Silvia, it's good to know it's not just me.

Around here lots of stuff is blooming out of season. It seems like everything that lost leaves in the storm is blooming as they return, like oaks, for instance. Weird to see tress that are half normal and half all covered with tiny leaves and blossoms.

Hi Glenn

I have no feedback regarding the fruiting habit of your tree, but just thought I'd pick your brain a little regarding the growing of peach trees in general here in Florida. I gave up on them almost 5 years ago. Got the bright idea around 2009, bought & planted two ( both Tropic Beauty's ) and gave them my full attention. Eventually after 3 years of hard work, I had to give them both away, problem was critters,..lots of critters ( birds, squirrels, rabbits, etc ). Main ones I recall were birds. In year 2 I had to buy netting for both trees as the birds and some 4 legged guys were ruining the flesh of many. In year 3, as the trees grew I bought larger nets, till I had the largest available at Home Depot. In the morning I'd still find the occasional ( 2x a week ) kamikaze guys that flew in UNDER the netting, through the few gaps, attacked some fruits, - couldn't escape and wound up flapping their wings on a branch as they died. Won't go into detail on the other critters that I also had to deal with.

After ridding myself of those two trees I stuck with my 4 mango trees and 20 some-odd banana plants,...much less hassles,..much less !! lol

So just curious, didn't these guys hassle your trees as well ?

Jofus , no I have very little problems. I did have a squirrel once but my cat ate him in short order. The one problem I do have is ants. One that will burrow into the soft wood at the center where I trimmed branches so I always have to seal the cuts. Other than that no problems

Peach tree in October. Squirrels ate all the peaches this year

Jhl1654 what kind of peach tree is it?

It's one of the Low chill varieties that I bought at HD 12 years ago, I can't remember the variety, the fruits are very small

My daughter in Richmond, Va sent me pictures of three of her neighbors peach trees loaded with peaches. I was very surprised, I think maybe it was because of the warm weather we have been having this time of year. I have one peach tree I just planted this past spring so I'm waiting to see what it will do next year.

Beverly, where is your peach tree located in Florida ?

Peach trees blooming out of season (also known as rogue bloom) is a common occurrence, probably from the excess water trees get during the late part of summer. My Tropic Snow peach does it every year, but when I notice it I pick off the blooms to discourage the tree from producing them. The tree may try to continue to bloom, but within 1 - 2 weeks I can eliminate the behavior. Tropic Snow is rated at 200 chill hours, but it always produces for me with little to no chill at all. Its normal bloom cycle in my area (Orlando) is around mid to late January, with the crop maturing sometime in May. Pay attention as it ripens, as it falls off the tree and animals/birds will readily pick them off. They're white-fleshed, very sweet with a tangy aftertaste. Great and reliable peach for Central Florida!

I tried growing Flordaprince a few years ago, but my tree died due to excess water accumulation. My backyard doesn't have the sandy soil for which FL is famous. In the summer time, the daily afternoon rains turn my backyard into a swamp that would make Shrek jealous! Peach trees grown in FL use rootstocks that are very susceptible to wet feet (Nemaguard, Flordaguard, etc.) If you plant a peach tree in the ground and the soil is not sandy, the excess water from summer rains will kill the tree. Generally speaking, retail nurseries don't give you this information when you buy the tree and it's not on the label (if it has one). They either don't know it, or they assume that trees are one-size-fits-all and the tree should grow anywhere. After many dead trees and years of experience, I grow peaches in raised beds to allow for good drainage. The closest thing to a Flordaprince that I've tried is Tropic Beauty, another low-chill peach suitable to our area. Just like Flordaprince, it's rated at 150 chill hours but in my experience it produces reliably with almost no chill at all. I hope your Flordaprince can produce tasty peaches for many years to come!

This is my second Florida Prince. I enjoyed the first so much I got a second. Had to move so I only got to take the small one with me. The other was to big for me to dig out in the time I had. I love getting my spring peaches. There always ready right at my birthday.

To improve the amount of fruit you can get, you can plant 3 or 4 peaches next to each other and maintain them like a large fruiting bush. Keep them all at the same height and don't let any one of them get taller than the others. They can be maintained at a mature height of

6 -7 feet tall by pruning them in summer to control size and in winter for details. I don't have a large backyard, but have over 30 fruit trees of different varieties because I keep them pruned to a height that's manageable for me. Here's a photo from one of my raised beds.

Javier, looks good. I'm also on a small lot. Bear with me here. This is what I have. Florida Prince peach, Sam Houston peach, the plum you saw on the other vine. Manchurian apricot, Florida home pear, a no I'd hard pear and two others that at the moment I don't remember what they are. nam doc mai Mango. Two apples. Key lime, ponderosa Lemon, satsuma owari ,praying hands banana, apple banana, dwarf Cavendish, and a unknown the I think is ice cream but am waiting to see. Ever bearing mulberry, native red mulberry, Pakistani white mulberry and a no Id mulberry, caleist fig,a no I'd fig cloned from my great uncles. Coffee, pomegranate, dwarf pomegranate, avocado, Japanese plum can't remember the real name right now. I probably forgot something but that's a good start of what I have going. All are young since I moved 3 years ago.

You have quite the orchard going on! I grew up in Puerto Rico, so when I moved to FL 15 years ago I wanted to see what could be grown here that is different. Climatewise, Orlando is borderline between tropical and subtropical but still cool enough you can grow temperate fruits. I'm growing apples, apricots, (true) low-chill sweet cherries, figs, nectarines, peaches, persimmons, plums, pomegranates, and natural hybrids of stone fruits (apriums, cherry-plums, nectaplum, peacotum, pluerries, plumcot, and pluots). I also dabble a bit with grafting. I purchase compatible apple and plum rootstocks online from nurseries in the Pacific Northwest. I grow them in containers for a year, then graft cuttings of non-patented varieties during February. I do it for fun, but also for replacement stock in case something dies off. This winter break I intend to work on an espalier project with apple, citrus, and persimmon trees.

Nice, I do some grafting too.haven't got to that yet at this house. I'm hoping to next year. I don't really think I'm gonna have time this year. You got some good stuff there. I haven't tried the cross breeds you got. Been wanting to but I need to buy the lot next door to have room.

I know the feeling! What I do is donate some of my plants to family, friends, and my children's school to see different projects come to fruition. When I do the espalier project I'll take pictures so maybe you can take advantage of your space and plant more fruit trees closer together.

Sounds about right. Going to bring some mulberry clones to kids school in a couple of weeks. I gave a bunch of stuff to the local high school but the grounds crew ran them all over. So that willn't work. But the grade school already has fruit trees and take care of them. Not that the kids at the high school didn't they started a club for it but the teachers want to play politics and ruined it for them it was kinda sad but I will not give them any more. But I have given some of the kids trees for home and they always take great care of them.

Sorry, Glenn! I couldn't stay awake anymore after the last comment. That's a great thing you're doing to help the schools and the kids so they can reap the benefits of growing fruit trees. My goal for the future is to have my own business and/or partner with a state university to help homeowners embrace the concept of backyard orchard culture.

Javier that's OK, you got a nice goal there. I'm a believer that everyone should have at least one fruit tree more if they can.

The more the better! Many people think they have space for only one tree because the literature out there makes them believe the tree has to grown full size. However, people should know they can grow smaller trees in the same space as one full-size tree and have fruits that ripen at different times in throughout the year.

It's amazing how many you can get it you just plant dwarf and semi dwarf trees most of mine are but some are full size and everything is strategically placed. Hoping to burn a lot of a oak I had to cut down this winter so I can plant there I already have the trees for it.

I espaliered four peaches and a persimmon along my fence line on the side of the house here in Orlando. They are about 2 years old and 15 feet high -- I'll keep them topped off at about that height. No problems and lots of peaches -- damn squirrels do get some though; before I grew fruit trees I'd feed them peanuts, but now I've grown to hate them.

Nice! 15 feet in height is really tall, but if it's not too much trouble for you then more power to you! What varieties of peach and persimmon do you have? I'm starting my own espalier project in the next few days, so it's cool to know some of my Orlando peoples have it going on!

This is an old post but I am wondering - any luck with the true cherries?

I've never tried them in Central Florida, and you can't buy them here anyway. I'm told that they require far longer chill hours than what we receive. It's only getting worse with global warming too. Twenty five years ago, I could only grow citrus, cold tolerant avocado (not as good) and did well with plums, peaches, etc. I'm not complaining but I now grow sapodilla, mango, good avocado and lychee. I'll soon be growing ultra tropicals at this rate. :)

There are actually a lot of low chill peaches that do great here in Florida and the one shown above has stabilized in its bloom as it got older I get around 350 or so peaches a year and is very reliable. FYI it's a Florida Prince peach just in case you wanted one. 150 chill hours

Hello, folks! It's been quite a while since I've seen comments from you, so I'm glad you're still alive and well through it all. My life went through some turbulent times and part of them included the sale of the home I had with my former wife, meaning that I lost all of the stone-fruit project I had been working on for years. However, God gave me strength to endure and begin anew and in 2019 I got remarried, bought another house, became a father again after 40, and began another fruit planting project. The new project includes stone fruits like peaches, nectarines, plums, pluots, pluerries, and a self-fruitful, low-chill sweet cherry called Royal Crimson. This variety came grafted on Mazzard and it'll be a while before it can produce because Mazzard is not a precocious rootstock, so we just have to wait a couple more years to see if the tree actually produces cherries. However, the highlight of our project is apple trees, as we're growing over 50 different varieties (through multiple-grafted trees and trees planted in clusters) that include more than the traditional Anna and Dorsett Golden. Although it's not a visit nursery, my wife and I have a small nursery called Stone River Nursery that specializes in selling apple trees that are warm-climate tested, some heirloom varieties, and even some red-fleshed varieties. We have a FB page (Stone River Nursery) that you can check out if interested, so we'd be happy to help people try out new things in the FL backyards! BTW, many chill hours are not required to get apples in FL regardless of what UF/IFAS publishes, so don't let that be a deterrent to grow your own!

Good to see you. Can I have a link to your nursery

Hello, Glenn! We don't have a web site at the moment, but we do have a Facebook page under the name Stone River Nursery.