I'd try O'Henry. It ripens a couple weeks after Belle and it is a taste test winner.

I have grown Candors in the past. They need to be thinned hard to get size and if it is dry in June, you will need to water weekly to get them to size up as well. They do have a problem with a lot of split pits but so does many of the early cling peaches. They are very well adapted for our area since it was bred in NC.

Carolina Gold is a good late season peach with browning resistance and was bred by NCState in recent years. I also like Monroe that VA Tech bred in the 70's. Others I have tried as a farm market grower that were later, didn't have the flavor or flesh browning resistance. Carolina Gold blooms heavily and is a bit later blooming than some so you might escape a frost with this one.

Another vote for O'Henry. Coming in a week later is a fine peach called Pretty Lady.

O'Henry has good flavor for a late peach but is extremely susceptible to Bacterial Spot. If you are going to try that one, make sure you keep the nitrogen levels up as that lessens the severity. O'Henry usually starts ripening just as the last of the Monroes are coming off for me.

For something different consider Indian Free - mid September. It is a unique red-fleshed peach that is one of the highest rated in the Dave Wilson taste tests. It has been very good for me but the fruit is not large (also I should thin it more). Last summer it rotted but nearly all my late peaches rotted, I didn't spray enough preventative for brown rot.

I also like O'Henry and Carolina Gold. O'Henry has not had bad bacterial spot on the leaves for me but the fruit does get a lot of it; for me I don't really mind since it does not affect the taste. Overall I would say Carolina Gold is a better peach given its disease resistance and similar flavor to O'Henry.

Scott

I grow some wonderful varieties growing, bt my climate is not your climate and so before I suggested, I googled bacterial spot(since it's not something we worry about here). I was going to suggest you plant a nectarine for variety but they don't seem to be resistant (except maybe Fantasia some say?) These peach varieties are listed as resistant:
Belle of Georgia, Biscoe, Candor, Comanche, Garnet Beauty, Harbrite, Harken, Late Sunhaven, Loring, Madison, Norman, Pekin, Raritan Rose, Redhaven, Redskin and Sunhaven.

Of these, I have tried and love Loring and Harken, very nice peaches. I also have a peach-leaf-curl-disease-resistant multi-graft of Indian Free, Q-1-8 and Frost, and all are quite tasty.

Carla in Sac

My top five are Redhaven, Winblo, Blushing Star, Redskin and Carolina Gold. Belle of Ga is like Silver Queen corn, everyone wants it by name when there are better varieties of white peaches available.

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone. It seems like most of the picks have been for late, late season peaches instead of early, early season peaches. As I thought about it more, I was hoping to extend my peach season on the early side because late in the season there are so many other fruits ripening.

So with that said, I'd love to hear your picks for your favorite super early peaches. I'm looking for the best taste for fresh eating and have no preference for orange or white or cling or free stone.

Thanks!
Bart

Bart, most of the really early peaches do not taste very good and/or they have other problems like split pits. There really is also something nice about eating a ripe peach at the end of September. Anyway the only early peach I like is Gold Dust. It tastes nearly as good as the better later peaches.

It is interesting that years ago Red Haven was "the" super early peach. The whole peach season has moved up over the years and all the unique flavors in the very late peaches have been lost because they have not been used for breeding.

Scott

I'd go with Dixired which ripens 15 days ahead of Redhaven and a week later than the Candor you mentioned. It is a late bloomer with 950 hours chilling requirement. A good sized fruit and generally considered in the South as the first good quality peach of the summer. Many of the McMinnville, Tennessee nurseries that sell both retail and wholesale trees have it such as Vernon Barnes & Sons.

Bart1, Last season I planted a Scarlet Pearl white peach developed in NJ. Haven't tried it yet. Ripens 18 days ahead of Red Haven.

Candor bears with Harrow Diamnod here and HD is slightly better, it's actually quite good some years because it has some acid and competes with later peaches. If you didn't have a significant gap between RH and HD something's fishy.

I didn't answer sooner because I am pretty far from you in southeastern NY state. Thought some more regional advice might be better.

Harrow Diamond has the worst growth habit of any peach I grow in that it doesn't send out much new wood in the center of the tree so after ten years trees it can get inefficiently leggy. If you're careful in encouraging central growth you'll probably be OK.

I don't know how it will do there but Encore is a very good late peach here and is sold by Adam's County Nursery so it must do well in more southern sites than mine. It is rated very resistant to bacterial spot. The A C catalogue rates all their varieties for this disease. They sell other late varieties like Flameprince, Laurol and Ouachita Gold. Flameprince is described as having great flavor and also has good resistance.

Thanks everyone!

Harvestman - thanks for the comparison on the timing of Candor and Harrow Diamond.

Scott - thanks for the recommendation on greatness of late peaches compared to early ones.

Where did you find "Indian Free"? They don't have it at Adams County, my go-to nursery.

Also, what's the best place to find a master list of peach ripening order? I've been using Adams County's chart, but as I mentioned, they don't carry some of the varities mentioned here.

Thanks again,
Bart

Bart, try Bay Laurel or Raintree for Indian Free. For ripening there is also the Dave Wilson poster which is online somewhere, but thats about all I know. I just make my own ripening list in a spreadsheet (it is a column for every fruit and then once a year I sort by ripening date and print that out).

Scott

Peaceful Valley also stocks Indian Free.