I’ve been reading through the archives and I would like to add a winblo peach to my fruit tree collection. Does anyone happen to know where I can get a healthy tree from? A number of the recommended nurseries don’t list it in their 2017 stock.
I bought mine form Cumberland Valley and Vaughn’s. I don’t know
who else sells it.
In the past, I have seen Vaughn’s; Cumberland Valley Nursery; and Plant Me Green carry it. Good luck finding it. It is the “white rabbit” of peach varieties.
Albemarle Ciderworks also previously supplied it, but their nursery operations have recently been under some kind of strange pathogen quarantine. Not sure if they’ve resolved that yet.
I obtained some premium scionwood from a generous forum member here last winter, but alas, all of my grafts failed.
Your best shot is to telephone Vaughn’s and cross your fingers.
I don’t know if ACNursery is carrying them this year or not- but they have in the past without listing them in their on-line catalog. A call their might be helpful as well.
1 Like
Another vote for Vaughn! Cumberland Valley is also excellent. Both offer excellent prices and excellent service. Peach trees from these two vendors are normally less expensive than other sources. They are grown in McMinnville, Tennessee which is well known for perfect soils and climate for nursery production.
Does Cumberland Valley have a website? A google search didn’t turn one up.
Not anymore. You have to call them on the phone. If I am not mistaken, I think they are still operating in a more limited capacity.
You should be forewarned that their low prices are partially based on tiny trees last I heard. Peaches grow fast, but I still lose a year on especially small trees here.
I’m not sure about other climates but southern peach varieties like Winblo grow like crazy here. The Winblo I bought from Vaughn averaged well over a bushel a tree in year 3. I have only purchased peach trees from Vaughn and Cumberland, so I don’t have anything to compare the size if their trees with.
I love the apple trees from ACN. I have tried 4 other vendors and nobody was even close to the quality of their 5/8 feathered tree.
1 Like
I’ve bought many trees, and not just peaches, from both vendors
and have never gotten a bad tree. They’re the first ones that I buy from.
If they don’t have what I want, then I look elsewhere.
Yeah, I get that, and with your much longer growing season I’m sure the difference is minimal. Here a tiny whip would likely take 4 years instead of three to bear its first bushel, while a 3/4 inch diameter peach or slightly bigger with good rood could do it a year sooner or be ready to sell as a bearing age tree a year sooner. That makes my nursery 25% more productive with the larger trees.
The next question is, could a more substantial tree give you that bushel a year sooner? I’ve had exceptionally quick establishing peaches do it here.
Agreed with Alan. I boght 3 Winblo from Vaughn 3 years ago. They were small, smaller tha trees from Burnt Ridge which usually on a smaller size. Cummins sent me great size trees.
The one I grew was a dud. Last winter I saved a couple of scionwood from a few twigs this tree produced. The tree was dead this spring. Now I have a quite healthy rootstock growing
The second Winblo went to a friend and was killed by voles. The third one went to my neighbor. It has grown but no flowers this soring. Could be April frost killed the flowers. If we have normal winter this year, she will has Winblo peaches next spring.
Small trees planted in unamended soil like mine has a set back definitely. Fortunately, my scionwood that I grafted took. Also, my lovely neighbors allows me to collect her Winblo scionwwod this winter, too, so I will graft more of them next spring.
1 Like
Vaughn sells several grades based on height not caliper:
16-24 inch
24-30 inch
30-36 inch
36-48 inch
I got mostly 36-48 with some 30-36 and pruned them to about 30 inches after I planted them according to Dr. Mike’s Youtube video. In my case, I don’t believe a tree that was a foot taller before planting would have improved my yield since I severely pruned the trees at planting anyway. By year three, the 30-36 trees looked as good at the 36-48. I did not plant any of the 2 foot whips, but I expect their production would have been delayed. However, I don’t see any advantage in spending a lot more money for a 6 foot peach tree and pruning it to 3 feet at planting. With wealthy clients who desire “instant peaches” your situation is probably a lot different.
In my case, a larger tree would not have produced a better yield at year 3. At about 1 bu/ tree (about 6,000 lb/acre) on the main season peaches like Winblo, my yield was about twice as high as I was told to expect. I lost all the peaches this year with the frost (year 4) but the trees are huge and I’m set up for a gangbuster year next year after I prune the trees down to size - unless we have another big frost/freeze.
1 Like
I do the exact same thing, no matter who I buy the tree from. If it’s
5 ft. tall, I cut it back to a 30 inch whip. I like to develop my own
scaffolds, and I’ve found that the tree grows faster, if I prune it back,
than if I don’t.
Diameter and root are what I’m actually talking about, although I don’t use your methods of cutting trees to 30 inches because I and many of my customers need critter protection and longer extensions of branchless trunk. Many of us in my area don’t employ deer fencing or kill all the coons and possums in the vicinity- and don’t get me started on squirrels.
I’m sure it makes less difference when you are leaving only 30" of trunk anyway, but the extension of root and the diameter wood is stored energy and usually more of it will give any transplanted tree a head start. For the home grower in less than ideal circumstances, the sooner a tree is plugged in the more likely it is to survive.
Blueberry,
That’s pretty amazing for a commercial orchard. I’ve done that (and even better) on individual trees, but not anything close on an average yield. You must have had everything right.
It’s taking longer to get my peach trees into production because I’m waiting to choose scaffolds till the second season, per Bill Shane’s recommendations. Then I’m choosing the smallest scaffolds and this slows down things a bit more for peaches. I had to start doing this because I have too many large scaffolds (relative to the size of the trunk) which haven’t formed the nice collars and are subject to breakage or splitting.
To give proper credit, Alan has advocated selecting smaller scaffolds for years, even a decade ago on the old Nafex forum. I’ve been slow to realize it’s advantages.
A case of beginners luck and a very dry year with no disease. Many of the peaches were actually inside the tree, and I had to step between the scaffolds to pick them. The size was good although the thinning was not through enough. The quality was excellent and very few peaches fell to the ground or were culled from defects.
We keep records of the number of bushels we picked for the main season peaches - Winblo, Contender and Flame Prince - which averaged about 1 Bu/tree. The clingstones averaged about 1/2 that, so the entire acre of peaches did not average 1Bu/tree only the main season peaches.
Winblo and Contenter were both developed at the research station which is about 1 hour south from where I live, so these are well suited to my area. I expect I could average close to 3/bu tree on these variety. Looks like PTSL is going to be big problem which will over ride my positive expectations.
My trees are prunned to 4 scaffolds. I tried to prune the trees so each scaffold splits into 2 and splits again into 2 more just like Dr. Mike demonstrated in his YouTube video.
1 Like
I was slower. No fun cutting established wood for future benefits.
1 Like
I saw Bob Wells Nursery is offering it this year in case anyone is still looking. I think their shipping is 35 dollars or so for even 1 tree, though (I think you can get several trees at this rate though). http://bobwellsnursery.com/index.php/fruit-trees/peach-trees.html
Cumberland Valley Nursery still had stock of Winblo when I spoke to them today. Didn’t ask size though.
I picked up two Winblo from CVN last week. Small, but well branched and good roots. I’ve bought all my peach trees from CVN. They grow insanely fast here, and produce a good crop by year three.
You’d better hurry if you want to buy from CVN. Since they are mainly wholesale, they ship all their trees quickly, and likely don’t hold any for retail. All trees were dug last week, and are probably being shipped now. Once they’re shipped, they’re gone.