"I bought lucky 13 a mid-season because it is the biggest selling PF peach. Olpea grows it but I never heard him comment on it?" I do grow Lucky 13 and it's a good peach. I do prefer more of the stellar series peaches vs. Paul Friday's varieties. Just as a background note for anyone reading this thread. Paul Friday's (Flamin' Fury) varieties were bred in Michigan, as were the Stellar series varieties (any peach with "star" in the name). The Haven series peaches (Redhaven, Cresthaven, Glohaven, etc.) were also developed in Michigan (a long time ago). The Harrow series peaches were developed just across the line in Ontario, so they are also Michigan climate peaches (more or less). Harrow varieties can be identified with the letters "har" somewhere in the name. A lot of peaches were developed in the Michigan area! I've grown Harrow Beauty and Harken for quite a few years. I prefer Harken, which tastes like Redhaven in my opinion. Redhaven doesn't bring much praise on this forum, but I love it. Unless there is a lot of rain, Redhaven has excellent flavor here. Harrow Beauty is good too, but it is prone to turn a bit mealy in extremely high temperatures during ripening. It's done it a few years and whenever it happens, I sell them as seconds (intended for canning or jam). I agree an early peach might be the best bet for no spray. I planted Harrow Diamond for the first time this year so I'm anxious to see how it tastes. I agree with Drew, any homegrown grafted variety peach will be superior to a grocery store peach. I'm also excited about Rich May for a very early variety. I planted the variety in 2012, so I haven't tried it from my own trees yet (did have one from the grocery store). I've heard good things about it for an early peach. It's supposed to ripen 10 days earlier than Harrow Diamond.

bdfrase, I made an appointment with the Extension office in St, Mary's County and spoke with Ben. Ben knew a lot about small fruits like berries. But while I was in his office, we made a conference call to the Anne Arundel extension office and spoke with David Myers. Ben told me that David was the fruit tree expert in Maryland. David wrote a Spray Schedule and also a Home Tree Production guide. Both are available for download at the Anne Arundel Extension site. In his guide, he makes a suggestion for fruits that do well in our area. He spoke very highly of Geneva root stock. And spoke about the problems here with Fire Blight and recommended resistant trees. They also spoke very highly of Adams County Nursery as a supplier. I was not able to get all my trees from them, but found their site very interesting. The truth of the matter is I've gotten more to the point and pertinent information from this forum thanks to Scott and Harvestman and others. I'm in the same position as you, living in Southern Maryland and putting in a small home orchard. Please feel free to email me if I can be of any further assistance. I'm pasting the link to Anne Arundel County Extension. Look under bulletins. Here is a link that might be useful: Anne Arundel Co Extension Center

bboy, ok if you don't tie it up, it may weep at a lower height, OK, that makes sense. I will do that! Thanks! Sean yes we talked about this before. I like Bay Laurel, and didn't know about that option. They do tend to trim roots pretty heavy where others nurseries do not. I have ordered from them before.In general though they can cut any other tree for me. This one, no! Raintree has sent me excellent trees in the past. So I'm not concerned. I would much rather have a smaller tree myself. I live in a hard area to adapt and have found younger trees survive better. Plums are fast growing, not that concerned with size. This tree for me is more ornamental, I have other plum trees for production. The fruit on this though is very good, some say better than the regular Santa Rosa. plus it is a great pollenizer, and I need it for that too. Back to Bay Laurel, another problem I have is they have to send out in the first week of March at the latest. I would need to heel in the tree in the garage, which is a problem. Last year the ground was frozen until around April 1st. Raintree will send at the end of April. A much better time for my zone. I will order again from Bay Laurel but only trees I cannot get elsewhere. I did order a Southmoon blueberry from them last year. I potted it up and kept in a south window, till winter broke. I think next time I will pot tree up and just put it outside on a protected porch. I tried heeling in once, and the tree died. Bummer, it was a very rare tree and a beautiful specimen. That hurt to lose it. The nursery is not offering the tree anymore, Old Mixon Free peach tree. Near impossible to obtain. I used the spot now, and have no room for it anyway.

I remember when Nadia's patent was first published in 2009, I got so excited to see the first plum x cherry hybrid been patented and possibly been released to the U. S market. But when I saw it was only available in Australia, I got disappointed. Nevertheless, I still followed the news articles about this hybrid. And then, this year: Surprise! Raintree Nursery had them on sale! As soon I saw it on Raintree's page, I ordered one, followed by another one two weeks later.