Q. Several years ago at the University orchard on Horse
Drive you gave us a list of five different peach trees to plant, each ripening
at different times. We’ve enjoyed peaches from May through September ever
since. Thanks.
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| ‘Earlitreat’ peaches on May 24, 2005, at the University orchard in North Las Vegas. Other good early peaches include ‘FlordaPrince’. ‘FlordaKing’, and ‘Earligrande’. |
A. I prefer to plant entire fruit trees, rather than a
single tree with several varieties (think “fruit cocktail” trees). that ripen
at different times of the year for many different reasons. Let’s talk about one
of them.
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| Peaches like this Early Elberta (‘July’ or ‘Kim’) make the next round along with ‘June Pride’, and ‘Snow Beauty’. |
Generally, the varieties of
fruit trees that flower earliest produce the earliest fruit. In our climate
peach varieties start flowering the first week of February and other later
producing varieties of peach may start flowering as late as the as the end of
April. Later flowering varieties frequently produce fruit later as well.
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| Dont forget the flat peaches like ‘Donut’ and ‘Galaxy’. They produce fruit also around July. |
As examples, the peach variety
named ‘Earlitreat’ begins flowering the first week of February. Other early
producing peaches like ‘FlordaPrince’ and ‘FlordaKing’ start flowering about a
week after ‘Earlitreat’. If there is a
frost while the flowers are open, think early spring through early summer, it
produces less fruit or maybe no fruit at all! These varieties of peaches will
produce fruit (if frost permits) in mid to late May until early June.
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| Peach varieties like ‘Indian Blood’ may be worth the October wait due to its very special aroma and flesh color. |
The variety of peach called ‘Red
Baron’ produces fruit around July but doesn’t begin flowering nearly a whole
month later than ‘Earlitreat’; early March! By selecting varieties that flower
early or later usually will affect when the fruit is produced. The missing
information are the varieties that taste the best! Each peach variety is
different, performs differently in the desert and tastes different.
If a light frost occurs anytime
between February 1 and the middle of March (estimated date for our last frost
can be as late as March 15!) then we will be guaranteed fruit if we are growing
several varieties of peach trees in the same location.