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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] peach crop

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  • From: "William C. Garthright" <billg@inebraska.com>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] peach crop
  • Date: Sun, 07 Sep 2008 11:04:28 -0500


I know Reliance is one of the few peaches some northern Nafexers can grow, but it's such poor quality I couldn't recommend it. The peach is small, and gets soft so quickly. It isn't especially tasty, and it's flesh is stringy.


Mark, this is the first year I've had any peaches, but this doesn't describe my Reliance peach at all. (Then again, there's been a lot on the list about misnamed fruit trees, hasn't there?) I got the tree from Stark Bros. in 2006, and it set on a ton of fruit this year. I had to thin it heavily. But the remaining fruit were really big,... and absolutely wonderful! I was just delighted at how they turned out.

OK, before this year, my previous experience with peaches was entirely from grocery stores. But still, this was a really, really good peach! Maybe I just had an especially good year?

If anyone's interested, here's my result on peaches this year. I've got four dwarf trees planted in the same hole (actually, 18" apart) in my backyard. (Yeah, I probably wouldn't do that again, but I've got limited space.) All are two years old, bought from Stark Bros.

The Hardired Giant Nectarine ripened first. I don't know about "giant," since these weren't too big. And I had trouble deciding when to pick them (I had the same trouble with all my peaches). They got really, really red - they looked like apples! - but stayed quite hard. The squirrels finally convinced me to pick them, since otherwise I wouldn't have had any left. It turned out that they stayed much firmer than I'd expected, but they were very sweet and delicious. I was very happy with them (though the bugs like them much better than they do fuzzy peaches, apparently).

The Reliance ripened immediately afterwards (good timing). This was the only tree with a ton of peaches set on, but I dutifully thinned them (and then knocked some off by accident). I learned that I needed to pick these before they got soft, too. Partly, that's because the peaches grow so tightly against the branch that they bruise themselves, if left too long. And partly because of the squirrels. But they ripened beautifully indoors, and these were probably my favorite peaches of the bunch. Really delicious!

When the Reliance finished, the Redhaven peaches started to ripen. (Again, I really loved how these trees ripened at different times, something I can't say about the plums!) These peaches were smaller than the Reliance and firmer. At first, I was not as impressed with them. However, they seemed to keep forever on my kitchen counter. I cut up one for my cereal every morning, and I had no problem with the others getting too ripe. They were very tasty, too.

Those peaches ran out weeks ago. The fourth tree is an Intrepid peach, and they're still green (though the squirrels just destroyed one of them). They're small, too (or maybe they just have to grow some yet). Unfortunately, this tree produced very few peaches, so I'll be lucky to get any, after the squirrels and birds get through with them. I was going to wait and post this stuff after they'd ripened, but this talk about peaches changed my mind.

Note that I've got a huge problem with Oriental Fruit Moths, and I don't know what I'm doing when it comes to pruning these trees, either (especially since they're planted in a square only 18" apart!). I'd never even seen a peach tree before I planted these. But despite all of my problems, I was very pleased with the results this year.

And as I say, my "Reliance" peach certainly doesn't match your description. I don't know why.

Bill
Lincoln, NE (zone 5)

--
Freedom is never an achieved state; like electricity, we've got to keep generating it or the lights go out. - Wayne LaPierre




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