Belle of Georgia? I grew that once and it wasn't very sweet or flavorful. Haven't heard much good about it since. So it may not be your situation.

Yeah, is this belle of georgia? this is my first year having fruit off it. It is a more fragrant peach, one family member says it smells better than it tastes and they rather eat the yellow flesh ones. I don't mind eating them, but I like to think of it as a different fruit than a peach and enjoy it as what it is, it has a blandish-sweetish-floral taste, kind of like a daylily flower in peach form haha. It just doesn't have a rich taste like the yellows. Well those are my first impressions at least.

Mine too, it's not as sweet as advertised:

"The Belle of Georgia peach tree in Georgia history was named after Mrs. Belle Hall of Ft. Valley, Georgia, following the Civil War, after it was developed from a peach seedling of Chinese cling-peach seed origin. The legendary Belle of Georgia peach has also been called the Georgia Belle peach and is classified as a white pulp peach, pleasantly fragrant and of intense sweetness and spicy flavor. Belle of Georgia is a reliable producer of large, aromatic fruit unsurpassed in sweetness. Pink-blushed freestones with deliciously pale and juicy flesh ripen in August."

It IS kind of floral.. with a hint of sweet and juice galore. I didn't spray my trees this year, but the skin has a bitter note to it.

I asked because they looked and felt ripe, but when eaten the sweetness left me disappointed (and I'm not a huge fan of super sweet fruit).

Note that flavor can vary a little from year to year depending on weather.

I have a Carolina Belle white peach that I have done a couple pickings on since last Fri, (4/5 of the fruit so far), and those picked 4 days after the first ones are sweeter( but all were picked only if they basically fell into my hand when touched). I have also noted that several peaches seemed a bit sour that I cannot explain by insect or disease effects, or due to size, softness or color. This is the first year I have had more than 8-10 peaches from this tree. Most taste quite good and are very sweet, even a few with a little green tint in the white flesh.

I have generally preferred my 3 white varieties over my 2 yellow ones but this year the yellow Hale Havens were the best peaches I ever ate.

I have a friend that shares with me. I missed out on the Red Havens this year, but a week ago we were picking Contender and those knocked my socks off. There was another variety 95% as good, those are Tru-Gold.. Today I had the first Belle of GA. and was really disappointed. they have more fuzz, which probably isn't a big deal. But the flavor was about 40% of what the contenders were. But as you were wondering about, these are not as fully ripe as the Contenders were. So they might get better by the weekend.

As you noted the belle are worth eating, but lack the magic. You can be on the lookout for someone with Contender or Red Haven to let you snip off a piece for a little bud grafting, so be reading up on that. A new grafted branch will produce much sooner then a new tree.

This post was edited by cckw on Wed, Aug 28, 13 at 23:10