Citrus Growers Forum

dauben · Posted: Fri 11 Apr, 2008 11:05 am

I'm not sure that I have seen this topic discussed, but is anyone growing peaches? I have one neglected tree that I had almost killed several years ago. I think it may be my next grafting victim. Are there any varieties that are recommended?

Phillip

greenZ · Citruholic Joined: 06 Nov 2007 Posts: 72 Location: NorCal

I bought a Halehaven peach tree (yellow flesh peach) from HomeDepot a couple months ago. I couldn't resist. The tree is bigger than me and was only $15 each. Nicely branched with the straightest trunk. That will be my future graft victim.

What I really wanted was anything that is WHITE FLESH peach or nectarine tree, like Artic Jay nectarine tree or Artic Supreme peach tree. I wasn't willing to pay a heavy price tag at a private nursery for one, just so I can have something to cut up and play with, with my grafting knife.

My plan is to graft many white flesh nectarine and peach scions to this cheapo peach tree I bought. I prefer the white flesh better, the sweetness and the crunch associated with it.

Anyone with white flesh peach and nectarine scions they can sell me??? Maybe I'll ask again during pruning time.

I found a Top List at Dave Wilson Nursery that might be useful in your decision:

http://www.davewilson.com/br40/br40_taste_files/taste_topTypes.html

http://www.davewilson.com/br40/br40_taste_files/taste_top23.html

Good Luck.

dauben · Posted: Sat 12 Apr, 2008 2:30 am

greenZ wrote:

I found a Top List at Dave Wilson Nursery that might be useful in your decision:

http://www.davewilson.com/br40/br40_taste_files/taste_topTypes.html

http://www.davewilson.com/br40/br40_taste_files/taste_top23.html

Thanks for your input and the links. I had been to Dave Wilson's website before when Tom Spellman was putting on a fruit tasting event a few miles away. It was pretty fun event until I saw someone's child from a distance taking a bite out of each slice of fruit, spitting it back out, and putting it back onto each sampling plate that was set up. We were done with the fruit tasting at that point. I wanted to taste some of the pluots since I hadn't ever tasted one before.

Anyway, back to peaches (I always have a long winded story before I get to the topic). I have a Loadel cling peach which I hear is good for canning, but I'm not sure it's good for much else. Now that I'm perfecting my grafting hobby, I'll have to find some better scions. Dave Wilson's site says that the Snow Beauty is a top pick.

Phillip

tomm · Posted: Sun 13 Apr, 2008 5:43 pm

Phillip:

Being in San Diego, you need to look for very low chill peaches.
The Dave Wilson site gives their estimates for minimum
chilling hours needed for their varieties of stone fruits.
This UC site, using CIMIS data, says that you got about
145 Chill hours this past winter.
http://fruitsandnuts.ucdavis.edu/chillcalc/index1.htm

Here in Orange County, it says we got 193 Chill Hours and
my Bonanza peach bloomed and has little peaches now.

_________________
Tom Mortell

dauben · Posted: Sun 13 Apr, 2008 6:39 pm

tomm wrote:

Phillip:

Being in San Diego, you need to look for very low chill peaches.
The Dave Wilson site gives their estimates for minimum
chilling hours needed for their varieties of stone fruits.
This UC site, using CIMIS data, says that you got about
145 Chill hours this past winter.
http://fruitsandnuts.ucdavis.edu/chillcalc/index1.htm

Here in Orange County, it says we got 193 Chill Hours and
my Bonanza peach bloomed and has little peaches now.

Thanks, I'm not actually in the City of San Diego, but Santee (east of San Diego). Being further away from the ocean influence I suspect we're more like Escondido at 493 hours. One website says we get between 350 and 500 chill hours. On top of that I'm at the base of Cowels Mountain so once the sun dips down, I tend to get less heat in the evenings (maybe giving met an hour or so per day of less sun exposure). Anyway, at some point I should get a weatherstation to track my temperatures.

Anyway, I do get peaches every year that my dog typiclly ends up eating, but I do tend to forget to look into chill hours when looking for new trees/cultivars. Joe had shown me a lot of tricks to help with the chill hour requirements when I was looking for an apple tree. I should probably apply some of those tricks to my peach tree. Smile

Phillip