Are you sure its getting the chills hours it requires?

I think that's exactly john's question, GreenOrchardMom!

Remember that chill hours accumulate even in the mid 40's, so lack of chill hours is very unlikely in zone 8 (zone 10, maybe)

How old is the tree? No flowering/fruiting could be explained by the tree being very young. Many other factors such as too much shade, too much fertilizer, exceptional drought or other stress, could cause the tree not to flower.

Not sure what you mean by "tree still not coming out...", do you mean not flowering? Is it otherwise healthy, and can you see flower buds anywhere on it?

The Bell of Georgia needs 800 hours to bear few fruit its real late peach to brake buds its North Georgia 7a to 6b Northward is good plating zone. Tree grow in your zone 8 but want fruit unless have real bad cold winter it set 7 to 8 peaches until next cold winter comes around may take 10 years.
You need to find Peach with chill requirement 350 hours are less. Google this Peaches 350 chill hours to find some variety's .

Here copy paste of some that work in your zone I use Suwanee.

Flordabest is a large semi-clingstone peach that requires 250 chill hours. Gulfking is a large clingstone variety that requires 350 hours. UFSun, which requires only 100 to 150 chill hours, is a medium clingstone peach.

gator rider, I'm sure your advice is good, coming from that neck of the woods. I guess I am west-coast biased, where chill hours are relatively high even in Zone 9 and some Zone 10 locations. That's why I always say that listing your state and zone is not really enough info...

But, after looking at the chill hours map for Mississippi, I would have to say that my initial response is not that far off, since only the far south of the state averages in the 400-600 range that prompts your recommendation of a peach with chill hours under 350. Jackson, still in zone 8, averages 600-800, and Oxford, just north of zone 8, in 7b, averages 800-1000. I guess the question we both should have asked is where exactly is john located!

I sure apreshate the feed.I live abought 40 miles from the coast.Most of my fruit trees are already showing singes of bud brake.The B.O.G peach tree is abought 4 years old has made peaches 1 time.Not showing any singes of bud brake.My thinking is I should go ahead and take it out and replace with lower chill tree and stop wasting time.Just hated wasting 4 years.Thanks

Don't feel too bad John, Belle of Georgia (although a great sounding name) is a pretty marginally tasting peach. Mine was as healthy as a horse, but I took it out a couple years ago anyway.

Lots of better flavored peaches out there.

This post was edited by olpea on Mon, Feb 18, 13 at 18:52

I'm sorry to hear that about the taste of Belle of Georgia, olpea, I just planted one a couple years ago because I wanted a white-fleshed variety and it was the only one locally available (I try to limit my mail orders to the really rare stuff).

So which white peach gets your highest marks?

Fabaceae,

Georgia Belle is a favored backyard tree for nurseries to sell because it's generally so easy to grow. Trees are vigorous and fruit abundantly. The fruit is also fairly resistant to rot. Birds also tend to leave it alone a bit more because it's not very red. The flavor is only mediocre and the skin has a lot of fuzz, which also takes away from the eating quality for a lot of people.

In terms of rare stuff, Scott Smith has done more experimenting than anyone else on this forum. In the white category, he has given highest marks to Silver Logan, which I have planted. He has mentioned repeatedly that it wants to rot. Rot may not be as much of an issue for this variety if using an effective synthetic fungicide, I don't know. I'm sure he has other rare whites he could recommend as well.

Lady Nancy tastes the best of any white peach I've harvested. This is Hman's top pick for a white and he's mentioned it also wants to rot. Blushingstar is also very very good and I've not heard any complaints of rotting. I've only harvested these two varieties for one season, so my comments shouldn't be taken as definitive by any means. I planted both of these varieties because they were favorites of experienced growers on this forum. Likewise with Silver Logan, which I haven't harvested yet.

If you like sub-acid white peaches, some of my customers go crazy over White County, which is also my wife's favorite peach. I don't like the peach at all because it is too perfumed for me and I don't like sub-acid peaches all that much anyway. My wife describes this peach as "peach candy" but I can only eat about one of them a season. Additionally this peach is very hard to grow (very susc. to bacterial spot) and last summer for the first time the extreme heat caused internal browning on a lot of these peaches while they were still on the tree.

I planted a couple of white donuts you may want to consider.

Sweet Cap was highly recommended by a rep from Vanwell. The rep indicated Vanwell has a farm stand for their fruit, and of all their peaches, this one was the most demanded by farm stand customers. It's a white donut and may not be any better than Saturn, but I've tasted Saturn and thought it pretty good.

Adams County has recommended NJF17 TangOs II as their highest flavored white donut. Their rep told me the flavor is exceptional.

This post was edited by olpea on Tue, Feb 19, 13 at 11:34

Has anyone from the board grown NJF17 TangOs II to see how rot-resistant it is? From ACN, it is rated as a 9 (their highest level) for bacterial spot resistance, along with NJF 16 and a few others. Only their print catalog lists the number (for this variety), as online just mentions the resistance in the text. I had some NJF 16 this summer from a farmers market and they were quite good, though not especially high in brix (in the 12ish range, I think).

One white peach which Scott mentioned has good taste and disease resistance, including to rot is Old Mixon Free. It was available at Tierra Madre, but I don't see peaches listed anymore, so they may be out.

Years ago I worked in an orchard that had many of the varieties of peaches that Scott endorses and somehow their charms escaped me. However, most of the heirloom peaches were ordered from Southmeadow Nursery which was notorious for selling mis-labeled trees.

Any time I've questioned Scott's input in terms of researched information he's been pretty much dead on so I assume the varieties he has are as good as he says they are- at least to his tastes.

I actually am no fan of white peaches because they tend to be low acid and some new releases, such as White Lady, have been bred to be almost no-acid.

Over 20 years ago I ordered a King George peach that was touted as the best flavored heirloom white at the time and found it excessively fuzzy and of mediocre quality. Cut it down on the fourth year of an unsatisfying relationship.

Lady Nancy is a sport of the fine old yellow peach, Jersey Queen, so it's qualities may partially be from its close relation to a yellow variety. Years ago Rutgers did a rather thorough evaluation of many of the available whites at the time and LN was the standard by which others were judged- and all judged inferior. And Rutgers didn't hold the patent!

I don't find Blushingstar to be a very interesting peach. It is one of the new varieties bred to ripen firm and hold on the tree in that state for an extended period. Never tasted a peach with this trait that I was crazy about the flavor of.

If you aren't in a humid area and birds and wasps aren't much a problem Saturn does get up the sugar and has a slurpy juiciness.

One white that isn't rot prone, is beautiful and easy to grow with much better flavor than B of G is Rariton Rose.

I still haven't cut down my Belle of G. because no matter how I feel about it there are always people around that love its perfumed flavor. It is an amazingly long lived tree that sends out productive wood all over the tree very late in life. Mine is around 20 and as productive as it was 15 years ago.

I was looking for a 'Raritan Rose' peach last year but they were sold out by the time I placed my order, so I bought a 'Belle of Georgia' dwarf, after reading many reviews. Olpea, you really know your peaches, and I feel as if I've strayed off the path of great tasting peaches! LOL, however, H-man swears by his B O G, so I'll stick with it. It should produce for the first time this summer. Ugh, I hate making bad choices. Mrs. G

Belle of Georgia is not a bad peach, its just that there are many better peaches. The flavor is a bit odd, and the fuzz is thick.

My favorite whites now are Oldmixon Free and Carman. Both are old heirlooms and may be hard to find. Silver Logan is similar in looks and taste to Oldmixon Free; it is earlier but more prone to rot.

Lady Nancy fruited for me this last year and did not rot in a bad rot year. Unfortunately some critter ate them all before I got the chance.

Raritan Rose is a solid peach, I took mine out a few years ago though so I could try other things. I took out my Belle of Georgia a long time ago. I should try White County, it sounds interesting.

Unlike other fruits home-grown peaches are so much better than the store ones we get and most varieties are pretty good. I'm probably a lot more picky than your average grower.

Scott

I wouldn't fret too much Mrs. G. While I think B O G is pretty marginal tasting, yours will still be about 10 times better than anything you could get in a grocery store.

Most of my customers are thrilled just to have a peach with lots of juice and some sugar. B O G will fill that bill. It's just that, like some of the people on this forum who have more experience than me, I've tried lots varieties of peaches from my backyard (about 30) and so the poorer tasting ones start to become more obvious (at least according to my individual tastes).

One other irritating thing about B O G is that it drops fruit very badly and bruises very easily, if you wait till it's ready to eat off the tree. You bump a branch and several will fall to the ground. A modest windstorm will leave the ground littered with fruit, and every one that drops is bruised.

Scott I remember asking for suggestions last fall and the peaches you suggested were either sold out or unavailable. I find delight in almost anything that produces fruit, as it is surely better than anything I can buy in a supermarket. I now have four peach trees and think that will do it for me for right now. I am so looking forward to my 'Shui Mi Tao' arriving this April. That should be an excellent peach! Gosh, I love my 'Elbertas'! Mrs. G

Scott,

I posted my last message without hitting refresh, so I didn't see yours. Regarding B O G, it looks like I said basically the same thing you did.

For those looking at this thread for white peach varieties to get, one supposedly excellent white peach I forgot to mention that is readily available is Nectar -- fruittreefarm.com and Trees of Antiquity for example have it. My Nectar did not fruit last year but I should get to try it this year. Nectar has done very well in taste tests and I have high hopes for it. I think Lady Nancy would be another good one, ACN has it.

Scott

I had Nectar and was very excited about the reviews but it turned out to be nothing special to my tastes- maybe I shouldn't be inserting my opinion on this and leave it to the fans of whites.

Also, the extra heat in Scotts site would probably improve the quality of whites by increasing brix a bit.

Here peaches do not at all perform the same at different sites and get more sugar in sandy light soils.

I

Silver Logan was way over the top for me. If I had more room I'd plant several. I also have NJ 252 which was also good, but I still put Silver Logan at the top.

I really can't comment on disease because so far I haven't had any.

The OP was on February 17th.... Not technically "Spring" yet.... I think we need to council our friend on the virtues of Patience....

In the Deep South - you don't want peaches that break bud extra early... Too much risk of a late season Freeze or a Blizzard like the ones coming through the midwest....

We generally aren't 100% in the clear till around Easter - which is still almost a month away.... and I really get worried when I see Fruit trees breaking bud before Easter...

Be happy your Peach is still snoring away.... Biding it's time till it's safe to flower out and give you peaches....

Thanks