I'd hate to miss a full year on this one so I'm hoping that someone in here knows of some small, out of the way nursery that may still have some.

On a happier note, I ordered an apple tree from Adams County on Tuesday at 10 am and when I got home from work on Wednesday, it was sitting on my porch! Wow!!!

Thanks,
Bart

Scott

Does anyone have more info? I have heard lots of good reports about the cling, but certainly a free-stone would be better.

Indian Cling is not really meant for eating, it is best as a pickling or cooking peach. It makes some out-of-this-world peach pies and ice cream. For cooking the fact that it is clingstone does not matter much. Indian Free on the other hand is an excellent eating peach. It is smaller, the flesh softer, and is much more prone to rot. The trees also grow very differently, Indian Free is very upright and the Cling is a lower more spreading tree. Indian Free is a very late bloomer, much later than the Cling, and that sometimes bodes well for hardiness.

Scott

Indian Free is a small purple fleshed peach. Excellent eating quality but I'm sure it grows differently outside California.

Carla in Sac

One issue is that they must be pealed or you get the same experience of eating a tennis ball.

I have heard that both Indian Cling and Indian Free come true from seed but have not tried it myself.

Scott

Carla in Sac

http://www.localharvest.org/indian-white-freestone-native-peach-tree-seed-C242?r=fr

Nothing wrong with a little fuzz. Washing with a towel removes the worst of the hair.

I have a Luther Burbank July Elberta peach also, but it is so much earlier the blossoms don't overlap the Indian Blood. So it would seem the Indian Blood does not need a pollinator.

I'll have to try using it in ice cream or cobbler.

The only pollinator I have now is a peach-almond cross, but I think there was fruit last year, even though it was so high it was hard to see and I didn't see it drop. The peaches are great though, very flavorful.

Let me know if you need stratifying tips. I may also have some 2 year old trees to give away later this year. I'm interested in getting as many of these trees planted as possible, it's a species preservation project of mine ~ a legacy I hope to leave.

Our trees bear their first fruit 4-5 years from planting the seeds. If they are damaged by animals or mowers, and have 3"-4" left above ground they re-grow multiple trunks and take an extra year to start bearing, but I've never had one die.

Best,
Ericka Dana, Catnip Farm
Iowa County, Iowa

P.S. These are SMART trees, I love them. They seem to know when they ought to bloom later than usual to avoid a late frost, and often one seed out of three will wait a year to germinate, which could be a genetic survival trait...

Scott