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["Alan Haigh" <alandhaigh@gmail.com>]

I've grown Diamond for about 15 years and it's pretty good for an early peach- some pit splitting, of course.  It's down side is that it is not good at generating new wood in the interior so it is not a long lived tree if you want to keep it compact and efficient.  I think Candor is better in this regard.  I am anxious to try one from the PF series that ripens with Harrow Diamond.  One nice aspect of Harrow Diamond is its beautiful blossoms which is also an asset of Harcrest.

 

Reliance can be a perfectly nice peach for the home orchard but here it's additional hardiness has never been an asset.  On the one test winter where we lost the peach crop in temps below -20 Reliance was also barren.  I guess it's just a couple degrees hardier in the bud than varieties like Madison and Redhaven.  Redhaven, which starts to ripen about the same time, will give you a better peach over a longer period than Reliance and I don't think Reliance has hardier wood than other peaches so there isn't much point in growing it here.