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plumstupid

Peach tree options

plumstupid
11 years ago

Hey guys it's me again. Im placing an order from FruitTreeFarm.com later and was wondering if any of you were familiar with their stock. Im mostly ordering peaches and want to make sure I get the best varieties that I can. I'm not that far from olpea if that gives you any clue. Also does anyone have scion wood for gold dust if so I would be happy to pay and try to graft it onto some of my seedling grown trees. Thanks in advance you guys are the best.

Comments (15)

  • plumstupid
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Forgot to mention if Olpea drops in I wouldnt mind if he would chime in with some of his favorites.

  • greenorchardmom
    11 years ago

    I have found Nick to be disturbingly honest so ask him whatever.
    He set me straight discussing pears
    I could not possibly know less about them
    I'm driving over next week to pick up trees so don't really know....
    but have heard the quality & variety are excellent
    What is a good peach to me may not be for you
    what is your criteria?

  • plumstupid
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    I should have been more detailed. Im talking about flavor, vigor and disease resistance. I know you cant have it all but would like to get as much as possible out of them. Thanks for getting back to me.

  • Chris-7b-GA
    11 years ago

    Good choice on nursery, just received my order from them of 5 peach trees, they all looked great, they got 1 of the varieties wrong on the order, I called and they shipped out a replacement in a couple of days, no questions asked.

    I am newbie grower here in the south, but picked Jefferson, China Pearl, Majestic, Contender, and Carolina Gold based my research of disease resistance and the recommendations of others on this forum.

  • greenorchardmom
    11 years ago

    Oh Yes plumstupid you can have it all!
    First.... peaches all are pretty vigorous usually putting on whopper growth & bearing in there 2nd yr.
    To help you choose a super yummy & good disease resistance peach where do you garden & what is a good peach to you?
    Sweet tangy old fashioned peach flavor or extra sweet no acid
    Melting juicy or firm juicy or crunchy still a lil juicy?

  • plumstupid
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Im in missouri close to Kansas City. I do like a bit of tang to a peach but also like them sweet. As far as texture I prefer them soft or firm but not crunchy and juicy is always better lol. Im planting them on mounds like olpea does as my soil has a clay texture. I have a few peaches already but they are from Lowes so who knows what variety they are. I also have a gleasons elberta that I got from a large nursery and it seems to have really good disease resistance and is fabulous. I also prefer later peaches or at least peaches with good flavor. Clingstones are ok but I really like a good freestone. If you have anymore questions to help you guide me in the right direction just let me know.

  • greenorchardmom
    11 years ago

    Since your kind of peach is my kind of peach...suprising huh?
    I will tell you the cultivars I plan on buying next week.
    They all have good disease resist
    but I'm not sure about the rootstock you need
    your on you own or maybe olpea will help
    Contender
    Nicks fave very productive hardy sweet melting flesh (y)yellow (fs)freestone
    ripens with Elberta late july to early aug
    all below are sweet melting y fs latest ripening cultivars in my notes outstanding quality texture & taste
    Augustprince 3 days after Elberta
    Flameprince 12 after E
    Big Red 22 days after E
    I have Carolina Gold & Winblo & Autumnprince planted
    call Nick he will help
    Don't believe the website descriptions they are woefully inadequate with all these new peaches

  • olpea
    11 years ago

    Plum,

    I've ordered from Fruit Tree Farm before and been pleased with the stock. I'll probably order from them again sometime in the future.

    You mentioned Gold Dust. I have a tree that is labeled Gold Dust and would be happy to give you some scionwood but I'm not sure it's Gold Dust.

    My specimen was a Dave Wilson grown tree and was labeled Gold Dust. It ripens in the Gold Dust window and is small like Gold Dust is supposed to be, but it's a double red peach, which doesn't fit any description. Plus it doesn't taste as good as other peaches in that harvest window, which doesn't fit Scott's description. I was going to pull it out, but thought I'd give it one more year to see if it's consistent.

    I know Scott has Gold Dust that fits closer to the catalog description/pictures. I may try to beg some wood off of him sometime, as I'd like to try a true Gold Dust.

    Regarding the varieties from Fruit Tree Farm, they look like they have lots of good ones. I'll limit my comments to the varieties in their catalog.

    Redhaven gets trashed some on this forum, but it's one of my favorite peaches. It produces tons of very flavorful peaches. As a bonus, the peaches are some of the most beautiful we grow. I made another 8 or 10 copies of it to plant at the farm this spring.

    Likewise with O'Henry. It's a great late peach and last summer I made several copies of it.

    Carolina Gold is a great flavored peach for it's window. The only problem is that it's very small and the peach is prone to drop a bit more than others. Still, I generally trade flavor for size, so I like Carolina Gold so far. I'm going to try some extreme thinning on that tree to see if I can get more size on it.

    I don't have experience with Winblo, but I've read numerous reports that it's an exceptional flavored peach. I have three of those ordered for this spring.

    For an earlier peach from the Fruit Tree Farm catalog, I like Garnet Beauty. It's a sport of Redhaven that ripens 2 weeks earlier.

    I'd like to try some of the Prince series of peaches. I've no experience with them, but Jerry Frecon has recommended a lot of them for NJ. Supposedly they aren't as cold hardy as some Midwest peaches, but some of his comments suggest to me they are worth a try.

    Glad you decided to plant your peaches in mounds. With the heavier soils we have and the sometimes heavy spring/summer rains, you're already ahead of the game with the mounds.

  • plumstupid
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Thanks for the reply Olpea. I've looked at some of the southern varieties and wondered the same thing. Seems like if they are bred for the hot humid south they should do good here if they are cold hardy enough. I may order a few and see how they do this coming winter. I will wait on the Gold dust until I can be sure of what I'm getting, or maybe I will see if I can find a vendor online and order one. I looked and couldn't find a source earlier this winter but I will check again and then we can compare. When I get this project under way I will try to photograph it and share the ups and downs of my progress. Thanks guys you are the best.

  • RobThomas
    11 years ago

    I picked my trees up from them about a month ago. The nursery is actually Cumberland Valley Nursery, but they use Fruit Tree Farm.com as their online retail name.

    Nick recomended Contender. I also picked up Carolina Gold and China Pearl. He didn't have a very high opinion of Winblo. The trees were 3' - 4' tall, well branched, and good roots.

    I'd highly recommend calling them. Some varieties may not be available, while they carry many varieities of fruit trees that aren't listed on the website.

    If they don't have what you want, another great nursery in the area is Vaughn Nursery (http://www.vaughnnursery.com/index.html). I've also been there. Very good customer service, nice trees, and comparable prices to FTF.

  • olpea
    11 years ago

    "He didn't have a very high opinion of Winblo."

    Rob,

    That comment surprised me. Did Nick mention specifically why he didn't like Winblo? Generally Winblo receives very high marks for flavor.

    Desmond Layne (formerly Prof. at Clemson, now at Washington State) rated Winblo his favorite peach. Scott and others on this forum have also praised the flavor. An evaluation of North Carolina peaches (see below) also rated Winblo flavor as excellent.

    I thought it another good sign that Adams pulled it out of retirement (originated in 1972) and is now offering it for sale.

    Maybe it's all group think, but the evaluations seemed independent and very positive. As I mentioned I haven't planted it yet, so I'm just going off what others have said.

    About the only negative I've found is an isolated trial where it was somewhat more susc. to scab and had poor size.

    I wouldn't think climate would be a factor here since TN and NC (where the peach was developed) have somewhat similar climates.

    Here is a link that might be useful: NC peaches 1965-1981

  • RobThomas
    11 years ago

    olpea, the info you listed is the exact reason I asked Nick about it. All the opinions I read here had high praise for it. When I asked Nick, he just kind of made a face and said he didn't like it. I didn't question him further as he had already recommended Contender and I was leaning toward CG and CP anyway. His reaction made me assume it was because of the taste, but I can't say for sure.

    I've talked to him several times over the phone, and he has answered nearly every time. I'm sure if someone wants to call him, he'd be happy to elaborate further.

  • Scott F Smith
    11 years ago

    Winblo is also a favorite of Andy Mariani, he probably knows more about peaches and flavor than anyone in the US and shepherds the CRFG peach breeding effort. So I expect there is something else about it that Nick doesn't like. My tree got bad borers and is currently in recovery; the peaches last year were not as good due to lack of energy in the tree but they were still better than most other varieties.

    Scott

  • greenorchardmom
    11 years ago

    Its not taste & I can't imagine its borers as they grow them so briefly. I just went to get another Winblo for a gardener near me & the nursery agrees that it is a small no mention of scab but perfect peach.
    Sorry you are having bad borer luck SS, was that a painted tree?
    Poor Nick I think he is getting hammered with calls & fresh out of Winblo
    hence the attitude, but thats just my take.

  • olpea
    11 years ago

    "Poor Nick I think he is getting hammered with calls & fresh out of Winblo"

    Adams County may still have Winblo available if anyone is interested. They don't list it on their online catalog, but they sent me a list of their actual inventory of available trees last fall and they had Winblo available then.

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