My Spring Snow ripens -21 here,
No. It’s not a large peach. It’s smaller than Earlystar (ripens at the same time) and also smaller than Harrow Diamond (ripens at same time). Sizewise , it’s between RichMay (aka Flavor Rich) and Harrow Diamond. I would put the size about that of Clayton.
Yes, most years. In those years Harrow Diamond is a pretty poor peach. Sometimes it’s been so poor tasting I don’t even sell them as number ones (seriously). Earlystar is slightly better tasting but only fair. And a big part of those sometimes go for seconds.
I’ve never had that with Spring Snow. That’s what’s so amazing. It’s a white peach, which ripens in the worst part of the year for me, and still produces phenomenal tasting peaches (for a white peach).
Lady Nancy (a very late peach) can be an excellent white peach (though won’t sugar up in poor weather here) but Spring Snow always tastes great despite crappy late June weather. I would rate Spring Snow above Lady Nancy flavorwise, although the taste is completely different. Spring Snow is definitely sweeter. It’s lineage includes a white nect and O’Henry peach. The peach you describe sounds more like Early Red Fre (which I also got from Adams). Early Red Fre is a horrid tasting, but very productive peach.
One other identifiable characteristic of Spring Snow is that it’s very globose. In other words, most peaches are slightly oblong and have a slight point at the end. These are very round, even at the end. They are like O’henry peaches in that respect. Earlystar are also pretty round.
We are not talking about the same peach. Spring snow has never set a heavy crop. Even in years where other trees had so many peaches, the trees looked like they were groaning, Spring Snow happily set it’s very light crop, which required almost no thinning. Most people wouldn’t have even considered thinning, but we always thin one of the twins when two peaches set at the same node. We also break off one of the peaches when there are doubles at thinning time, or thin doubles entirely. It sets a lighter crop than Rich May. Rich May can set a fairly heavy crop which requires thinning, but most years it was easily affected by frosts. Spring Snow never sets a full crop, in even the best of years.
It’s possible that Adams is selling something else as Spring Snow, or I simply don’t have Spring Snow. Either way I’m fairly certain we are not comparing the same peach. The thing about it is, Adams has a pic Spring Snow on their Website, which looks like my Spring Snow. But they may have gotten that pic from some stock pic from Zaiger’s company or someplace else.
Here is that pic.
Notice how the peaches are a double red. There are is no yellow background on these peaches. The peaches are very globose.
However, just to show how much mislabeling there is out there, I did a quick image search of Spring Snow peach in the internet. There are lots of folks who think they have Spring Snow, but don’t.
Here are some:
These peaches were sold as Spring Snow from a commercial peach orchard in CA.
Definitely not Spring Snow.
Here’s a pic of another peach orchard who is advertising some other peach as Spring Snow.
Too much of a point at the apex and ours have never had near that much red pigment in the flesh.
Here’s a pic of supposed Spring Snow which doesn’t look at all like Spring Snow with all the yellow in the background. But it’s possible that since they are from an organic orchard, they bagged the peaches, which would strongly inhibit coloring. But, imo, it’s unlikely a commercial orchard bagged. More likely it’s a mislabel.
Here is a pic from Bill Shane of Spring Snow.
Again notice the double red color and no virtually no point at the apex. That’s pretty much how our peaches look, but maybe not that much red pigment in the flesh.
Here is the patent. The Spring Snow I grow matches the patent, except for growth pattern and perhaps size.
Ziager describes the growth pattern of the tree as upright, but I would describe it as spreading, but that can be pretty subjective. I would say my Spring Snow is not as spreading as Redhaven, but I wouldn’t classify it as upright, like an Earlystar or a Contender.
Also he describes the peach as large. I wouldn’t describe these peaches as large.
Everything else matches the description.