The Center has an exciting new website that has a section entitled Growing and Variety Trials. This part of the website will over the next year begin to populate practical grower information on the numerous trials on going at the Center. Today I’ll outline some of the promising experiences and findings from our ten year trails in Organic Peach growing.
This post will focus on Peach Leaf Curl resistant varieties. Cloud Mountain planted its first peaches in 1980 of which Frost peach was one of our first varieties in the ground. It was the first Leaf Curl Resistant peach to be grown in Western Washington. Since then, numerous other promising varieties have been added to the list of Curl resistant, mostly suitable for home production. Frost, Avalon Pride, Salish Summer and Betty are the selections in this category that we have in our trial. The genetics of these Curl resistant varieties seems give all of these selections a fuzzy nap to their skin. Some find that distasteful, however when you bite into any of these selections you will likely forget about the fuzz! The information we have been gathering from our trials is beginning to demonstrate to us that Peach Leaf Curl resistance is one of the keystones for successfully growing peaches in our region.
If you want to grow peaches at home and not do any spraying then the leaf curl resistance varieties should be what you select from. An over whelming majority of our experience is with Frost. However we have 5-6 years’ experience with Avalon Pride, and Betty. For Salish Summer, we have only had two small crops.
Overall, fruit quality has been excellent some years and not as productive other years. Weather, leaving too much fruit on, soil, water and pruning play significant roles. When choosing to grow peaches in Western Washington you should take in all of these pieces to makes sure that you are successful. To read more about the different varieties check out the new crop trials page on our website
Below is a list of our observations with four Leaf Curl Resistant varieties.
Avalon Pride- Fruit quality has been firm, dense flesh, with a pleasing texture. Appears sensitive to one of the cankers, either Bacterial or Cytospora. Tree shows little bud damage in the spring from Brown Rot. The experience at Cloud Mountain and the feedback we have received from customers is that Avalon Pride’s fruit quality has been very flavorful and people are continually surprised we can grow peaches of this quality in our climate.
Salish Summer- Very disease free looking tree at bloom, in several years of observation Salish Summer shows the low amounts of brown rot in its buds or in the adjacent bark. It has a lighter bloom than most varieties and lighter fruit set in its first couple harvests compared to other Curl Resistant varieties. Fruit quality over the first two years hasn’t been great, however, judging fruit quality for only a few of the earliest years is folly. Please keep in mind that our experience over decades of growing peaches, you simply can’t judge from the fruit couple of years of fruiting a variety. Peaches have never expressed the best qualities of any variety in its first few years. S.S. is white peach, on a tree that spreads easily for open center training.
Frost– Cloud Mountain has been growing Frost peaches for over thirty years and it has always been a very Curl Resistant tree. Its flavor is consistently up there with any others in this class fruit. We have seen it bear over two hundred pounds of fruit on the rare year, with respectable yields consistently. Our first Frost peach tree broke apart after 25 years from carrying one of those big crops. However, its down sides are two fold; I think it’s more prone to brown rot infections in the spring than other Curl resistant varieties, which makes pruning more important on an annual basis. These infections seem to be more in the bud than in the bloom as it can consistently bear heavy crops. The other issue with Frost is the fruit texture, which can be on the stringy side, making it less suitable for canning.
Betty- This peach literally came out of Betty’s compost pile in Ferndale. Fruit quality has been superb, rich dense flesh that rivals any of the 16 non Leaf Curl resistant varieties we have in our commercial trials. This fruit thinned properly is outstanding. Although we have produced only a few crops on the tree it really looks promising. Time will tell. In really only 2 years of fruiting it has shown the capacity that it can easily overset fruits as it has for us both years of harvest. Its brown rot resistance so far has only shown very minor damage. If you are growing on a good site where frost isn’t an issue you will likely need to thin lots of fruit off this tree or you be producing small mediocre fruits. Fruit on any variety should be thinned down to one peach every 12- inches. We have observed no canker symptoms nor experience so far on this variety.
Enjoy!
Do any of the leaf curl resistant varieties produce a free-stone fruit? If so which ones. I live in Lewiston, Idaho.
Thanks
Gary
All but Salish Summer are semi-freestone.
I was wondering if you export your peach leaf curl resistant trees to uk
No, we ship only within the US.
Are any of your leaf curl resistant peach trees growing in Australia. Particularly Victoria
We do not have expertise outside of the Pacific Northwest, U.S. Check with local nurseries to see what they offer and recommend. We do not ship trees outside of the U.S. A quick google search reveals many local fruit tree nurseries in Victoria.
Which do you suggest for California and in area where leaf curl is prevalent?
I would check with your local Master Gardeners or extension service to find recommended varieties. The ones we sell are leaf curl resistant, but might not be suitable for your climate for other reasons.
We have a peach tree in our orchard that produces some fruit (variety unknown) but suffers badly from leaf curl; is it safe to add some resistant varieties nearby or do we need to remove the existing tree?
Thanks for your advice
Yes, you can add resistant varieties to your orchard. The fungus that causes leaf curl is endemic to our area due to our rainy springs. It doesn’t necessarily spread from tree to tree. Resistant trees that are established still can show a little leaf curl when conditions are right, but outgrow the infections and are not stunted by it like non-resistant varieties. Even resistant varieties benefit from leaf curl control sprays when newly planted.
Hi i live in bucks county pennsylvania lm having a huge problem with curl leaves on my nectarine n peach trees fir 3 yrs. tried diffrentchemicals n sorays no luck whats so ever. Would you be able to reccomend a better resistant trees. Thanks sam
I don’t know of any leaf curl resistant nectarines. There are many varieties of leaf curl resistant peaches, but resistant is not immune, and they still need some control as young trees. Your climate is very different than our Pacific maritime climate, so your best growing resource for varieties and disease control will be your local agricultural extension service or master gardeners program.
Hi there, I really appreciate all this great info! I’m on a hilltop in Seattle and recently got a young Frost Peach and a Hardy Red Nectarine and am planning to plant them next to one another along a fence to espalier them. I don’t want to spray them, on account of the danger copper poses to aquatic life. But I notice you recommend spraying young trees even when they are a resistant variety. If I don’t spray them, will they potentially just not produce well for a few years, until they are established, and then be fine? Or will they potentially never get established on account of being weakened by peach leaf curl?
Your Frost peach should be fine. Your Hardy Red won’t survive long without peach leaf curl control. You can try finding lime-sulfur, also effective but usually only available to commercial growers. More info- http://pnwhandbooks.org/plantdisease/host-disease/peach-prunus-persica-leaf-curl
I’d like to know if you have any peach leaf curl resistant peach and nectarine trees. I f yes, when could you send it to me? If you are located in Washington, I can just pick it up.
We carry 4-5 leaf curl resistant peaches every spring (but sold out for 2022). We ship mid-February through mid-April, depending on weather. Some years, including 2022, the peaches are too big to ship. We are located just outside Bellingham, WA, and do have pick up as an option. Check back in January for availability. You can also sign up to be notified by email once they are back in stock (go to each variety, there will be an option to sign up for email notification).
A couple of notes- these varieties we carry are resistant but not immune. This spring, even established trees that were sprayed still got peach leaf curl. And we have not found a nectarine that is both leaf curl resistant and productive, so we don’t carry those.
Good morning,
Are any of these peach varieties come in generic dwarf variety? Thanks
No, none of the leaf curl varieties are genetic dwarfs. We have tried some genetic dwarf varieties here, and all were very susceptible to leaf curl. However, the genetic dwarf peach cultivars can be grown in large containers and moved under cover during rainy spells to prevent infection.
It looks like Frost sets the standard for curl resistant varieties on resistance. For other varieties listed here I’ve been reading results are mixed siding on tree loss. From your tests, which one of these other varieties rank after Frost without receiving any spray year after year. Also, is there information on of Frost parents and who bred it.
I would agree that Frost sets the standard for leaf curl resistance in our climate. Apparently Frost was a chance seedling discovered at the WSU Mt. Vernon testing station. We have good success with Betty and Salish Summer on our site, but hear mixed reviews from others. We planted out Nanaimo peach this year – excited to see if it lives up to the hype. We do spray our trees for leaf curl every year. They can be grown without sprays, but it is highly recommended to spray for the first few years until established. Some people grow their trees under plastic to reduce foliage wetting in spring.
Thank you! I am looking forward to order a few for next spring. Any idea when those varieties will be opened up to place an order.
Fruit tree inventory is usually posted and ready for pre-order by mid-January.