I want peaches all the time. Not only early summer, no(!) all summer long until late autumn and winterpeaches. They grow sweeter after frost(dream,dream).
I asked on the Permies and someone suggested i should look for people growing up north , in my case in Europe, because they’re likely to flower later.
Any takers?
Hi Hugo,
We grow peaches in coastal Maine, usa, hardiness zone 5b here, becoming zone 6. About 44 + degrees north. Relatively cool summers due to being on the coast, although getting warmer. We have northern varieties here such as Reliance, Red Haven, and Contender that have done well here and all the way up the coast. Don’t know if you’d have access to those varieties. They ripen in mid to late August, and seem to flower late enough to avoid the frost, although in 2023 no one I know got any peaches due the the freeeze/thaw/freeze/thaw that our winters are turning into. Never heard of a fall or winter harvest! But we freeze a lot for the winter. I’d like to try growing some of the seeds to see how they come out but haven’t done that yet.
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Thanks Anna. That should push peaches to be grown as far north as south Finland and parts of Poland in Europe! That opens possibilities for finding resistant strains!
Peaches grow very easily and fast from pits. As they’re very droughtresistant i use them as windbreaks facing south, chop and drop trees and i’m having a go at ringing them to use the skeleton for climbing beans. Most are delicious, but as they come mostly at ones the badgers(small bear) come for them. Good for the eco system, but sometimes they dig around a bit and planted a cherry tree.
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I am at 52 N and we have varieties that withstand our winters. But, last frost has moved recently from May 15th to June 7th, and that causes some problems.
Anyway, the most resistant varieties grown here are Harnaś and Reliance.
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Very nice info! Thank you Wojchiech.
We’ve had that late frost way past anything normal as well.
Reason for me to intensify looking for late flowering fruit even more.
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Some people grow peaches in southern Finland (I would guess usually coastal, but not always). Getting crop isn’t guaranteed every year and if they ripen it’s just before first frost or when temperatures wouldn’t allow ripening outdoors. Here cold winter isn’t really the problem, but the short summer which is why they might not be ready for winter and get cold damage from temperatures that aren’t even close to their limits.
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Hi Jesse, thank you for your reply. It seems to be quite similar on both sides of the Atlantic. Strange that fruit doesn’t ripen in those three summer-months of many sunhours a day.
Not really, it’s not as hot here as in most of continental US. Alaska is the closest comparison. Other places usually have that extra month or 2 of summer weather even if temperatures don’t get that high. June might still be partially spring month and late august with autumn temperatures. And not like spring/autumn in warmer countries. That’s what our summer is mostly 
Some years it might never get over +25C and lows mostly well below +10C. If it’s a warm summer they do ripen fairly easily.
Another thing might be that they aren’t really bred for our climate so they might linger a bit longer before they wake up during the spring as in our climate it goes so fast from spring to summer. In lower latitudes, even in places with cooler summers, there might be longer period of danger of frost after the first warmer days. I have no personal experience on how fast they get going during the spring, but I would guess that they get delayed a week in just that. Then another week or 2 if june is cool and it’s already big portion of the season wasted.
Very, very good peaches are reliably grown in the Flathead valley of western Montana (48 degrees north, zone 5). A few peaches are grown in central Montana (east of the divide, zone 4). Coastal influences are definitely important.
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I would like to find a brown-rot resistance peach. You’ve inspired me to plant pits now. I also love the idea of girdling small trees for vines to grow up. Thanks!
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Hi Beth, my topography of US is very bad/abysmal, i recently discovered Washington was not in Washington state, go figure! So i looked it up on the maps, where are the Flatheads, must be a gorgeous place with all those lakes and forests. But it seems a long way from the coast, how does the coast have an impact? Is there a dominant wind of sorts?
Is there a named variety that the farmers grow? Or is it the same as the abovementioned Harnas and Resliliance?
It would be worthwhile to gather all cold resistant varieties and keep crossing them as a people breeders collective, landrace style. They pop up so easily and are quick to grow and carry fruit without a lot of maintenance. Kids would see them fruit before they’re teenager and gather knowledge of treegrowing/breeding.
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Yeah plant them Anna. It’s an easy tree to grow.
I’ve planted them at their forever place as well as in a passive tree nursery.
In the forever place not all popped up the first year, some took 2/3 years.
The nursery is sitting below a higher up land with medium oaks growing south of the nursery, water drains down that land since forever and the farmer in my village dug something like a trench which fills up occasionaly. I only water in dry summers, they don’t grow ridiculously big in a season, maybe a foot and a half. They’re super easy to transplant because their rootsystem remains small in one season.
I’ve bought a metal handled drainage shovel with a 4 inch wide long blade with steps and just make slids in the earth to replant in winter. Sometimes i make real holes to fill with compost/earth mix, if i want some more robust growth.
Here’s a wind block I recently planted. A row of trees blocking drying summer winds. I interplant, big winners, with smaller ones. If it’s a scorching summer, maybe the smaller survive, if it’s a wet one both. With a bit of luck in two years this will close.
Like this after 4 years, in summer it’s a big hedge, but you get the idea.
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It is more of an effect of the mountain ranges combined with the way air moves inland from the western coast.
On the western side of the range they receive warmer air with more moisture, while on the eastern side of the range it is drier and cooler.
Hi Hugo
The Flathead valley (and river, and lake) is in far western Montana, just a little bit west of the continental divide. It is just south of the west entrance to Glacier National Park. My late grandfather-in-law was known for regularly catching himself a trout out of the Flathead River off his back porch for breakfast. East of the continental divide, the climate is much harsher - drier, colder in the winter, and hotter in the summer.
Flathead peaches mature in August and are sold as named varieties - now I have to remember what they were, besides being very large. Stark Bros. Nursery recommends the following for zone 4: Blushingstar, Bounty, Canadian Harmony, Contender, Intrepid, and Reliance. Some of those look they were developed quite far south, but there’s a New Hampshire and an Ontario in that list.
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