Nine years ago, I received the following email from husband and wife Mark Gilles and Shawn Mulloy: “We are among the lucky ones who have a productive peach tree. It’s growing in our side yard in the area of Lake Balboa (center of the San Fernando Valley). It is a freestone variety about six feet tall and 12-15 years old. It produces a wonderful crop yearly. All we really do is prune it in the winter and thin out the young peaches as they grow in.”
Then, this January, I received another email from them extolling the tree. “Last year, the wet winter and prolonged cold led to a wonderful bloom and a large crop. We harvested about three times, mostly in June/July,” they wrote. “The tree is located on the east side of the house so it misses the late sun in the summertime. It usually starts to bloom in February and I start watering when I start to see leaves poking out. I cultivate around the base and slow soak it about once a week. It sits in very well-drained soil, so I add mulch from time to time. I don’t give it a specific fertilizer.”
Since their tree was 12-15 years old 11 years ago, it is 23-28 years old today. The fact that it is still going strong is nothing short of astonishing since the productive life of a peach tree in California typically ends at the age of 12. Production begins at the age of 4 and peak harvests extend until the age of 8. Substantial crops are still produced until the age of 12 but there is a rapid decline in yield after that.
So Mark and Shawn, to use their words, are indeed “among the lucky ones,” and more so as the years go by. Aside from their tree’s longevity, they inform me that they have been blessed with never having had to contend with peach leaf curl, a devastating fungal disease that causes puckered leaves but affects buds, shoots, and fruit as well. If you encounter this disease, the only recourse is to spray fungus-infected trees with dormant oil each winter prior to bud break. As for insects, the couple has never seen aphids or whiteflies but grasshoppers do occasionally nibble the tree’s foliage.
Naturally, I wanted to know the varietal name of this Lake Balboa peach in order to recommend it but, alas, Mark and Shawn had not planted the tree; it was there when they acquired the property. In doing research, however, I had several pieces of information at hand that have allowed me to zero in on its identity.
First, its growers reveal that it is a freestone peach, so named because the flesh easily separates from the pit. (By contrast, the flesh of clingstone varieties, favored by canners, more tightly adheres to the pit.)
Second, it is a low-chill variety since it produces fruit every year. Each deciduous fruit tree variety has a number of winter chill hours that it requires in order to flower and fruit. Those are the total number of hours of temperatures between 32 and 45 degrees between Nov. 1 and Feb. 28. Although the total number of chill hours during this time frame in the San Fernando Valley may exceed 300 hours, it is often in the 100-200 hour range. The vast majority of peach varieties require more than 500 winter chill hours to flower and fruit, but some require less than that and a select few need only 100-200 such hours to produce.
Third, the harvesting period of this variety is June and July. (Depending on variety, peaches are harvested as early as May and as late as the end of September).
Fourth, it is a semi-dwarf. You might think it would classify as a dwarf because of its modest stature, but I have seen several dwarf peach varieties in Los Angeles over the years and have never observed more than a couple of fruit on any one of them. While semi-dwarf peach trees, grown on rootstocks that limit their growth, mature at a height of 8-14 feet, you can keep them at around 6 feet through conscientious pruning, which appears to be the practice of Mark and Shawn.
In the end, I could only find one freestone peach variety with a 100-200 hour winter chill requirement that is harvested in June and July and is commonly grown as a semi-dwarf. That variety is Eva’s Pride. It is grown by Otto & Sons Nursery, at (805) 524-2123, in Fillmore and by Dave Wilson’s Nursery, at 800-654-5854, in Hickman (near Modesto). Both supply Southern California nurseries and, through contacting them, you would learn which nursery near you carries their trees.
Peaches are native to China. Their scientific name is Prunus persica, which would indicate Persian origin but that name was given since it was in Persia that the tree was extensively cultivated and from where it spread throughout the world. Peaches first arrived in America together with Spanish monks who settled in St. Augustine, Florida, in the 1500’s. Peach trees soon spread from there to the north until they were being planted at the beginning of the next century in Jamestown, Virgina and eventually in Maine. They were first brought to California by the Spanish padres in the 1700’s. Although peaches demand a spell of hot summer weather, they are among the hardiest fruit trees and are grown in nearly all fifty states.
Anyone reading this who has a success story to tell regarding a peach or nectarine (fuzzlesss peach) tree is invited to email it to me for publication in this column.
On Saturday, February 29, Armstrong Garden Centers will be celebrating its 130th Anniversary milestone by offering customers the following: Free Rose Plant in a Pulp Pot. (Regular price $26.99.) No purchase required. One per household while supplies last.
Tip of the Week: In addition to their uniquely productive peach tree, Mark and Shawn have the most glorious star magnolia (Magnolia stellata) I have ever seen. Now is the time of year when saucer magnolias (Magnolia soulangeana) are covered with those glorious giant tulip shaped flowers in the pink to lilac spectrum. But star magnolias have a unique charm of their own. Their somewhat serpentining flower petals, usually white but occasionally pink, have a kinetic quality to them and they are fragrant, too. The Royal Star cultivar has up to thirty petals per flower.
