I live in the fruit growing region of Michigan and have never heard of or seen peaches from here other than during the few weeks that peach season lasts. Apples yes, peaches no.

I did however just see an ad from a grocery store here advertising Southern peaches at $1.29 lb. I'll check those out for sure.

There won't be much of a fruit harvest here this year. We had warm temps in March that got the trees going and then hard freezes just as the buds were flowering. From what I have read cherries, apricot, plums, pears, peaches and apples are 90% lost. What might remain prolly won't be worth picking.

Nancy

Well, that's what I thought, but the annoying little stickers said Michigan peaches very clearly. They are a bit smaller, and look more like what I can sometimes grow here in WI. I did also just hear this afternoon about an area in SW Illinois that had it's first peach crop in. They said it was the earliest in the 175 years they had been keeping track.

Steve

My guess is that the produce distributor used the wrong packaging or labels.

I have NEVER seen peaches this time of year in MI, I'm a native. Not even here in PA, my adopted state. They are crazy, MI peaches just got done blooming!! I did get some very good SC peaches last year IN Michigan in June of last year! It's even too early for MI strawberries! They are probably Mexican peaches!

I am even more of a skeptic than that....could it be peaches grown in Chile from say Michigan stock?..."Michigan peaches"...in the same way we might advertise New York Strip steak?
There was an ad in our flier for Michigan peaches too....I didn't check out the peaches I was too busy with the local strawberries!

The standard early peach season in MI is July 1st.

May be it is possible to be now if the weather is unusually warm this year.

We have peaches year round here in NYC. All are from other areas.

dcarch

LindaC "---Sweet corn at $.17? Wonder what 3rd world country that comes from? ---"

I assume you are joking.

Speaking of joking, Jenny, I was only teasing you. Looking back at my post, the little smiley face I put behind the sentence never showed up.

I have 75 tomato plants in my garden this year. I use and cook tomatoes in all different ways; roasted , baked, stewed, fried, stir fried, ---- sauce, juice, powdered, paste, leather ------

There is no wrong way to eat home-grown tomatoes.

Slow roasted semi-ripe tomatoes on pizza is one of my favorite ways.

dcarch

Sorry, posted in the wrong thread.

Multi-tasking after wine tasting is not working well for me.

:-)

dcarch

My Tennessee peaches are not even golf ball size yet. And that was after an early blooming. SC being ready would even be a stretch, I think.

I bought two boxes of New Jersey blueberries and then it occurred to me that BB season in NJ is in the summer. I looked more closely at the label and it said they were distributed by a company on NJ. Excuse me? Just because they passed through the state of NJ does not make them NJ blueberries.

The Amish always sell produce marked "fresh from Lancaster County" when it's out of season. I think they come from hothouses in Lancaster County, not from the field.

Coming through Georgia this week, we stopped for a few things including peaches. They were smaller than usual because of the lack of rain this season. However, they were a tad sweeter like Steve mentioned.

We did have a great BB season but it has been over for about a month.

I'm also a Michigan native and a farmer AND live in the fruit belt. Michigan fruit took a big hit this year, here in Western/Northern Michigan fruit is nearly a 100% loss. That includes apples, pears, plums, cherries, apricots and those peaches. On my own place the peaches, apples, pears and cherries were a 100% loss, there's nothing left. Well, I guess I shouldn't say a 100% loss, there are THREE cherries on one of my trees, maybe there could be four if I looked long enough.

Nope, I can't believe they are Michigna peaches, maybe as has been mentioned they were simply distributed by a Michigan company?

Annie

Annie, I lived in Grand Rapids for about 10 years and looked forward every fall to apple picking. We kept a grocery bag (when they were paper) in the garage and everyone had an apple when coming or going. None since have measured up to those fresh off a tree in Michigan!

jae, we just seem to have the perfect climate for apples. 65% of the state's apple crop comes from the "fruit ridge", just north of Grand Rapids. My husband's sister still lives in Tennessee and she says they just "can't get a good apple" there and that they're expensive.

I notice it most in Delicious apples, the ones from the store never taste like the ones I knew when I was a kid. Now I pluck one from my tree at the farm and they taste like Delicious apples used to taste.

But not this year. Sigh. Two years ago we had an apple crop that was so huge that storage units were filled, people picked their own and the charities even stopped taking apples because there was no storage. The livestock was very happy that year, they got the overflow, even after the cider mills used all they could.

Dad used to tell me that farming was like playing poker with God. The peaches, though, that's what Ashley is going to miss, she just loves the fresh homecanned peaches, won't touch the ones from the store.

Annie

Annie you are killing me! :( BF and I were just talking yesterday and agreed that peaches are our favorite fruit! And no MI apples!!!!??? PA can turn out a passable peach or plum, but apples--meh! Luckily NY is close by, and they have great apples. Don't know if they got hit, I doubt it, winter here was mild and it went from winter to summer with practically no in between. It's 90 here and so humid you'd think you were in SC! If anything, drought in April of all months, and now heat and seeming constant rain will be our region's undoing. Plus all the bugs loved the mild winter.

L, we had a strangely mild and early spring, all the fruit trees blossomed and then we had a two night freeze, then back to the 80s for another month. Anything that wasn't killed the first freeze blossomed and got killed the second freeze. One night and then it was back into the 80s. Strange, strange year for weather. It's already dry here, the pasture is suffering and it's only May.

anyway, the original post was whether it could be Michigan peaches, and I just don't think so.

Annie

I have 3 peach trees that look to be pretty loaded. Two years ago we had so many that friends were taking them home in 5 gallon buckets. Last year I didn't see many and didn't get even 1 due to the deer and raccoons!. I am desperately trying to find a way to keep the deer from cleaning out the lower branches! Any ideas? We were lucky not to lose any due to temperature changes since they blossomed early but it never got cold enough to hurt them. I think they will ripen about 2-3 weeks earlier than usual.

You'll have to put up a six foot deer fence around them and maintain it. I haven't seen any other options work except for shooting them, which I think you can only get a permit for it you suffer x amount of damage to your crops and you make a living farming, which doesn't sound like your situation.

Actually a fence will not stop raccoons.

You may want to look into a solar electric fence system. It is not that expensive.

It will stop deer, raccoons, rabbits, squirrels, --------.

It will not harm pets or animals.

dcarch

Thanks. A fence sounds better than shooting them, lol! I was thinking about wrapping the tree with plastic garden netting thinking it might keep them away.... I might try it.

I have heard of people having good luck with motion activated water sprinklers.
The critter ventures in and the squirter goes off scaring them away. After several tries they give up for a while......and eventually try again!!
Live trapping and relocation works well for raccoons. But you have to repeat often. Last fall my neighbor to the back trapped 9 in 10 days, now they are back literally begging for cocktail snacks from the edge of the deck!

"You may want to look into a solar electric fence system. It is not that expensive"

My own experience says the solar charger IS a good deal more expensive than the line voltage unit. In addition my solar unit failed after only one year. I went to an extension cord and a regular charger. My 35 X 37' garden is protected with 7 lines (heights) of hot wire. It is mainly for the massive deer and rabbit populations and it works when I remember to turn it on!

I've never had a solar charger for the garden, but I bought one for the pasture last summer. I have about two miles of fence and it was a "10 mile) charger so should have been plenty strong enough for what I needed. It was about twice the cost of my regular electric fencer and it didn't work well, I could grab the wire with my bare hand and barely got a shock. I installed extra ground rods, with no discernible improvement. I ran a ground wire all the way around the pasture. Still no improvement. When I returned it I was offered a different brand witha "20 mile" power rating. It was no better, I returned it and purchased a regular electric charger. The manager at the co-op told me that every solar charger he'd sold except two had been returned, they just don't work that well here, we "don't get enough sun". Now, I'd understand that in February, when we often get 20+ days of consecutive "zero" sunshine but I got mine in August and it still didn't work.

So, until they improve, I refuse to recommend a solar fencer, based on my own experience.

Annie

Solar charger should work very well. There are bad ones out there. It depends on the following:

1. Size and type of solar cell - there are several types of solar cells (silicon p-n junction, Polycrystalline, etc.). The system needs a cell big enough and efficient enough to generate enough charging power (watts) to charge up the batteries.
2. Storage batteries - there are many types and qualities of storage batteries, lead-acid, ni-cad, lithium, etc. Cheap systems the batteries soon deteriorate and will not have the power to generate the high voltage.
3. Correct installation - any leakage in the installing the components renders the system useless. A small branch touches the wire will not be good.

An electric fence system stop all critters except burrowing animals, birds and insects. Read the reviews to find one that's proven. Solar power is proven and long lasting. My town recently changed all the parking meter to solar powered.

dcarch

Yes, dcarch, a solar charger SHOULD be good. They just weren't.

I read the reviews and the first one I bought was a Zareba. The second one was a Fi-shock. Both worked, but just barely and if it won't stop me, it won't stop an 1800 lb. bull.

As for properly installing, Elery is an electrician. When we spent 3 days doing everything he could think of and it still didn't work, we called customer support and had already done every single thing they could suggest. It just didn't work for us. Apparently it didn't work for a lot of other people either, since a huge majority were returned.

Having spent my entire life on farms with electric fences to keep in large animals, I'm aware of the possibility of a fence shorting out from grass and trees, etc., although most of my problems are caused by those rats-on-hooves known as white tail deer. I'm also very familiar with the installation and usage of those electric fencers.

Now, I have a solar powered radio, I have a solar powered calculator. A neighbor has solar panels for his garage, but has to use electric backup, especially in the winter. They just didn't work for my electric fence.

Annie

Lots of things work in theory but not in actuality....like a Roomba...in theory you turn it on before you leave, it cleans and goes back to it's corner....if it doesn't get stuck going back and forth in a hall.
and those sprinklers that follow the hose around your lawn or garden....unless they get stuck and sit there digging itself into the ground and making a soggy mess of one spot.

Yes, some things you have to learn from experience. Although it sounds good on paper or on the internet and it should work in theory, sometimes it just doesn't. Sort of like the bumblebee, which should not be able to fly, yet it does.

Anyway, solar fencers did not work for me, although I tried everything. We do have frequent power outages and when that happens, my fence is no longer electric. The solar charger would have been a perfect option, if only I could have made it viable.

Annie

Well, whether any kind of fence would work best is a non issue. The trees are about 200ft from my house where there is water or electricity. Any barrier would have to be like the netting I mentioned or some noxious smelling liquid to spray on the trees. I have used a spray on other plants but not sure if it is safe to use on fruit. I have to decide pretty soon because they are ripening.

Electric fence operates on low current and high voltage, which behaves very different than low voltage high current household 110vac.

It is not a high technology expensive device to generate high voltage. I have several high voltage bug zappers that vaporize flies which only costs $4.00 each.

http://www.harborfreight.com/electronic-fly-swatter-40122.html

They actually work very well and fun to use to kill flying moths and flies.

If Elery is handy with high voltage work, just take out the flyback transformer board from an unused TV set and hook that up to a fence system. But you need to reduce the voltage (20,000v to 50,000v) or you can kill someone.

Or you can get an inexpensive insect zapper, those that uses a UV light, and hook that to the fence.

For a relative low voltage electric fence system, if you are wearing rubber shoes, you may not get a shock if you grab the wire, and you will think that the system is not functioning.

For a very high voltage system, you can get a major jolt even you are, say, half an inch away from actually touching the wire and have rubber shoes on.

dcarch

Jae, while you are certainly free to disregard the advise of others, at least two of us posting in this thread have specifically had success protecting our gardens from deer, rabbits and racoons. If you were on most of the other garden web forums where garden protection comes up, you would find that the most sucessful inexpensive method is electric fencing. It is therefore specifically not moot with a solar charger, and many of us especially at Christmas run extension cords for 200 feet or more in spite of protests from Elery or my son who is also an electrician.

dcarch, I bought a traditional electric fencer for less than a third of the price of the solar one, and it works very well. Elery did the math and says it costs about 2 cents a day to run, and we spent a week and several hundred dollars running wire and sinking ground rods, so it's pretty much a done deal. If the power goes out, we'll have to hook it to the generator or else put the stock in the barnyard until power is restored.

When I need a replacement I'll consider solar again, if they've improved enough. Because Elery is a licensed electrician and has spent 37 years working for a large power company and is NERC and FERC compliant and has a couple of degrees in that field, I think if it could have been manufactured to be reliable and economical and still work, he would have done it simply because he is stubborn enough to need to make it work, LOL, he doesn't give up easily. But he's also not stupid stubborn, so he won't spend a lot of hours and dollars rigging up something just to prove he can if there's an easier and simpler option.

The other 98% of users who were also disappointed might try it again too, if they can actually make them work, so hopefully they'll get better.

An "unused TV"? I don't even have television, LOL. As for the bug zappers, I don't use those at all, they actually attract bugs, which I have enough of already, thank you. I use fly predators at the farm and they are very efficient and take no electricity at all. Low tech, that's just the ticket for me. (grin)

Annie

What a hoot watching this thread go further and further off topic!! Anyway, wherever they were from they were quite tasty, sweet, good texture and very juicy.

Steve

chas045 - sorry if I sounded unappreciative of the ideas presented. I guess I should explain that I am a widow in a wheelchair and anything that could be tried would have to be hired out or attempted by a caregiver. It has become an issue of whether it's worth it to attempt to protect 3 peach trees that, in reality, only begin to be about 200 ft away from my house. They are on two areas on 2 acres that are about 100 ft away from each other, even further beyond the house. I should not have expected anyone to know that but that is the reason for my saying fencing of any type would not be an option for me. I really didn't mean to hijack the post with my problem, merely threw it out there since there were others posting who have peach trees.

LOL, skeip, you're right, it went way off track didn't it?

As for peaches, though, I have two peach trees in the back yard by the swimming pool. I just had to go out and check them. Nary a peach. Sigh.

I still say those peaches can't be from Michigan. I did buy peaches on sale this week for 79 cents a pound, the sign said Southern peaches. They didn't say how far south, but did say "product of the USA", which means not much, I guess. They were nice and sweet, though, where ever they were from.

Jae, given your situation, I'd vote for a gun! The sprays, in my experience, don't work well either, I tried some a couple of years ago on pepper plants here in my back yard in town, it was supposed to repel deer and rabbits, called "liquid fence". Yeah... It smelled awful, the neighbors complained and the rabbits ate the peppers down to tiny stubs anyway.

Annie

skeip, on my last post I did think about commenting on the peaches to say that I am in zone 7 and my peaches are still not nearly ripe, but I'm not a great fruit tree expert and I let it slide. I also hadn't realized that the netting etc issue was from a different poster.

jae, I agree that considering the spacing and limitations, that the fencing ideas are too much. Unfortunately I expect that racoons would climb up inside any netting. I had been mentally discounting the sprinkler idea because at least deer in time learn to ignore them, but I realized that in your case, they would only need to work for 6 weeks and the animals might not learn anything in that short period if they were turned off afterwards. Unfortunately again, with the trees spaced apart, multiple units would likely be needed. I have never paid attention to the mechanics involved because I expected them to be ineffectice for continous use. Perhaps they are actually cheap and easy to set up??

Annie, too bad about your losing the blossoms..... I still have lots but am holding my breath! The idea of a gun sounds tempting other than I used to feed them twice a day for the privilege of photographing them up close (what was I thinking?)and the enjoyment, like yesterday, of seeing a newborn nursing on the side of the road. I have pear and apple trees that don't produce anything edible so I have no problem donating them to the deer. I just wish they would share my peaches with me.

chas045, I'm in zone 7 also and mine are still walnut size. I'm sure you are right about the raccoons getting the ones that the deer can't reach.
Our grocery stores are advertising Southern peaches so might try them and hope, like Annie, to get some good ones. If they aren't good I bet I know where to throw them to assure they will be eaten!

Went back to the same market last night and they still had them, except now they are called "southern peaches". I bought more as they made a really tasty Peach Shortcake!

Steve

Both Georgia and South Carolina peaches are in the market down here in Florida. Hands down, the South Carolina peaches are the best. This a.m. at the farmers market I picked up SC peaches--big, beautiful and ripe! I pay a premium for them, but they are so worth it. Yummmmm!