Snow Princess peach vs. White Lady peach vs White Poly peach vice versa?
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Tony,
I think it will be difficult to find a member here who grows all these three white peaches.
I grafted White Lady a while back and it produced once. It was all right but the graft later died.
@MES111 likes his White Poly.
I did not remember reading anything about Snow Prince.
@Olpea grows Spring Snow and said it is his favorite white peach.
My Spring Snow had one fruit last year and it was good, better than White Lady, IMO.
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I have only grown Snow Beauty…I have plenty of nice things to say about it if you are interested.
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I’ve grown both White Lady and Spring Snow. As I recall, flavor was OK on White Lady, but nothing remarkable. Spring Snow is leaps and bounds ahead of White Lady on flavor.
White Lady also had terrible bac. spot for me, but a full orchard has a lot more bac. spot pressure vs. a backyard orchard. I removed White Lady from my orchard.
Polly’s claim to fame is it’s winter hardiness, so I doubt it would rank as an outstanding white peach.
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It’s difficult to find truly objective fruit evaluations, that is what I love most about this site - lots of objective, first hand reviews of different fruit. Several people on this site take the time to post reviews that are absolutely priceless.
That being said, there are a couple of other sources of what appears to be objective fruit evaluations, here are some that I find helpful:
Bill Shane publishes a lot of helpful stuff:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.greatplainsgrowersconference.org/uploads/2/9/1/4/29140369/missouri2019.shane.peach_varieties.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiE-PXtvLHvAhVFIzQIHZ8bAgMQFjANegQIERAC&usg=AOvVaw3l9ynTWdnBL2oVf0xBmSYK
Rutgers has some good stuff:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://njaes.rutgers.edu/fs1203/&ved=2ahUKEwjI_rz4vbHvAhXZGDQIHWxcAsAQFjAFegQIFhAC&usg=AOvVaw01C1PlxO58Y0FyAdnF8GPA
Dave Wilson has done some comparisons:
Polly does rank on Dave Wilson’s top fruits list, although not at the top.
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Thanks for those reports Kevin. Lots of interesting perspectives there.
One thing I don’t understand is Rutgers classifying Spring Snow as only “good sub acid flavor”
I’ve grown about 15 different white peach varieties and Spring Snow is the best, although for a more acid white peach, Lady Nancy can be very very good, as well as Raritan Rose, which is a notch up from Lady Nancy.
But Spring Snow is a stand out peach, so I’m puzzled why it doesn’t get better rankings.
One thing always in the back of my mind when I read a review about Spring Snow which does not rave about the flavor is that my original Spring Snow was received as a mislabel.
What I mean is that I originally ordered some other yellow peach and received this white peach in it’s place. It was an Adams County order. I sought to do some detective work and first figured out when the mystery peach ripened, which is -21 (give or take a day or two depending on the year). I then looked for white peaches that Adams had sold in the past, which fit anywhere near that ripening window. Spring Snow was the only one which fit really well.
Next I looked at photos and the photos matched. The type of bloom matched (showy). I compared leaf glands. Those matched. So I’ve been about 95%+ sure that what I’ve been growing is Spring Snow. I’ve found no other peach which matches appearance (very globose shape) color, bloom type and ripening window.
However, the less than stellar reviews of Spring Snow flavor give me pause. Additionally, some reviews (including Rutgers) rate Spring Snow as “moderate” against bac. spot. MSU listed it the same, but they may well simply be copying Rutgers results, or vice versa (which happens a lot). Either way the “Spring Snow” that I grow is outstanding against bac. spot. The foliage is perfect the fruit is perfect.
I mention this because it is possible, although improbably, imo, that the Spring Snow I have isn’t actually Spring Snow.
I know some people are growing Spring Snow now and will be interested to hear their flavor evaluations. Not only do I rate it as an excellent white peach in the flavor category, but my customers rate it the same. The only beef I have with my Spring Snow is that it is a very finicky and light producer. Any significant winters will kill the fruit buds. Even in the best years a full sized tree really won’t produce a full sized crop. About a 75% crop is all I’ve ever been able to get out of this variety. Most years it’s more like 50%.
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Thanks for your input.
I always wonder what kind of ripening conditions these early peaches encounter. Still a little wet early in the season? - not sure.
Anyway, I am probably 2 years out from getting a Spring Snow of my own to try. I am limited on space, so I attempt to graft it to my Earlystar. Two years, two failures. Third time’s a charm!
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Mark,
My 3rd Spring Snow dropped. It is a potted tree so with the rain and wind we have had, the tree has gotten quite a beating. The pot fell at least once.
The three fruit that dropped were about a week apart so I could compare fruit development. This last one ballooned up so fast because we have had rain for a week now. Some were down pours.
Brix was 13 but it tasted diluted.
By my calculation, in my area, Red Haven would ripen around August 15, give or take. With Spring Snow being - 21 days, they should ripen for me around the last week of July, about 2 weeks from now.
Forecast shows we will have another week of rain. I hope it will stop at least a week before SS is ready to harvest. Otherwise, I would have large, watery peaches!!
These potted tree got only one spray of zeta cypermethrin and Indar mix before bagging. Fruit are very clean.
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I can vouch for Polly here in the Ricky Mountain foothills. It was developed in Iowa in the 1920s I believe. Should be a reasonable bet for Nebraska.
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Hi Tippy,
That’s a nice looking peach! Actually though my Spring Snow are much redder. I don’t think I’ve seen one with that much background color. But maybe that’s because it’s early?
Mark,
Those peaches have been in paper bags since they were small. Lack of sun exposure probably is the reason why the color was off. I will take off a couple of bags off the peaches to see how much color up the unbagged ones will be.
We won’t have much sun this week. It has been very wet in the northeast in recent weeks.
Ahh. Something I hadn’t at all considered. Very good point!
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I have only grown a white nectarine, The SpiceZee nectaplum, the first two years it was tasteless. I was ready to cut it down, but gave it a 3rd year, and it was excellent. And so were the next 2 years. Unfortunately mother nature killed it (we had a flood), but I do plan on buying another. It will be in a raised bed this time!
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Did you end up getting anymore spring snow? Any additional thoughts?
By the time Spring Snow ripened, we had non-stop rain, all the peaches ripened at that time and thereafter were water-balloned, split and inedible.
Had I known, I would have had picked them all sooner and eaten them unripe but sweet and fun to eat.
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Olpea! It is becoming more and more of a truth to me that the combination of sun and soil where you live makes a real difference to the taste of not only our peaches but all fruit. I would love to grow a Spring snow peach if I could find one!
my white lady peach was my favorite in terms of favor the fruit doesn’t get as large as polly.
Hi Mrs. G.
For sure. Totally. I agree climate is everything.
I’d love to send you some scionwood of Spring Snow, but I’m not sure how happy France would receive it. 
Thanks for the tag. I love to read your reports on your fruit growing from France! And many more of your posts!
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Thanks Olpea. No Spring Snow for me. I wish I could find an excellent yellow peach here. There are so many peaches and apricots, but now I’m getting really picky!!! 
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