North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Richard Harrison <rharrison922@yahoo.com>]

Jim,

   You REALLY love peaches! I used to much more than now. I grew them commercially in NW FL for about 10 years--mostly U-Pic.

   I have had numerous seedling trees that volunteered and eventually made fruit. One in my backyard now is about 4 years old and produces the earliest ripening true freestone peach that I have come across. I resolved to transplant it last Winter before it got so large---but didn't. Now I MAY have to bud trees from it instead.

   Notice I said "volunteered". When peaches fall off the tree here in Summer, they sometimes get a little leaf cover and over-winter there until early Spring when MANY of them can sprout. (Our low here last year was 18 degrees F--well below freezing).

   Peach kernals are recommended to be excised and moist-stored until planting time by professionals. Us die-hards just plant the seed in the ground soon after harvest and loke you----let Mother Nature handle it.  The hard pit needs the ground to help "soften it up" for moisture to reach the kernal for it to sprout well in the Spring.

                                                               Regards,

                                                               Richard, NW FL

I used to grow 1100 chill hour Raritan Rose successfully here. It tasted great!

--- On Sun, 8/2/09, Jim Fruth <jimfruth@charter.net> wrote:

From: Jim Fruth <jimfruth@charter.net>
Subject: [NAFEX] Exploring cold-hardy peaches
To: "NAFEX" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Cc: "Jackie Kuehn" <jakuehn@verizon.net>
Date: Sunday, August 2, 2009, 9:29 AM

    In all my years of buying fresh peaches, I only had one peach pit grow,
until one  year when I got many.  I had always bought grocery store peaches
that were grown in a warm climate, California, Georgia, etc.  When the local
Lions Club was selling Michigan grown peaches, I planted that seed and 10%
of the pits grew.
    My policy for planting pits is to plant them in the Fall so they freeze
when the ground freezes.  I've learned that if the pit doesn't freeze, the
tree won't tolerate the freezing temperatures either.
    Raising peaches here in zone 3 has to be a labor of love because I only
get fruit when the Winter temperature doesn't drop below -25 F, a condition
that occurs infrequently.  I get fruit once every 5 to 10 years.

Jim Fruth

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