Dallas Fruit and Vegetable Grower

Summer Fruit: Peaches, Figs & Pears

The summer brought a bounty of fruit this year.

Early summer started with a good crop of blackberries.  The blackberries usually ripen in June and with three varieties, produce for three or four weeks.

Our blueberries produced a modest crop.  I had to replace approximately a third of the bushes last fall because of the heat and drought of the previous two years that had taken their toll.  I removed the drip lines that irrigated the blueberry bushes and replaced them with pop-up spray heads.  The drip lines were not reliably getting adequate moisture to the plants.  As a result of the spray heads, the bushes have done much better this year through the summer heat.

We had only a small plum harvest this year.  From seven trees, I probably only harvested 15 - 20 fruit.  There were several more on the trees, but the varmits got to them.  We had a huge crop of plums last year, and I think that caused the trees to take this year off to recuperate.

We will not get many apples this year.  The varmits really go after our apples.  They got almost all of the early ripening fruit.  However, I did harvest a couple of beautiful, small, red Williams Pride apples, which is a very early season variety.

Nevertheless, our peach crop was enormous.  That is the benefit of having a lot of different kinds of fruit trees and bushes.  Invariably, each year, certain fruits just will not produce anything.  As disappointing as that may be if you have some favorites, you are  almost guaranteed to be successful with other fruits in that same year if you have several kinds of fruit growing.

Whereas the plums were our banner "crop" last year, the peaches won the prize this year.

We have five mature peach trees and two  young trees.  The five mature trees really put on a show.  

The Jefferson, Springold, and Ranger trees are very vulnerable to varmits because the varmits can get to them easily without being seen or exposed.  Consequently, the birds, squirrels, and possums are fat this year from eating so many peaches.  However, the Sentinel and Redhaven are more exposed, and we were able to harvest the majority of their peaches before any animals got to them. 

The peaches ripened four weeks later than they have in prior years.   Dallas had late freezes this year in late March and early April, and I think this caused the later harvest.

 

The two photographs above are of the Sentinel tree.  You can see the branches weighted down by the fruit.  I  probably should have thinned the fruit earlier in the year, but I did not do it because I did not know how much of the fruit would be shared with with critters.  If we get this big of a harvest next year, I will thin the trees more. 

 

The photographs above and below are of the Redhaven tree.  One of the main branches really bowed under the weight of the fruit.  I also suspect that the weight of a climbing possum caused it to bow even more.

The photograph below really shows how prolific the trees were. 

I tend to harvest the fruit when they give a little to touch.  The Sentinel peaches below had less red blush than the Redhaven. 

 

 

Our fig trees were also very prolific.  We have five fig trees, but only two of them are very mature.  The nursery mislabelled the two mature trees, but as I have mentioned in the past, I think they are Lattarula/Italian Honey figs.  They ripened over a three to four week period in July.  When ripe, they get bright yellow and have an amber interior.  They are very sweet.  Some of them weep a milky liquid when picked, as you can see with a couple of them in the photograph below. 

 

We also had a very large pear crop.  It was a crop of impressive, huge pears.

We have four mature Orient, Warren, Monterrey, and Moonglow trees.  We also have four young Pineapple, Kieffer, Seckle, and Magness trees.

The Warren, Monterrey, and Moonglow all produced only a few  fruit, but the Orient tree was the real star of the summer.  It probably produced about fifty 10-14 ounce fruit, some of which are in the photographs below.

As with planting a lot of different types of fruit, you also benefit from planting several varieties of the same type of fruit.  In addition to helping with pollination, you never know which tree is going to have a good year.  If you increase the number of varieties in your "orchard", you increase your chances of success. 

 

 

 

Spring 2013

Here is a view of the vegetable and fruit garden in late Spring 2013.  It has been a beautiful Spring with plenty of late, cold days that have kept the Spring greens from bolting too soon.

The perimeter of the vegetable garden is lined with peach trees, pear trees, and pineapple guava bushes.

 

Here is a closer look at one of the peach trees that is in its fourth year in the ground.  It's trunk is probably four inches in diameter, and it is about 14 feet in height.

It has been a very productive tree.  In the photograph above, you can see several of the young immature fruit.   In the vegetable garden, we have five peach trees.

Several of our pineapple guava bushes are in their fourth year and are really filling out.  This bush here is approximately five feet in height.  Last year -- their 3rd year in the ground -- was the first year that we had any fruit, but the fruit was not plentiful.

This year, the bushes are covered in flowers such as the one above.  We should be getting a lot of fruit this year if all of the flowers are successfully pollinated.

Here is a photo of the ripened fruit from 2012.  Each fully ripened fruit was about the size of a chicken egg.  They had a mild and unique taste that seemed to have a combination of mint, pineapple, and strawberry.

In the background of this photograph, you can see the Royal Lee and Minnie Royal low chill cherry trees that are less than one year old.  These trees are growing like crazy.  They did not blossom very much this Spring, and I do not expect any fruit from them.

Behind the fence, you can see some plum trees that are approximately four years old.

Peaches in 2012

We have been eating peaches from our garden for the last two weeks.

The peaches above are from our Redhaven tree.

In our back yard vegetable garden, we have five peach trees that were planted in 2009.  They are Springold, Sentinel, Ranger, Red Haven, Jefferson.

The Sentinel and Redhaven have been producing ripe fruit over the last two weeks, and they look like they will continue to ripen additional fruit over the next week or two.   I have decided to harvest based on feel, harvesting fruit that is soft to the touch with a red blush.

I would have liked to allow them to ripen longer on the trees, but we have a pack of squirrel banditos that have been eating about 20 peaches a day.  This has been very discouraging watching our a beautiful, bountiful harvest die a death of squirrel attritition.  I have ended up harvesting a lot of fruit early just to ensure that we get our fair share.  In the process, I am certain that I am sacrificing additional sweetness.  Nevertheless, I am still enjoing them greatly.  

The Jefferson fruit continues to ripen, and I have yet to taste any of its fruit.  I am fairly certain, however, that the squirrels will get to that crop before I do given that they do not appear to have the same patience as me and have not waited for the fruit to ripen before digging in.  

Here is the ripening time information that I found on Springold, Sentinel, Ranger, Red Haven, Jefferson:

Variety	Fruit size	Stone*	Ripe date	Planting zone
Yellow Flesh
Springold	small	cling	mid-May	1, 2, 3, 4
Sentinel	large	semi-cling	early June	1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Ranger	large	free	mid to late June	1, 2, 3
Redhaven			mid-July	2, 3, 4, 5
Jefferson	large	free	mid to late July	1, 2, 3, 4

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/extension/homefruit/stone/stone.html

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/extension/peach/peach.html

My initial reaction to this is that Redhaven was about two to three weeks earlier this year.  Although the squirrels got to all of these, my Springold and Ranger were still ripening as of June 30th -- later than suggested by this chart.  Sentinel ripened in late June, early August this year versus the early June suggested by the chart.  Some of the variation may result from the fact that ripening times may vary from year to year based upon the last frost date, and also from the fact that this chart may have been prepared for the Houston or Austin areas which have an earlier last-frost date.

We also have  Saturn and Reliance trees that are two year old trees.  They set a amount of fruit earlier in the year. Unfortunately, those two trees are in our front yard and also particularly vulnerable to squirrels.  The squirrels got to all of them.

Early Fruit Set

After being out of town for close to a week, I came back to find several of our fruit trees having set small immature fruit.

When I left, the majority of our spring blossoming fruit trees and bushes were blossoming with the exception of our apples and a few of our pear trees.  Upon our return, most of them continue to bloom, including the peaches, several  of our pears, plums, cherries, nanking cherry, blueberries, honeyberries, and grape vines.  Our apricots have finished blooming.  Several of the earlier blooming peach trees are starting to have their blossoms fade.

But in walking through the garden, I was very, very surprised to see many of the earliest blooming fruit trees already setting fruit on March 18th.  This is much earlier than in years past.

The photograph above is of some of the immature fruit on our Reliance peach.  I frankly do not remember the reliance producing very many blooms, so I was surprised to see these fruit.  Our other peaches are also showing immature fruit, but on a much smaller scale.

 

Both our Moorpark and Blenheim have also set a lot of small immature apricots.  This is gratifying to see given that we really did not have any production from either of these trees last year.  The photograph above is from the Blenheim.

 

 

Our hybrids are also showing small fruit, including the pluots, apriums, and nectaplums.  The fruit in the photograph above is from our Spice-Zee Nectaplum.

 

Our figs are also starting to show some breba fruit.

 

I am just blown away by how early the fruit are coming in.  I was somewhat worried by our mild winter and early spring that we would not get much fruit this year.  However, it appears that some of my fears were misplaced.  While the jury is still out on how our apples and pears will do, we should get a pretty good crop from our apricots, plums, hybrids, and peaches . . . as long as we can fend off the varmits and insects.

This also goes to show that pollination was not an issue.  Our local insect population is doing their job, whether it be honeybees, mason bees, other bee types, or moths.

Dallas Fruit Trees in Bloom - March 5, 2012

A week ago, some of my plums, pluots, and apricots were beginning to bloom, and I wrote about how I was worried that they would not be pollinated because of the lack of pollinators that had emerged from winter and because there were not enough cross-pollinating fruit trees to lend a hand.

I went out of town at the end of the week and returned to an abundance of blooms.  Also, the native bees were out in force, industriously visiting all of the blooms.  If you look very closely at the Morris plum in the photograph above, you can count at least eight bees swarming in the air around these blossoms.

A large number of our plums are now in bloom, including the Morris, the Bruce, the Santa Rosa, and the Allred.  Here is another photograph of the Morris along with a photo of the Allred in bloom seen through the still-dormant fuzzy kiwi vines and burgeoning Jefferson peach blossoms.

 

 

 

Although the Allred above has pink blossoms, our other plums have beautiful, white blossoms as you can see below. 

 

 

Our Royal Lee low-chill cherries also have lovely white blossoms as featured below.

 

 

 

 

I must say, however, that our Royal Lee and Minnie Royal trees have been very disappointing to me this spring.  We planted 5 of them last spring in 2011.  They did very well during the growing season despite the intense heat and drought, and they put on significant growth.  Nevertheless, this spring, the majority went straight to leafing out without any blossoms.   A single Royal Lee was the sole exception, producing the blossoms that you see above.   

If you look very closely at the photograph below, though, you can see that the tree has very few blossoms.  It is not clear to me why these trees did not produce more blooms.  It should not be a result of the mild winter weather because these cherry varieties should only require 200 to 300 chill hours, which we had.  It is not the result of my pruning, which was very light.  I am perplexed.

 

 

Our remaining cherry tree, the Compact Stella, has neither leafed out nor blossomed at this point.

 

In contrast, all of our peach trees have burst into bloom, or are about to do so.  Our Sentinel peach  has the greatest number of blooms followed by our Saturn.  The Springold, Ranger, Jefferson, Redhaven, and Reliance are just a bit behind the Sentinel.

 

The tree and blossoms below are of the Sentinel peach.  As you can see from at least one of these photographs, our local bee population is hard at work.

 

 

   

 

 

 

The photograph below is of Redhaven peach blossom buds that are very close to blooming.

 

 

As I mentioned a bit earlier, the Saturn peach -- also known as a Peento -- has really had a dramatic bloom this Spring.  It is still a very small tree, but the number of blooms and the striking color of the blooms have impressed me.

 

 

Our two mature apricot trees continue to flourish in bloom.  The Blenheim added more blossoms since the last photographs that I shared, and the Moorpark apricot is also now in bloom.  The first photograph is of the Blenheim and the remainder are from the Moorpark.  My guess is that I'm going to get a good set of fruit from these two --- but we'll see.

 

 

 

 

These apricot blossoms remind me somewhat of fuschia flowers with their combination of red and white coloring.  The blossoms are also somewhat akin to an apple blossom that starts pink and matures to white, but differ in that the apricot blossoms maintain the red coloration much longer.

Nearby, our Cot-N-Candy aprium has really had unusual bloom structure this year.  With the way that the blooms completely cover the branches, it almost reminds me of a delphinium flower.  You can see what I mean from the photograph below.

 

 

 

These blooms have been particularly attractive to the bees.

The apricots, apriums, and pluots are all near each other, and they are producing a heavenly scent in the air.

 

 

 

We have several Blue Velvet and Blue Pacific honeyberry bushes growing around the vegetable garden.   Although they are three years old, they are still very petite bushes.   Indigenous to northern climates, I think they may be stunted by our intense summer heat.

The photograph above is of a honeyberry blossom before it opens.  The photograph below is of opened blossoms.

Also known as blue honeysuckle, you can see the similarities between its blossoms and a honeysuckle blossom.

 

 

Our blueberry bushes have set many, many blossoms.  I love the bell shaped look of blueberry blossoms because they are so unique.

 

 

Our Nanking cherry bushes are also filling with delicate white blossoms.  These are still very young bushes, so they look rather sparse in the photographs.  Later in the year, these 8 or 9 bushes will produce white cherries which are less attractive to the birds; however, I also plan on planting two red cherry varieties to help with pollination.  Last year, although the white Nanking cherry bushes bloomed prodigiously, they did not produce any fruit.

 

Last, but not least, at least one of our pear trees is blooming.  Our Orient pear has set a fair number of blooms.   Because of the sunlight, you have to look very carefully to see the blooms in this tree, but it actually has a decent number of blooms.

 

 

We have a fair number of pear varieties growing in our yard -- Orient, Warren, Monterrey, Moonglow, Pineapple, Kiepfer, Seckle, and Magness -- however, only the Orient has bloomed this Spring.  Last year, we did not have very many blooms, either.  I am concerned that the trees may not be getting enough sunlight because they essentially have a northern exposure resulting from nearby ornamental trees and bushes.  Until these pear trees grow a little taller, they may continue to be sunlight challenged. 

First Fruit of 2011

In this photograph, you can see some of our Seascape strawberries bordering a bed of our blueberries.  If you look very carefully, you can see them blooming.

Even better, this weekend, I noticed that our Eversweet strawberries were doing much more than just blooming, as can be seen in the following photograph.

 

Tonight, I was pleasantly surprised to find our first ripe Eversweet strawberries of the year.  In fact, our first fruit of the year.

Also, our 4 in 1 pluot is covered with small, immature fruit; however, these will take another two months mature.

Our peach trees have also been filled with blooms this year as you can see from the following photograph.  If I can only protect them from the bugs, squirrels, and possums, we should hopefully have a banner harvest later this summer.  The second photograph is interesting in that you can see how the spent flower bud forms into an immature fruit.

 

In the past, our mulberry tree has been the first fruit to ripen.  The mulberry tree was here when we moved into our current house, so I am not entirely sure what kind of mulberry it is.  However, I am fairly certain that it is a morus rubra.  From the following two photographs, you can see the size of the tree along with a close-up of the immature fruit.  I would expect the fruit to begin ripening in about two weeks.  Then, the tree will be inundated with cedar waxwings who will remain until all of the fruit is devoured.  Our children enjoy the fruit, but I find it to be rather plain, albeit sweet.  I may try to make some preserves out of them and see how they turn out.  The fruit of morus rubra have a reputation for being "insipid"; a description which I would generally agree with, although it is somewhat unfairly harsh.  In contrast, morus nigra is reputed to have outstanding taste.  To test that reputation, I planted four bush type morus nigra - Black Persian Mulberries.

Bloom Report for March 9, 2011

 

As of March 9, 2011, the majority  of our existing plums are in bloom.  This includes our: Santa Rosa, Bruce, Allred, and Morris (shown above).  Our AU Rosa and Toka are also starting to bloom.  However, the plums that I planted this Spring have not yet started to bloom:  Reine Claude Doree, Cambridge Gage, and Pearl. 

 

As I previously reported, our 4-in-1 pluot (Splash, Emerald Drop, Flavor Grenade, Geo Pride) was the first fruit tree to start blooming - around March 1st.  Our other hybrids are now starting to come in bloom, with my Cot-N-Candy aprium starting on March 4th .  Tri-lite peach plum, Cot-N-Candy aprium, Flavor Supreme pluot, Flavor Delight pluot are all now just starting to bloom.  The photograph above is of the Cot-N-Candy aprium.

 

Our Nanking Cherries started to bloom on March 5th.  These are young bushes, and you can see their blooms in the photograph above.  When these mature, they should put on quite a show, filled with blooms.

Our peaches are just starting to bud out.   Springold, Ranger, and Redhaven were the first to blossom starting around March 4th.  They still have not fully blossomed.  Ranger, Sentinel, and Jefferson are now starting to also bloom.   Seckle, Magness, Reliance, and Saturn look like they have a few more days before they start to bloom.

  

Our Redbuds also started blooming around March 4th, and our Star Magnolias were the first to bloom at the end of February.

Growing Peaches in Dallas and North Texas

 

 

If you are planning to add some peach trees to your landscape, now is the time to order them.  Texas A&M recommends that peach trees be planted before March 1st.

In this post, I have listed the varieties that Texas A&M and several other growers recommend as being well suited for growing in North Texas and which have good or acceptable taste. 

Depending upon the variety, peaches can ripen anytime from April until August.  Consequently, it is a good idea to plant a mixture of cultivars that will provide you with fruit over an extended period.

Peaches Preferred By Local Growers

Jim Kamas was kind enough to offer his opinions on some of the best and most flavorful peach varieties to grow in Texas.  He is an Assistant Professor & Extension Horticulturist for Fruits at Texas A&M's Department of Horticultural Sciences.  He is also the author of the upcoming Texas Peach Handbook which should be coming out later this year.

The first peach variety that Jim suggests is Harvester.  He describes Harvester as a semi-freestone peach with outstanding flavor and good, but not excessive firmness that colors well.  It has an "[e]xcellent sugar/acid balance and when fully ripe, the flesh pulls away from the pit quite easily."  The fruit of this variety are of a good size, and it is a consistent producer that ripens in mid-June in North Texas. 

Jim also recommends Loring, especially for home owners.  Loring ripens about the fourth of July and can produce exceptionally large peaches, often reaching three and a half inches in diameter.   According to Jim, this variety is "highly prized for its outstanding flavor and some commercial growers get premium prices because of consumer demand."   It can be "a little finicky in setting a large crop, but for homeowners it is an excellent choice of a mid-season freestone variety."

For mid-July, Jim Kamas' favorite peach cultivar is Redskin.  Redskin is a consistent producer of good sized, deeply colored fruit with the occasional bit of red color in the flesh.  "Fully freestone, Redskin is among the most flavorful peaches grown in our area and has been a reliable standard variety for homeowners and commercial growers alike."   It is also commonly the variety of choice for canning or freezing.

Bob Wells of Bob Wells Nursery independently agrees with Mr. Kamas.  Bob's three favorite peach varieties are also Redskin, Loring, and Harvester.

Dale and Judy Ham, who operate Ham Orchard in Terrell, Texas, offer a few additional, recommended choices for planting in your orchard.  In addition to Loring, the Hams prefer Red Globe, Bounty, and Dixiland for North and East Texas.  All are freestone peaches that ripen the first of Juy to July 23rd or 24th.

Red Globe is a freestone variety producing a large, round, dark red skinned peach with yellow flesh. This variety is eye appealling, and some sources state that it requires approximately 850 chilling hours.  It ripens in the first half of July.

Bounty is described as a very good, large, smooth skinned peach.  It is a high quality late bloomer.  It is an attractive, freestone fruit with a cherry-red blush and yellow flesh. Some sources state that it requires approximately 800 chilling hours.  It ripens in the first half of July. 

Dixiland is described as a popular freestone peach with good color.   According to some sources, it requires approximately 750 chilling hours.  It ripens in the second half of July.

Glynn and Sandra Russell operate Newburn Farms in Center, Texas and their favorite selections are Red Globe and Harvester.   As to these two varieties, they think the "best East Texas peach is the Red Globe.  It matures around the first of July and has a sweet and mild taste with melting flesh."  Harvester is hardy and the first freestone to ripen.  The Russells describe Harvester as having excellent taste with a stronger flavor of peach than Red Globe.

Of additional interest, in an article in Mother Earth News, the author polled several growers who rated the top flavored peaches to be:  Reliance, Saturn, Redhaven, Tropic Snow and May Pride.

Reliance:    Reliance produces a medium sized fruit that is dark red splashed over a yellow background. This freestone peach is sweet, flavorful, and good for canning, freezing and fresh use. The tree is vigorous, fast growing, and has showy, bright pink blossoms.  It is a late blooming variety. It is cold hardy and some sources state that it requires approximately 1,000 chilling hours.  Fruits ripen in June.

Saturn:    Also known as the Peento peach, the fruit of this variety are shaped like a doughnut, without the hole.  They have large, showy double pink self-fertile flowers.  The very sweet and tangy, large yellow fruit has melting white flesh.  Some sources state that it requires approximately 400 chilling hours.   The tree is vigorous, spreading, and resistant to bacterial leaf spot.  Ripens in early July with Redhaven.

Redhaven:    This is a widely planted freestone peach.  Its fruit are medium to large sized and have firm yellow flesh.  High quality yellow freestone.  Some sources state that it requires approximately 950 chilling hours.  It ripens in early July. 

Tropic Snow:     Tropic Snow has creamy white, delicious flesh and is a freestone type peach.  Balanced acid and sugar, with superb flavor.  It ripens in May, and some sources state that it requires approximately 200 chilling hours.  It is from Florida, and was introduced in 1988.

May Pride:    This variety produces a very early-ripening peach for warm winter climates. Ripening in May, it has delicious, sweet and tangy fruit.  Very large for such an early peach. It requires approximately 175-200 hours.   It is a patented variety from Zaiger.

Ripening Times and Characteristics

Here is a list of ripening times and fruit characteristics from Texas A&M's AgriLife Extension:

Variety                           Fruit size                Type                Chill hours           Ripening time

EarliGrande	Small-med	Semi-cling	200	4/15-4/20
FlordaCrest	Small-med	Semi-cling	350	4/18-4/24
Flordaprince	Small	Cling	100	4/19-4/29
ValleGrande	Medium	Semi-free	200	4/20-4/25
TropicBeauty	Medium	Semi-free	150	4/25-4/30
TropicSweet	Medium	Free	175	4/25-5/01
Flordaglo	Medium	Semi-free	150	4/29-5/7
TropicSnow	Medium	Semi-free	150	5/14-5/25
FlordaGrande	Large	Semi-Cling	100	5/16-5/27
Springold	Small	Cling	750	5/15-5/20
FlordaKing	Large	Cling	450	5/15-5/20
Springold	Small	Cling	750	5/15-5/20
Bicentennial	Small	Cling	700	5/20-5/30
Bicentennial	Small	Cling	700	5/20-5/30
Texstar	Med-large	Free	650	5/20-6/01
Juneprince	Med-large	Semi-free	650	5/20-6/01
Junegold	Large	Cling	650	5/22-6/03
Goldprince	Med-large	Free	650	5/23-6/05
Tex Royal	Large	Free	600	6/02-6/12
Sentinel	Large	Semi-free	850	6/03-6/14
Sentinel	Large	Semi-free	850	6/03-6/14
Gala	Large	Semi-free	700	6/04-6/15
Rio Grande	Large	Free	450	6/10-6/20
Surecrop	Medium	Cling	1,000	6/10-6/15
Harvester	Med-large	Semi-free	750	6/15-6/25
Harvester	Med-large	Semi-free	750	6/15-6/25
La Feliciana	Large	Free	550	6/20-7/04
Majestic	Large	Free	800	6/25-7/01
Ranger	Large	Free	950	6/27-7/03
Hawthorne	Large	Free	700	6/27-7/7
Fireprince	Large	Free	800	6/30-7/09
Milam	Large	Free	750	7/01-7/10
Redglobe	Large	Free	850	7/01-7/10
Loring	Large	Free	750	7/06-7/11
Denman	Medium	Free	750	7/08-7/16
Redskin	Large	Free	750	7/13-7/20
Dixiland	Large	Free	750	7/14-7/30
Dixiland	Large	Free	750	7/15-7/25
Flameprince	Large	Free	850	7/25-8/05

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/extension/peach/peach.html

My Peaches

To date, I myself have planted Springold, Sentinel, Ranger, Red Haven, Jefferson, Saturn, and Reliance.

Rootstock

When selecting your trees, it is very important to look closely at the rootstock upon which the trees are grafted.  The rootstock will dictate how large the tree will get.  You do not want to plant a tree that will get too big for the space in which you are placing it.  You will be very disappointed and, along with the additional work entailed, the additional pruning to keep its size in check may adversely impact fruit production. 

Cross-Pollination

Peaches are self-fruitful.

Considerations When Planting

This is not intended to be a guide for planting an peach tree.  If you are looking for that kind of guidance, I recommend that you visit this link for a pretty thorough "how-to" primer.

Nevertheless, when you plant your trees, I encourage you to add compost, Mycorrhizal fungi, and Actinovate to the backfill when you are planting.

Finally, in caring for your peach trees, I have found that the occasional spraying of Garrett Juice or compost tea seems to ward off problems for me.

Ideas on Nurseries

If you are looking for an instant orchard, your choices are limited.  Check now with your local nurseries to see what varieties they are or will be caring this Spring and in what sizes.  I typically only see 5 gallon containers in my local nurseries.

Bob Wells Nursery will often carry 5, 10, and 15 gallon trees, so you can try that. 

Willis Orchard Company sells large trees; however be forewarned that these are going to be bare-rooted plants which can sometimes demand more TLC.   (I no longer recommend using Willis Orchard Company as I have now discovered that they sent me several fruit trees that were completely different varieties.  For example, they sent me standard pears instead of the asian pears I ordered!!)

Edible Landscaping also sometimes carries larger sized specimen.

If you are a more patient person and are willing to plant a smaller tree, there are a lot of options out there.  Some of them include:

Texas Nurseries:

Bob Wells Nursery 

Womack Nursery

Cummins Nursery

Caldwell Nursery 

 Nurseries Outside of Texas

Raintree Nursery

Trees of Antiquity

One Green World

Johnson Nursery

Chestnut Hill Tree Farm

Stark Brothers

Grandpa's Orchard

Bay Laurel Nursery

Big Horse Creek Farm

Cloud Mountain Farm

Burnt Ridge Nursery

Greenmantle Nursery

Southmeadow Fruit Gardens

Urban Homestead

If you have planted peach trees in Texas that are bearing fruit, please post a comment and share your experiences along with your favorite varieties for Texas.

 

List of fruits and varieties

Here is a list of the fruit that we have planted in 2009 and 2010:

Apple                            Gala

                                      Fuji

                                      Granny Smith              

                                      Braeburn      

                                      Anna            

                                      Cox's Orange Pippen  

                                      Goldrush      

                                      Spigold       

                                      Wynooche   

                                      William's Pride

                                     

Pears                             Orient          

                                      Moonglow    

                                      Monterrey    

                                      Warren         

                                      Magness      

                                      Kieffer         

                                      Pineapple    

                                      Seckle

                                     

Peaches                         Springold     

                                      Sentinel       

                                      Ranger         

                                      Red Haven   

                                      Jefferson     

                                      Saturn          

                                      Reliance       

                                     

Plums                            Santa Rosa  

                                      Bruce           

                                      Allred           

                                      Morris          

                                      AU Rosa      

                                      Shiro           

                                      Toka

                                     

Cherry                            Bing            

                                      Black Tartarian            

                                      Compact Stella

                                     

Apricot                           Blenheim      

                                      Moorpark

                                     

Asian Pear                     Hosui           

                                      Shinko

                                     

Jujube                            Li  

                                      Lang

                                     

Fig                                 Brown Turkey              

                                      Celestial       

                                      Texas Everbearing       

                                      LSU Purple  

                                      Black Mission        

    

Blueberry                       Tifblue         

                                      Woodard     

                                      Brightwell

                                     

Elderberry                      John's         

                                      Adam's

                                     

Blackberry                      Arapaho thornless       

                                      Ouachita thornless       

                                      Navajo thornless

                                     

Raspberry                      Autumn Bliss

                                      Heritage

                                     

Grape                             Himrod white seedless 

                                      Mars blue seedless     

                                      Saturn seedless          

                                      Ruby seedless            

                                      Chardonney

                                     

Strawberry                     Ozark Beauty              

                                      Quinault       

                                      Ogallala       

                                      Tristar          

                                      Eversweet    

                                      Seascape    

                                      Allstar          

                                      Itasca          

                                      Jewel           

                                      Lateglow      

                                      Earliglow      

                                      Profumata di tortona   

                                      Mignonette alpine        

                                      Rugen alpine

                                      Yellow alpine

                                     

Cornellian Cherry           Elegant        

                                      Pioneer

                                     

Che                                Seedless Che

                                     

Nanking Cherry              White Nanking Cherry

 

Medlar                            Dutch medlar              

                                      Royal medlar

                                     

Pomegranite                  Eversweet

                                     

Persimmon                    Fuyu            

                                      Tani Nashi

                                     

Paw paw                        Mango         

                                      Pennsylvania Golden   

                                      NC1

                                     

Kiwi                               Ananasnaja  

                                      Dumbarten Oaks         

                                      Jumbo Hardy              

                                      Ken's Red    

                                      Saanichton   

                                      Exbury         

                                      Hayward      

                                      Kolomitka

                                     

Pineapple Guava           Pineapple Guava

                                     

Luma Apiculata              Luma Apiculata

                                     

Honeyberry                    Kamchatka   

                                      Blue velvet   

                                      Blue pacific

                                     

Juneberry                       Northline serviceberry

                                     

Jostaberry                      Jostaberry

                                     

Gooseberry                    Poorman

                                     

Shipova                         Shipova

                                     

Hybrids                          Pluot combination of Splash, Emerald Drop, Flavor Grenade, and Geo Pride           

                                      Tri Lite peach plum      

                                      Cot-N-Candy Aprium    

                                      Flavor Supreme Pluot  

                                      Spice Zee Nectaplum

                                     

Wolfberry                       Wolfberry

                                     

Huckleberry                    Evergreen huckleberry

                                     

Mulberry                        2 existing Mulberry trees -- type unknown   

                                         Noir De Spain mulberry