Scott/Olpea, have you ever tried the peaches from the University of Arkansas program? White County (low acid) and White River (normal acid) seem pretty promising from this study. Both are resistant to bacterial spot. White County is also pretty resistant to peach scab (8%,0%, and 0% impact in 3 years). It also describes it (and White Rock, an early cling) as getting 'occasional brown rot', but not in most years. It doesn't detail out White River's susceptibility, but it does say that WR has an overall health rating of 9.7 vs WC's 8.7 (10 point scale). It list the brix for both at over 13 (higher than Redhaven's 12.3).

"I've never heard of anyone using layering for this method but you must have been working in a pretty big scale to get that much heat from the chips." I was somewhat limited by the equipment I was using. Last summer I rented a Dingo to move mulch and make more mounds. While they are handy to move mulch, they are pretty slow digging, so I really didn't use near enough top soil (because it was slow to dig). However, I had built mounds the same way (layered mulch mounds) the summer before and gotten by with it with no problems. I constructed them by starting with a big mound of mulch (wood chips) on the bottom and then a couple alternating layers of soil and mulch after that. My thought was the layers of mulch would be thin enough they wouldn't compost, but I got the mulch too thick. Before I started using mulch mounds, I made mounds with just plain dirt and have never had any problems with 100% dirt. I agree I don't think mulch on the bottom with a generous amount of topsoil on top would have caused problems, as long as the roots were insulated from the mulch.

Jocelynpei hi I think peaches can be grown if they can ripen. I meant if peaches do ripen and peach have enough time to harden for winter. I think it also can affect peach trees how fast weather change to winter after peaches. If weather goes directly from peaches to winter there might not be enough time to harden peach tree. Also if there is not enough growing season to ripen peaches, next year flowers might be killed in cold weather. Peaches makes fruits in first year growth. So if flowers survive winter, you can have peaches. If peaches ripen, then peach tree can start hardening, or if i got it right make next year flowers. If there is enough time flowers get enough let's say growth before winter arrives they can survive. I think warm summer is good for peaches so they can ripen. I think it is good idea to get early ripening variety, so peaches can ripen. If winter don't come fast, cooler temperatures and darkening days starts plants to go to hardening for winter. I think snow cover in winter is also good for peaches. Scottfsmith hi I think you might be right about that sun angle that your sun is more intense. I think that solar energy goes that way more you have it higher your yearly average temperature is. Tropics have high yearly average temperature and does have high solar energy level. I think here we should take in consideration one more thing, humidity. We can say when air is dry, which is low relative humidity temperature tend to rise high in summer. If relative humidity is high temperature don't reach as high in summer. Also if relative humidity is low temperature drop faster than if relative humidity is high. Here we can say that rain is humidity and clouds are humidity. That is enough information for our purposes. Let's think now your peach trees in Maryland and peaches in Phoenix, Arizona. I don't know if there is peaches in Arizona, but le'ts imagine it in that example. Maryland has humid summer, has rain in summer. Peaches get water, also there is humidity which help keep soil not to dry too much. There is also good amount of warm weather to ripen peaches. Now let's take a look Arizona peaches. It is more southern so have more intense sun, it has more growing degree days than Maryland. This looks to be at first glance, enough growing degree days to ripen peaches. Arizona weather is dry, so temperature reach high levels. This means air humidity is low, this means you don't get much rain. What it means for peaches? Soil become quite dry, so peaches don't get much water. I think peaches like and need water for growing. Also when air is warm and dry plants evaporate water more than in humid weather. Maryland warm humid weather limit daily high temperature, but it also limits daily low temperature. Also is useful to remember that warm humid air holds more water than warm dry air. This might turn to more rain, altough high humidity doesn't guarantee a lot of rain. If we think that clouds are humidity, then clouds slowdowns temperature drop in night. As far as i know in tropics they don't have 38 celsius warm even thought they are near equator. I meant same temperature what Arizona has. They have humid weather and good amount of rain at least in Amazon. They have grown much of different plants there. Arizona has warmer daily high temperature in summer than Amazon, but is drier than Amazon. I think Arizona doesn't have as much plants as in Amazon. If we now think that same way Maryland and Arizona, Maryland has more plants to grow or easier to grow as it has rain. You probably know what i mean. If relative humidity is 100% then dew point is same as air tempeature. If relative humidity is low, dew point is low. If dew point is high then air holds much of humidity. That means air feels warm. It also means if rain happens, you can get a lot of rain. If humidity is high in autumn, it limits temperature drop. This means cold weather comes slowly. If you have dry air temperature can drop faster. I think peaches like more slowly temperature drop in autumn than fast as they harden for winter. Maryland warm humid weather, doesn't mean you don't get sun. After sunrise temperature rise and sunray reduce air humidity which means less clouds which was humidity and sunny weather might be coming in day. You said your peaches grow faster when you have sun. This sounds o.k. as you have warmer growing season. You said what does it all up to end? You said that is a hard question to answer. Good question, i have think growing peaches and growing season earlier, but i guess nobody read my message. I felt i was writing myself. I wrote earlier here Gardenweb about growing season, if you remember. I think you are right it is not easy answer, but i have thinking something which in thinking common sense make sense someway. If we think temperature and rain is important for peach growing, then dew point might be useful for growing season. Also if humidity is high in winter, you might get snow cover if temperature is below 0 celsius or so. When temperature and relative humidity is taken account using some formula we get dew point. If we take yearly average dew point in account we might get something useful. As i told high dew point means more humidity, which means more rain, less difference in daily maximum and daily minimum temperature, i think peaches can grow better. I think that this has to be taken relatively, tropics probably have high yearly dew point but don't have enough chill for peaches. So is there some way we can compare dew point? For example if we take zones which compare to yearly dew point? Let's think again Arizona and Maryland. Arizona has higher zone, but i think have lower dew point at least in summer, Maryland has lower zone but have higher dew point in summer. We can also look and compare summer months june, july, august and i think as said i think Maryland has higher dew point than Arizona in summer. I think warm dew point is good for growing peaches. I think you would be say that humid warm weather is also good for bacterial spot. I think you are right, but what you could do about it? If your weather is favorable for bacterial spot, then it is and i think you need to spray for it. That is another thing for peach growing. Another way is look autumn dew points or relative humidity, if they are high it limits possibility of fast dropping temperature in autumn. I think summer dew points show humidity in summer. Another way is compare it to how many degrees you are from equator. I think those don't take account growing degree days. If you compare average temperature of Arizona and Maryland you don't take account of humidity and that way possible rain. Image might be quite different Arizona might then look better as it have higher zone and warmer growing season. Altought plants might be have different opinion. I haven't think much where to compare that dew point, those are just what came in my mind. This wasn't quite easy to tell, hopefully you understood what i wrote and.

I now re read my original post. it was supposed to be "(a hybrid or) some sort of mutant" a hybrid is obviously the more likely option. either way, this pepper is freaking delicious. like, holy crap it tastes good. I am looking forward to stabilizing it, and getting lots more really delicious pods.