| Our Starking Delicious and Summer 
Pearl have been here for almost 13 years and have held up to our -20 temps, 
although the temps have not sustained for more than 3-4 days.  
 
  ----- Original Message -----  Sent: Monday, January 23, 2006 5:47 
  PM Subject: Re: [NAFEX] grocery store 
  peaches and nectarines 
 The only ones of these that have survived here at least 3 
  years ( and -29 F) as branches on Siberian C trees are Madison, Reliance, 
  and Redhaven. Encore, PF 1, PF7, PF 24 and Coral Star survived a winter 
  or 2 but not the -29F. Starking Delicious, Summer Pearl, are young in testing 
  and I haven't tried the others. I want to have another shot at Encore. None of 
  these rootstocks except Bailey are hardy here, even as rootstocks under ground 
  but I haven't tried Tenn Nat VF281.1, and Bailey as a rootstock causes late 
  growth of the cultivar into the fall.    Dave  Central MN, z 4a   
    ----- Original Message -----  Sent: 1/23/06 4:06:05 PM  Subject: Re: [NAFEX] grocery store 
    peaches and nectarines 
 We grow Earliglow, Madison, 
    Starking Delicious, Reliance, Summer Pearl, Redskin, Redhaven, Stark Finale, 
    Encore, Flamin' Fury in PF1, PF7, PF24, PF25, Coral Star FA59, Sugar Giant, 
    John Boy and Laurol.  They begin ripening in early July with Flamin' 
    Fury PF1 and continue through September with Laurol.  The best for 
    flavor is a toss up.  The Redhaven have always been a great peach, but 
    the John Boy is giving it a run for its money.  The easiest to grow is 
    Redhaven by far, but the newer Flamin' Fury is running a close second.  
    Most of the rootstock is Bailey, Lovell, and Tenn Nat VF281.1.  
    Our reasons for choosing these are the result of an eight year peach 
    rootstock performance test done by the USDA Agricultural Research Service, a 
    synopsis of which follows:     To increase orchard productivity and efficiency, growers are 
    looking for solutions in the form of new rootstocks that are more resistant 
    to winter cold damage, drought stress, soil anaerobic conditions, root 
    pathogens, soil nematodes, bacterial and fungal cankers, etc. New peach 
    seedling and clonal rootstocks released in the last 20 years have been 
    variously reported to be more productive, tolerant of replant sites, 
    nematodes, Armillaria root rot, crown gall or more winter hardy than 
    previous utilized rootstocks. However, these rootstocks have had only 
    limited testing in North America. To determine the merits of these 
    rootstocks for use under North American conditions a large scale cooperative 
    regional trial was undertaken. Only 7 of 19 rootstocks were common to all 
    locations. Moreover, rootstock x site interactions were common indicating 
    that specific recommendations might need to be made locally rather than 
    regionally much less nationally. However, some trends were evident in the 
    performance of the 7 rootstocks (Lovell, Bailey, Tennessee Natural 281-1, GF 
    305, Higama, Montclar and Guardian (BY520-9)) common to all locations. After 
    8 years, trees on Guardian and Lovell rootstocks were the largest. Trees on 
    Guardian, Lovell and Montclar produced the largest yields. However, trees on 
    Tennessee Natural 281-1 and Bailey had the highest yield efficiency. 
    Individual fruit size was largest on Bailey and Higama rootstocks. Rootstock 
    suckering was highest on Guardian rootstock.         
      ----- Original Message -----  Sent: Monday, January 23, 2006 12:27 
      PM Subject: Re: [NAFEX] grocery store 
      peaches and nectarines 
 Hi Dennis,   If you wouldn't mind, what varieties do you grow? Which do you 
      like best for flavor? For growing? I realize this is site and climate 
      specific for your orchard but it might be a good snapshot in that 
      context and useful information for the rest of us. Thanks.   Dave     
        ----- Original Message -----  Sent: 1/23/06 2:06:42 AM  Subject: Re: [NAFEX] grocery store 
        peaches and nectarines 
 Being a peach grower with 
        about 1,000 trees, we do things a little differently than the 
        commercial growers.  Peaches grown and shipped commercially to the 
        grocery stores are picked at first color.  That means at the first 
        sign of that yellowish/red tint, they are ready to pick to be 
        shipped.  They are not picked at the right stage to have any 
        flavor, but the poor folks that have only purchased peaches at the 
        grocery store don't know any better.  To get the best flavor for 
        peaches, they should be picked when "firm ripe".   "Firm ripe" 
        means they are not soft yet, but not too hard either.  The color 
        should have a good red tint to it, but not too much red.  
        They should be "cooled down" at 68 degrees for 24 hours.  Then 
        they should be stored at 34 degrees while waiting to be sold.  Can 
        anyone imagine a commercial grower doing this?  Since we grow only 
        for our own market, this is how we handle our peaches.  We have 
        never been able to meet the demand for our peaches and have always had 
        to supplement.  We purchase our supplements from Eckert's Orchards 
        in Bellville, IL who grow their peaches the same as we do and pick them 
        at the same time.  Our shipments arrive on Friday morning, having 
        been picked on Thursday.  We store them at 34 degrees and they last 
        us for a good 7 days.  We always sell out just when that next 
        shipment arrives and have never had a complaint about tasteless 
        peaches.  And we still have a problem meeting demand!  It's a 
        good problem to have.   By the way, 34 degrees is 
        the optimum temperature for storage of peaches and apples as well as 
        scion wood.  When our new trees arrive to be planted, we keep them 
        at 34 until they go into the ground, which is within 36 hours.  
        Apples and peaches stored at 36 degrees will start to break down much 
        faster than at 34 and at 40 won't last at all.  40 degrees is the 
        temperature at which bacteria will start to develop and any good health 
        department would shut anyone down if their refrigerator that held any 
        food being served to the public was at 40 degrees or 
        above.  If I can locate an article from Fruit Growers News about 
        the latest storage tests done on peaches I will post it that covers this 
        exact subject.        
          ----- Original Message -----  Sent: Sunday, January 22, 2006 
          11:01 PM Subject: Re: [NAFEX] grocery 
          store peaches and nectarines 
 I have always blamed the poor taste and texture of store peaches 
          and nectarines on early picking as well, but it may be worse than just 
          that one commercial consideration that accounts for this. 
          Last summer I was able to tour a test orchard for new and not so 
          recent but modern commercial cultivars and participated in the 
          evaluation of about 20 ripe varieties which we picked off the tree. It 
          wasn't long before I began to notice that what we were tasting were 
          all very similar to each other and also very much like what I 
          had tasted from the grocery store. Let me repeat, we were picking 
          these right off the trees. The only time I tasted anything that was 
          beginning to be sweet and juicy was when I wandered off to trees 
          that had most of their fruit on the ground and then, when I would 
          remark that this one was pretty good, I was told not to pay any 
          attention to it as it was past. I left the station very 
          disappointed in what I had exp ected to be a magnificent day of 
          indulgent peach pleasure, but with my eyes opened to the painful 
          truth: it is the large, beautiful, firm, red commercial peaches 
          that are bad, not when they pick them. Stopping at a friend's place on 
          the way home I had the best peach of the day, by far. His neighbor had 
          a seedling tree that came from a Reliance pit and the fruit was much 
          like it - small, yellow, fuzzy, sweet, juicy, with amazing flavor and 
          aroma, and so soft you couldn't have shipped it across the street. But 
          then why would you have wanted to?   Dave MN, zone 4a     
            ----- Original Message -----  Sent: 1/22/06 10:21:57 PM 
 Subject: [NAFEX] grocery store 
            peaches and nectarines 
 
 
            On Jan 22, 2006, at 10:37 PM, road's end farm wrote: 
              On Jan 22, 2006, at 8:46 PM, Spidra Webster 
              wrote: 
                For the last several years I've found that 
                store nectarines are a  better bet than peaches.  But the last season or 
                so nectarines have  seemed just as bad.  I hardly got a good 
                peach this summer but I think  it might be due to the fact that I wasn't 
                getting out to the Farmer's  Market or gourmet stores enough.  
 Grocery store peaches are almost always 
              terrible as they're almost always picked too green. If you wait 
              till they're close enough to ripe so that they'll develop full 
              flavor, they're too close to ripe to ship very far. 
 Many many years ago I did a brief stint 
              picking peaches in Washington State, while wandering around the 
              country. We were told that we might as well eat the ripe ones, 
              they couldn't be shipped anyway. A revelation. Probably one reason 
              I'm farming today. 
 --Rivka Finger Lakes NY; zone 
            5  All in all, I usually prefer grocery store peaches to grocery 
            store nectarines.  But it's a crap shoot.  The best 
            "peach" I ever had was a nectarine several years ago, and this year 
            we got a batch of terrific nectarines.  We also got some really 
            excellent peaches form the local produce place, though.  Even 
            the locally grown ones vary a lot.  they were only excellent 
            for a week and a half, both earlier and later they were just 
            so-so.  I'm sure the local farmers grow more than one type, and 
            I'd guess that only one cultivar was both an excellent cultivar and 
            also arrived ripe in the store. 
 Ginda eastern Mass., zone 
      6 |