Good Morning HOS Forum!
It's been a not-great year for me for peaches, with a little taste but not a lot. I was thinking about trying, once again, some varieties advertised or promoted as leaf curl (PLC) resistant. I'm surprised that I am still trying, given the number of failures I've had. I have had the following experiences -
1. Genetic dwarf peaches, in containers. Those can be moved out of the rain for fall and winter, which does prevent PLC. However, it is too much trouble for me to water in the summer.
2. Indian Blood. This one barely grew, and didn't make a peach in 5 years.
3. Oregon Curl Free. Pretty good PLC resistance, peaches pretty good, died of canker. PLC Resistance doesn't do much good if it dies of canker. I do have a 2nd leaf seedling tree from that one, in the chicken yard. We will see...
4. Charlotte. Fair PLC Resistance. Peaches are not great. No canker. This year, PLC was significant, but the tree grew out of it. However, that really set back the peaches. They were as small as a small plum, a little astringent, not sweet at all when falling off the tree.
5. Q-1-8 which since was renamed Salish Summer, I think. The best so far of the lot. At 3rd leaf, gave me a decent crop this summer. Not huge peaches, not tiny, and not nearly the problem with PLC that Charlotte had. The fruit are worth growing.
6. Mary Jane. Maybe it was mislabeled. This little tree had severe PLC for two years, and died.
What I am thinking about, now, are the following.
Nainimo Peach. Advertised, like the others, as PLC Resistant.
Kreibich Nectaine. ditto. Discovered in Western WA, so maybe they really are suited for this area? I live in Western WA. There is also Pacific Pride Nectarine, a seedling of Kreibich, also promoted as PLC resistant and 2 weeks later than Kreibich. I think the earlier one is more suitable for me.
For some reason, I've never tried Frost Peach. I don't know why. Maybe I should try that instead of one of these?
Any experiences or thoughts? I really would like some nice peaches nor nectarines, but the investment is too much, and I don't trust catalog info, which has not been reliable as far as my experiences go.
I suppose I could try copper spray, too. I haven't found that all that helpful, either, and they say spray when dormant, after leaf drop and before the rains. My experience is that rains start a month before leaf drop.
Thanks and have a great day!
I have an unnamed, Frost, Charlotte, and Indian Free.
They all get some canker. The unnamed makes the best peaches and is probably 10 years old. It hasn't been pruned well and is getting too tall. I should try to graft it to a new tree.
Frost seems healthier and more productive than the others. The peaches are worthwhile and better than grocery store, but not exceptional.
Indian Free gets the most curl and hasn't been very healthy. It set one peach this year, but it didn't ripen. This is probably the 2nd or 3rd season it could have been expected to fruit. It was a bad year for stone fruit here though.
Charlotte has made a few peaches. It seems more prone to doubles. I've only gotten a few small peaches from it that weren't memorable.
I should say that I probably need to irrigate them all better. The unnamed tree is probably getting water from our septic drain field, and is also older with more established roots.
I ordered scions for some of the others you mentioned from Burnt Ridge, but I think I grafted at a poor time. None of them took. I've yet to successfully graft peach or nectarine to anything, but I've successfully grafted a number of European plums onto peach.
I don't know how long it takes for Peach Leaf Curl to start showing up. I read that seedling peaches are usually a lot like their parent variety. The seedling from Oregon Curl Free, growing in my chicken yard, didn't have any PLC this spring, its 3rd season. Probably no peaches for another season or two, however.
Thanks for the input about your experiences. I also tried some peach grafting without success. I thought I got some buds to take but they died later.
I think what I labeled "Indian Blood" might be "Indian Free". It was supposed to have some red coloration in the fruit and be especially delicious. I noted doubles on Charlotte too, like you described.
So far, for me, the best of my trials is Salish Summer.
I wonder if Frost would be smarter to try, than Nainamo. They don't have to be big super sweet Georgia peaches, just good home grown peaches, better than grocery store.
I also tried the peach/plum hybrid, "Tri-Lite", thinking the plum genes would make it less susceptible but it also was brought down by PLC. The fruits that I did get were good, but in my hands no better than other peaches.
Seems like Kreibich has been around a little while. Some garden blogs report a little PLC but I haven't read that it has a lot. So I ordered that one for fall planting. Still want to try a peach. I would be happiest with just one peach tree, producing good peaches, but it seems we need to try multiple varieties to get one that will work. Maybe.
On growing near septic drain fields, my Yates Persimmon is a bit down-hill from my septic drain field. It grew really fast
. However, the grass on the field itself is greener and taller than the rest of the yard, but that was not true where I planted the tree, so maybe it's not getting any fertilizer there.
Curl shows itself after a couple years old. Then after that it starts showing after a winter of rain exposure. The critical period of Christmas ---> somewhere in the following March. I had kept my miniature peach alive this way for about 15 years by greenhouse protection.
Reportedly, the best quality peach is 'Polly'. A past president of Seattle fruit group mentioned this to me. So if Jafar or anyone else wants to contact him for scions, I do still have my ways of other friends that know how to find him.
Edited 4pm:
...maybe it was Betty PLC resistant per Raintree catalog and not Polly. As I remember he he did say per Raintree that also lists it as flavorful... end of edit.
I also learned how to graft peaches if you would like to know sometime. The last of which is a peach scion from Bob Purvis whom handles storage of scions much cooler than tradition.
I have an Avalon Pride. It gets a few curled leaves in late spring but comes out of it when it warms/dries up in summer. Not too productive though.
I also have a Frost that I rooted from cuttings. The parent was grafted onto dwarfing rootstock and died long ago. The cutting, on its own roots, bears so much the branches can't hold the crop. I've had branches breaking off under the weight. I think next spring I'll start a couple more peaches from this tree to replace a couple cherries that I'm removing.
I just took prunings from my newly bought bare root dormant Frost peach tree and stuck them in the ground. I kept them watered until they grew. I think the cuttings need to be solid wood of >1/4" diameter, not pithy twigs. I did not use any rooting hormone either.
I've had good luck rooting prunus cuttings. Mostly Portugal laurel and Otto Luyken shrubs.
WD, thanks for the info, really helpful. I would rather hear real experiences like yours, than read online catalogs that make claims that often don't pan out, and waste years of growing effort and money. I was not thinking about Frost, and now I think I will try that variety next year. I had hesitated about Frost because several articles, like this one, state that fungicide is needed for the first few years, for that variety. I've always grown organically, but this point, I am willing to try a fungicide, but don't know where to begin.
Jafar, my experience with curl is it usually builds up over a couple of years. It seems to build up in the bark.
I know this is an old thread, but I'm pretty old too.
I was talking to Glen Andresen at the Scion Exchange today. He said that Frost grows well for him and tastes great. Doesn't seem to have a lot of problems. I love WD's idea for creating Frost Peach trees. I think I might try it one of these years.
John S
PDX OR
I planted 2 leaf-curl resistant varieties of peaches 3 years ago. Frost and Q-18. Both got a bad case of canker last spring when we had a really wet spring. THe Q-18 died. I also lost my Puget Gold apricot to canker that spring. The Frost peach recovered, but the trunk was badly cankered with lots of spots oozing gummy sap. I was going to cut it down, but I decided to try Michael Phillips recommendation of applying a biodynamic mud pack--fresh cow manure mixed with clay, both of which I happened to have here on the farm. I covered up all the oozing gummy areas of the affected trunk and limbs with a heavy coating of the mudpack in late fall. It has stayed on all winter and the tree looks fairly healthy at this point, covered with blooms. The remaining branches appear to be canker free so far...
Update. The Frost peach that I planted a few months ago is growing nicely, no PLC. The Kreibich nectarine is covered with PLC. Happy about Frost, bummed about Kreibich.
My older Charlotte has a lot of PLC. I have a seedling ofrom Oregon Curl Free. No PLC, but the blooms didnt set fruit. This was its first year blooming. Salish isnt looking great now. No PLC but only a few fruitlets, plus there is canker. Not a lot, but enough to cause concern.
DanielW said
Update. The Frost peach that I planted a few months ago is growing nicely, no PLC. The Kreibich nectarine is covered with PLC. Happy about Frost, bummed about Kreibich.
My older Charlotte has a lot of PLC. I have a seedling ofrom Oregon Curl Free. No PLC, but the blooms didnt set fruit. This was its first year blooming. Salish isnt looking great now. No PLC but only a few fruitlets, plus there is canker. Not a lot, but enough to cause concern.
DanielW, how has the Frost peach done these past few years? Is it still PLC free? I am considering one from One Green World this spring.
I grew up with an unnamed peach tree in my parent's backyard in Portland. It fruited but I don't remember it being a particularly beautiful tree. Eventually my grandfather cut it down while we were on vacation because it was "diseased". I have been dreaming about a backyard peach tree ever since. Thanks!
I've been growing 'Black Boy' peach a number of years now. It got set back a few times by animals, but regrew and fruited for the first time last year. Not only was the fruit insanely red fleshed (like red as a beet), but the tree has consistently been very curl resistant. I have to really search to find any evidence of curl among the leaves. The flavor was like a mix of raspberry and peach.
@ JohannsGarden
'Flory' is a miniature peach that I think might resemble your description of 'Black Boy'. I'm going by your description of disease resistance to leaves but not the form of the tree obviously. One grows not far from PDX. Just thought I would throw that in for you in case you collect more small tree clones such as the malus fusca you are grafting according to your other post elsewhere. Double check here now and then because when the Reinettes poster person shows up around here I will direct him to your fusca post for you.
I'm more familiar with malus baccata, which is found in Alaska as a result of being imported. I can make baccata or possible any other malus species into a self-crossing capable graft at the point beyond the graft to a specific pear I have.
Now you have a means to root your fusca apple scion that you procured, and the means as well to contact me if you wish to procure flowers for breeding form from this dwarf form of peach called Flory.
Where may I ask is your approximate location?
@Rooney Interesting you mention Alaska, because the small statured Malus fusca accession I got was originally collected in Alaska (It looks like it was probably in zone 7). I haven't looked into genetic dwarf peaches much because they almost seem too dwarf, but I'll look up 'Flory'. If it's anything like 'Black Boy' peach then it must be good.
I'm in Western WA, zone 8a; south of Seattle, east of Tacoma.
Edit: I just looked up 'Flory'. It appears to be a white flesh peach, not red flesh like 'Black Boy', but it appears to be a really nice size growth habit; compact, but still vigorous and not stunted looking like some of the dwarf peaches I've seen. I find no mention of it being peach leaf curl resistant though.
The pear that I said I use to graft malus onto originated close to where you live as a cross between mishirasu and shinseiki. The Flory example that I speak of is listed by myself here;
compact-curl-resistant-peach/#p4155
Since I posted that I did find curl on it in our extremely wet spring conditions from 2022. But when it warmed up it went away. The flowers are pure red so I had assumed the flesh of the fruits were red. If you find Flory online that has pink flowers how can you trust that. What you do, as I did, is go to dwarf peaches sold at Starks nursery downtown who sells Flory and Bonanza mini-peaches. Only the Flory has red flowers.
I may be wrong in my assuming red flowers migrate towards red flesh. I certainly never asked the Flory owners when I met them about that aspect.
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