sauce I’ve ever seen- if trendy chefs ever find out about it, it will become an important culinary fruit. It is good off the tree but not as sweet as Elephant Heart, my queen of J. plums and pretty late. J plums also keep for a month in the fridge, but none I grow ripen past Sept. here, although I’ve tried Emerald Beauty and a pluot called Encore. Flavor Grenade is as late as I’ve gotten with pluots, so far.
I guess you will know by next year how good it is… well actually it takes a few years to get a clear evaluation but Rich May has consistently been flavorful and stingy at many sites I manage it, but productive at others. It will probably be fine in your climate- you might even have to thin them like mad.
The early Friday peach I have is Big and I’ve not sampled it, but Rich May seems to be better flavored than Desiree and Harrow Diamond, or even Glenglo which isn’t all that early. I’d say it has more flavor than Gold Dust if you want a west coast peach comparison, but GD is close and just as shy bearing here, maybe more so. Shy bearing may lead to higher flavor (sugar) but Flavor May seems to hold quality even when trees have a full crop. Maybe it helps that they don’t overset much to begin with, but I doubt that’s the reason. Most benefit from thinning seems to come in the last 3-weeks of ripening as far as brix goes. In other words, make sure fruit is properly thinned by then.
I ordered Liz’s late nectarine so I was very happy to see that you said it has good quality fruit.
We have late spring frost here and so I am very hopeful for the European plums at least, I am hoping that they bloom after our spring frosts.
Thanks for sharing that elephant heart is a late bloomer for a Japanese plum. We got elephant heart and satsuma and then after I worried that they were too similar because they sure look similar in pictures, but I’m assuming elephant heart is a bigger plum?
No, it is late ripening and very early blooming, even for a J. If I wrote that is was a senior brain freeze where I meant to be talking about the fruit and not flowers.
Oh I see, for some reason I just thought if something was ripe late that it was also blooming late, but it’s just taking a long time to ripen the fruit?
Darn it, well hopefully I will be able to get ripe elephant heart plums in my location.
In 2024 we did get a couple of French prunes and Harko nectarines to try, but both first time fruiting and neither anything to brag about (yet).
I can taste promise in the French prunes, I was happy with the flavor but they were undersized and only a couple of them.
Maybe the euro plums will be a success with later blooming.