Description
Peaches are fast-growing, short-lived fruit trees which like a lot of sun. They display delightful cherry-tree-like flowers in spring. The fruit is sweet and fuzzy.
Everyone wants to grow peaches, but the reality is that our location in zone 5 is pushing the cold hardiness of peaches. Peaches are also susceptible to a number of pest and fungal diseases, especially in wetter seasons.
Enter the Siberian C Peach! Reports differ on the origins of Sib C, but what can be seen for sure is that Sib C is a very cold hardy variety of peach. It differs from typical peaches in that it is a smaller, harder fruit which ripens later than your average domestic peach crop. The flavor is still very sweet even later in the year. The trade off for this smaller fruit is excellent cold hardiness, to zone 4 and potentially even zone 3, and much improved disease resistance against issues like bacterial spot and brown rot.
These Sib C are grafted using material which originated from the original Sib C breeder, so expect the excellent traits these are known for exactly as described. The rootstock used this year is Krymsk 1, a well proven rootstock that should perform excellently in conjunction with these great genetics.
Enjoy this tree as a standalone fruit tree, or use it to bring super cold hardy genetics into your personal peach breeding program!
Growth Parameters:
Expect a relatively short lived (less than 15 years) orchard tree. Krymsk 1 rootstock should dictate a smaller than average peach tree, however reports are that trees on these rootstocks are still quite large and vigorous. Plan accordingly!
Peaches need as much sun as possible. Ideally the soil should be rich, however we have peaches growing well in very average clay.
Peach trees are considered self-fertile, so only one tree is necessary for fruit, but having two never hurts!
