You are correct that I conflated Indian Blood with Indian Free, and I thank you for that. So many terms- so little mind.
However, it is weird to take someone else’s comment and post it without explaining why you are posting it. It leaves a lot of room for negative interpretation.
Please keep personal tit for tat out of these threads thanks.
Well I’m a huge fan of Indian free. It has never failed to fruit for me. Mine is on citation. I’m finding citation to be a really decent rootstock. Not recommended for my area which I’m finding to be pretty good for this area. It does dwarf peaches a little, and I’m finding this characteristic very useful to keep trees pedestrian. Not that I can’t keep peaches on Lovell small, I can. It just takes a lot more pruning because of the increased vigor.
One of the best things about Indian free is how easy it is to graft to. I have attempted five grafts on Arctic Glo and all five failed. I also attempted five grafts on Indian Free and all five took. So I have been using Indian Free seedlings as rootstock. I’m not getting 100% takes but getting about 50% which is acceptable for me. These seedlings are on their own roots but they are in containers which is dwarfing them a lot more than any rootstock. Anyway I’m having a blast playing around with Indian Free what a unique and special peach.
Alan if you don’t like how Indian Free is performing for you it would be worth stubbing the scaffolds and grafting replacement cultivars on it. It would be the quickest way to replace. If it doesn’t work out you can pull the tree at that point. I think though you’re going to get to take advantage of the easiest grafting peach around.
Drew, I saw your dried Indian free, yummy! and read your threads about how well Indian free performed for you. We are about half zone apart, I probably have different Indian Free, for I have been struggling for several years and got about 2 and half fruits total. I cut it back a lot this year, and thinking remove the grafted branch entirely. It ripens very late like in October. It lacks heat to help it increase its sugar level. It is not very productive here 
. what did I do was wrong?
I’m not sure why this seems to be problematic in some areas. What’s the rootstock do you remember?
I’m being told Vermont plum needs a specific pollenizer and apartly I don’t have one. Trying for years now. So I feel your pain. Maybe cut it way back and graft other peaches. It grafts better than most peaches.
Thanks, Alan. I will find out in a couple of years if Octoberfest which is listed as October ripening will ripen in Virginia in October. I have 3 on order.
Will deer completely strip a tree of leaves and tender growth, but not eat a low brix peach?
I have never seen a deer strip the leaves. Usually they eat the peaches, when the peaches are done the deer will sample the leaves and then move on to something they prefer to eat better.
I’ve seen deer strip leaves… all the time. If the peaches are not ripe they usually ignore them… not like squirrels who like unripe peach.
Re Indian Free it might be too late for Chicago. It needs some heat at ripening to taste good. The main problem I had with it was the rot but I might re add it now that I am spraying Indar regularly.
It’s my understanding after reading through the thread that the intention is to have winter attraction for deer. Some peaches may help but they aren’t the best option in my opinion. That being the case, I’d say persimmons would fit the bill as a no spray option.
There’s a local park with a huge persimmon tree. It has deer, opossum, and raccoons coming to it during the day, right beside kids playing at a playground. The animals are more concerned about eating the fruit than the humans.
Deer Candy, Deer Magnet, and other late season options are probably the best bet. It’s my understanding they have fruit into December or January in some places.
I guess deer are local. At my orchard, before I put up the deer fence, deer never touched peaches that I could tell. Even with trees loaded with ripe peaches, they would go after apple foliage. They did rake down a lot of young peach trees during rutting season.
As far as a late peach, Autumnprince was a very late peach. Later than Indian Free. Autumnprince (not to be confused with Augustprince) was late enough it wouldn’t really ripen in my area. It’s a southern bred (Georgia) peach, so it might ripen in SpudDaddy’s area.
My daughter bought some property that has numerous fruit trees. Many were put in for deer food. Somebody around here sells persimmons, apples, and peach trees for deer. These are mostly seedlings so appear to be garbage trees. A couple say Red Haven seedling. Those should be good. Strange though. The guy has a red haven and other cultivars which he grows out the seeds and sells them.
They must be! I had three 1 year old peach trees that were eaten to sticks by deer - plenty of apple and pear options nearby. @scottfsmith isn’t TOO far from me and neither is @SpudDaddy. I guess VA/MD deer like peaches and peach leaves!