The authority on low-chill fruits for Florida is www.chestnuthilltreefarm.com in Alachua, which has online ordering. The owner is very helpful if you email him, he recommended certain low-chill fruits for my zone 10 in Martin County. Prices are reasonable too, the same trees available on their site for $20 are sold for $39.99 at HD and nurseries in So Fla.

UF has been breeding low-chill peaches for some time now, some of the cultivars produce well even in Homestead. Some of the citrus growers are switching to peaches as citrus becomes more problematic. I have tried most of the UF varieties, and they are delicious, there is nothing like a tree-ripe peach, I just picked some off of my Floridaprince tree yesterday. I don't know who would be selling them in Venice, but check with Hibb's farm & garden in Sarasota, they may have them or could order some for you.

I know someone growing peaches in Englewood. Some years are good (this year) others just OK. His biggest problem is pests destroying fruit (not this year). Name of cultivar is long lost.

I have a couple low-chill nectarines from Bay Laurel in CA 4 years ago and never had a fruit yet even with the big chill this winter.

My neighbor has peaches on her tree but I must say they are the size of a plum not like the ones from Ga. But they are tastee.

TropicBeauty is a fantastic peach which only requires 150 chill hours. It's realiable every year. If you thin the peaches to only every 6 or 8 inches (or more) from each other, you can get big peaches. Mine were around tennis ball sized. They would be so juicy you had to eat them over a garbage can because so much juice would come out when you bit them.

Gary

Treefrog brought homegrown peaches to the swap earlier in the month. The one I had was wonderful. The juice was running down my chin and my arm. I wasn't embarrassed one bit. LOL Peaches are my fav!

The third week-end in July there is a fruit-tasting at Jene's Nursery here in St Pete, she deals in Tropical fruits, I plan on going and maybe getting a peach, as well as some other smallish trees, dwarf this-n-that..... sally

I have to agree with Gary, tropic beauty is a winner. I have had my trees for about 5 years now and the fruit is delicious. I am deep in zone 10 and they thrive here.

Hi Keiki, I'd challenge any peach down here to beat it. I had one yesterday, it was a little more tart than usual, but still great. Mine only produced a few this year, around a dozen or more, perhaps due to the odd temps. At least the winter seems to have beat up the Caribbean Fruit Fly, those are it's biggest nemesis for me.

Gary

Gary I don't have a problem with fruit fly here (knocking on wood). My biggest problem this year is the trees are so loaded I can't eat or give away the fruit fast enough.

I think it was the cold weather we had. My trees are full of fruit. I even have some left over after the possums, racoons and fruit rats eat their fill. They are smaller than the grocery store variety but very sweet and full of juice once they ripen off the tree for a few days. The nectarine tree was not as prolific; maybe next year.

Now, if I can just convince my German Short Haired Pointer to stop eating those that fall off the tree.

Such gorgeous peaches posted above!

Gary, from where did you get the Tropic Beauty peach tree(s)? I'm in Fort Lauderdale about 2.5 miles from the beach. Think they'd do well here? Thanks.

Sheri

I just picked my first home grown peach today. It was very tasty. This was from a Flordacrest tree, from Chestnut Hill Tree Farm. The tree was picked up at the nursery the first week of March. I also purchased some Tropic Snow which appear to be a little later to ripen, which is good.
Here are a few links that I book marked when researching this:
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/hs366
http://ffsp.net/peach.html
http://hos.ufl.edu/stonefruit/varieties.shtml
http://hos.ufl.edu/stonefruit/nurseries.shtml
http://www.chestnuthilltreefarm.com/Peaches-and-Nectarines-1926.Category.html?gclid=CLzRwIm9laACFSgtswodlHIcdw

Nice looking peaches. You obviously didn't thin them much, but still came out with nice ones.

I got my tropicbeauty from Walmart around 6 or so years ago. It grew very fast. Not sure how well they tolerate near the beach, but it's worth a try.

TropicSnow is supposed to be extremely tasty with white flesh. Slightly higher chill requirement.

Gary

Gary. Haven't seen peach trees at the Walmarts here in Broward County. You're near Melbourne, right? That's somewhat further north than where I live. Wonder if that variety would do well here? You or anyone know the farthest south your variety does well? Thanks, Sheri

Yeah, it was years ago that I bought it there. I don't think it'll have a problem where you're at, but it's not a slam dunk. Definitely worth a try though.

Gary

Gary,

If I can find a tree of that variety, I'll most likely purchase it. Thanks for the info. Sheri

If you don't find it, wait til fall and try to buy it bare root on the internet. Shipping should be reasonable as bare root isn't so heavy.

Gary

Thanks guys. Hope to check into purchasing one of these trees in the near future. Sheri

I contacted Chestnut Hill and they don't have the new low-chill variety "UF Sun" peach tree. Does anyone know where I can get this variety?

Thanks,
Adiel

Adiel,

You can find them on this site.

Click the link below and scroll down the page to it.

Lou

Here is a link that might be useful: UF SUN

Thank you Lou, I placed an order with just fruits and exotics for the 'UF Sun' Variety. I will post a picture once it is planted!

Adiel