I am attempting to graft a cadence of peaches ripening on 5-to-10 day intervals.
One of the EXCELLENT things about growing fragile fruits like raspberries and peaches and plums is that the grower can harvest the fruit at the very peak of perfection rather than picking it green so it can be shipped to market like so many billiard balls.
The peach connoisseurs in the family tell me "Red Haven", "Red Haven", "Red Haven". They latched onto "Red Haven" like a pitty-lab cross staking claim to the carcass of a bicycle tire.
I know better than to argue with the "customer" but it is nice to have options.
Red Haven is an excellent peach but it ripens during the first week of August (in Southern Michigan) and that is right in the middle of the dog-days of summer around here. Ideally, I would have different peach varieties ripening at approximately one-week intervals. Not just to provide a long-window of perfectly ripe peaches, but to create a back-up plan in case the canners "miss the window" on the Red Havens. Life happens.
The challenge is that there are LOTS of outstanding varieties that ripen three weeks after Red Haven but darned few that ripen in that window between five days and fifteen days after Red Haven. And of those that exist, many of them are proprietary, Patented varieties that are difficult for non-commercial growers to get trees of.
The list of peaches (a late addition to the 2025 planting plans) are:
- Red Haven
- Challenger: Maturity 7 days after Red Haven (*sooner in hot climates)
- Contender: Matures 15 days after Red Haven*
- Cresthaven: Matures 21 days after Red Haven*
I have scion for Contender and Cresthaven but am looking for scion of Challenger.
I am coming to the realization that 10 seedling peaches might not be enough as mission-creep rears its head.
I realize that I am deeply blessed to have these kinds of problems. Very few people have enough room to plant four different kinds of peach trees.
I've never had a peach tree survive more than 3 winters in Michigan. I know there are lots of peach growers along Lake Michigan, but here in the SE corner I've had no luck.
ReplyDeletePeaches can be prima donnas.
DeleteThe two biggest causes of mortality (for me) have been deer browsing, sun-scald and trunk-borers.
Individual fences help with deer browsing.
Painting the trunks with white, ceiling latex paint or wrapping with newspaper helps a LOT with sun-scald.
I don't have a great answer for trunk-borers. Supposedly, they don't bother the trunks of American plums and they seem uninterested in apricots...so I might try grafting a couple of feet up on those two rootstocks at some point.
The ability and knowledge of how to effectively grow fruit is a dying art....
ReplyDeleteIn southern Michigan you might be able to grow paw-paws. They make for some great eating, but the harvest window is about three weeks, max.
ReplyDeleteMad Jack
Paw-paws grow in-the-wild here. Once you know what you are looking for you see them all over the place. The leaves are "simple" very large and droop downward. Overall, they are a trouble-free tree to grow.
DeleteHowever, the fruit doesn't hang well once ripe, the fruit is an acquired taste. While I don't mind the taste, I could eat one paw-paw a year and feel no need to eat more.
Mrs ERJ informed me that paw-paws hold the world record for attracting fruit-flies. They are very aromatic.
10 Seedling Peach Trees, if 7 survive the 3-6 years to become fruitful.
ReplyDeleteHow many bushels do you need for yourself, friends and family?
How many to be worth taking to the farmers market?
What amount of spray work needed to produce nice looking peaches? Pruning to keep cleaned up and pickable is a given per tree.
Just wondering where the hobby becomes a full time job.
My only concern with ripening time, is that weather may affect ripening time. I know it does for the berries around here, and I think peaches also.
ReplyDeleteSouthern NH
Like you, ERJ, I can eat one pawpaw and I don't care if I have another until next year - or 5 years from now. The selected, named cultivars are generally much tastier than the average 'wild' pawpaw, but even then, when I've shared them with friends/coworkers, they definitely shake out into two camps... those who find them delectable, and those who find them disgustingly insipid and swear to never eat one again.
ReplyDeleteRecent findings incriminating the annonaceous acetogenins in pawpaw fruit with a Parkinson's-like neurodegenerative condition is just one more reason for me to severely restrict my consumption of pawpaw fruit, which the Cherokees regarded as 'strong medicine'.
I've never had a pawpaw, but they sounded interesting when I found out about them. I planted four of them last spring here in SW Idaho. We'll see what happens. I like trying out fruiting plants that aren't normally grown here, but might work out. I have a fairly cold hardy pomegranate coming this spring. It's going in the sunniest and hottest part of my yard and it'll probably need a bit of special attention in the winter.
ReplyDelete