your on the right track. Contender, Reliance and Intrepid are the most populaur cold hardy peach trees. I grow all three but the Reliance and Intrepid are two young to fruit. My Contender was the only peach tree to give me fruit last year after a long and cold spring that killed the fruit on my other trees. The fruit was delicious. I hear Intrepid and Reliance are not as good as contender. I'm in zone 8 but added them all because we have bad springs with many freezes. Most of my peach trees bloom in early Feb. The Contender blooms in march.

For your climate what are you looking at for harvest dates? I want to get the most hardiest trees, but also don't want to have 2 or all three crop at the same time. I'd want to spread out the harvest dates.

Reliance, Madison, Contender...i think Starks sells a Fingerlakes which i guess is very hardy.

Don't expect miracles. I like 'Polly' an older white peach from Iowa. Redhaven seems to manage to produce at least a few fruit even under adverse circumstances, like a determined fullback finding the goal line. Both have excellent fruit quality.

Maybe give this pf24c a try. Make sure your 'redhaven' is not on nemagard rootstock. You don't have to worry about that with the others.

sean2280, i mostly have low chill, early peach trees (late may - early june). 2 june golds, 2 flordaking and 2 early albertas. my contender harvest is in early july. I think reliance is late july for me and i hear that intrepid will be in early august. i have some late august peaches (blushingstar and saturn) but they are too early to tell for sure. Typically, everything in my area is 2-3 weeks earlier than what is advertised. Half of my peach trees are already starting to bloom.

Thanks for all the comments. Greatly appreciated. It's good to get someone's honest real life opinion rather than read nursery descriptions. Most of those seen to be nothing more than cut and paste with no real "meat" and all filler.

So based off all of your opinions.. Reliance our Redhaven? Most sites I have seen have them ripening at the same time. After I get done either these I will have a collection of 17 peach/nectarine trees taking me from PF-1 at the earliest through PF-35/Indian Free at the back end. I'm really hoping that most years I don't have a total freeze out and lose it all. I plan on keeping all of them no more than 7-7.5 ft tall and about 4 feet apart for these new additions in hedge row fashion. I'm hoping that by keeping them small and closely spaced I could possibly cover them in the spring if need be.

My tasting experience is that Reliance is not the tree to get. I would rather have Red Haven every other then year then Reliance every year. That is just an illustration, A friend her near Omaha NE (Zone 5) planted a Red haven in 2006, since it's first year fruiting last year was it's first fail year.

Again, thanks for all the replies. As it stands right now in ground I currently have these varieties or Peach/Nectarine:

PF-5B, PF-9A, PF-24-007, PF-35, Indian Free, White Lady, Saturn, O'Henry, Mericrest, Independence, Stark Crimson Gold, and Nectacrest.

I also have a order in (not finalized quite yet so still time to change) for these varieties:

PF-1, Early RedHaven, PF-24C, Reliance, and Hardired.

Based on everyones opinion I am beginning to re-think the Reliance. The in-ground ones are currently in a 4-in-1 planting and I was wanting to do these next 5 in a hedge row style planting. What is everyones thoughts on what I have so far? I'm just looking at doing everything I can to now only extend the season (on both the front and back end) but also get me varieties that bloom a tad later. I understand that I may not have phrased it correctly when i said "frost tolerant" due to the fact that once the flowers bloom, there isn't much difference between peach trees as far as ability to withstand cold, but I was looking for trees that first off can withstand zone 5 winters, ones that may be more bud hardy and be able to withstand a cold snap past -10 with little bud damage, and also ones that may bloom a tad later than others to avoid the old problem of "one day 60, the next morning 15".

And again, I thank all of you for the insight, help, and thoughts. If you have any more comments I'd love to hear them, especially concerning my new trees that aren't even in the process of shipping quite yet.

I would not go with PF-1 if taste is what you look for. I am trying to graft other varieties over it. Hope Olpea will post again.

If you go for taste, it seems everyone like Winblo. I just don't know how cold hardy it will be. I just planted one in my zone 6a last spring.

Many think pf-1 isn't a very good tasting peach and other early types are better. I don't have any experience with it, but have read here many times about it. Many pulled it. I myself am going to graft new peaches, but I'm not going to add anymore peach trees. Well I may have to replace some with disease or that don't make it. I have a Spice Zee Nectaplum and it may not survive the winter. We will see in the spring.

You can spend hours over here:

http://www.clemson.edu/hort/peach/index.php?p=73

Reading up on peaches... its a good read if you have time.

I would skip Reliance. I ripped mine out years ago. Very hardy==yes...but not very good tasting (IMO). I was buying store bought fruit that was much better tasting. I've since moved all the more tender (peaches/plums/nectarines/pluots) stonefruit into pots so i can grow the good stuff. Its neat being able to grow peaches in the ground in Wisconsin, but a waste of time if they don't taste anything better then what you can buy at walmart. I'll be honest that i prefer a nectarine over a peach. I added Mericrest (that is out in the yard now) so we'll see if it can handle -13F or so (unless we get colder////still possible)...it should have a few flowers this year.

Frank,

Have you checked out Scott's new website?

Frank,

Thanks for the post. Based on everyone's opinion I'll see if I can't get Reliance removed from my order. Speaking of fruit in pots can I ask what you are currently growing? Right now I have a second year Spice Zee and then I have just potted up a Flavor Supreme, Flavor King, Cot-n-Candy Aprium, and a Leah Cot Aprium. I have a Sweet Treat, Nadia, and Weeping Santa Rosa that should be here next month that will go in pots.

All,

Since it appears that Reliance may not be the way to go what should I get to replace it? I'm looking for something that would ripen around the same time. Also if PF-1 isn't the way to go.. what other earlier hardy peach would you recommend? As I started before I'm trying to extend the season and for me that means an earlier variety.

'Mericrest' was unproductive for me in rocky mountain Z5, although the flavor was superb. I agree with the others that 'Redhaven' is not a cold-hardy variety per se---it just seems to find a way to give you some fruit if it can.

I've had sporadic success with 'Fantastic Elberta' as a later variety based on its somewhat late-blooming characteristic. However, its not otherwise cold-hardy, as minus 28 almost killed it dead. Trying for fruit quality, reliable cropping, extended harvest and cold hardiness for a marginal climate is a tall order. You get two of the four in my experience.

Oh no.. not even close... lol. I'm looking for pretty much the most reliable croppers. The peach trees that you hear about when everything looks down and out this one comes through. Maybe not with a lot of fruit, but at least some. Maybe I wasn't completely clear about that from the get go. These trees will pretty much be my fall back on bad years, and on good years, well the neighbors, friends, etc can have them. :-)

Hope this clears things up a tad.. and if anyone else had a comment, or after seeing this you have another idea please post away!!!

Hurry though as I don't want this order sitting out there for too much longer and asking for things to be cancelled, or added st the last minute.

Well Redhaven ripens around that time Reliance does. Stellar Redstar, Raritan Rose, and a new cling from Canada rated to zone 5 called Vinegold also ripen at that time. I don't know much about them, maybe others can comment? Or know of others? I know Olpea mentions the Stellar series as decent in taste. Like the PF series they were developed in Michigan, as was Redhaven.And I can't keep a live bud the last couple years. Irony at it's best!

I myself hold taste as number one and all early peaches are not that good, so i never studied them or kept notes. I have no interest in having a peach just for ripening time if it isn't kick a#@. So I can't help there.

Many years ago I went through this same debate on what to get for a hardy peach. I tried Reliance, Contender, Veteran, Saturn, PF-24C and Georgia Belle. My coastal Maine is zone 5 but has the warm/cold fluctuations that are the real killers. Location around the yard was likely a factor in how they performed. Of the above the Veteran and PF-24C are dead. The PF gave a few very nice peaches. The Veteran gave one crop of some smaller peaches that struggles to ripen before heavy frosts. The Saturn is a brown rot magnet but is quite hardy. The 4 year old Contender gave a crop of 90 lbs of very nice peaches and has continued to do well. Many people here have the Reliance and here for some reason it is a nice peach but is not doing well and only produces a few each year. Many have better luck on this one. The Georgia Bell is a strong grower and gives a few nice peaches each year. It is however in a shady spot so I feel it would be better in another spot. The winner so far is the Contender by far. They will all ripen on the tree and there are some very nice sized ones. While the taste is not as good as the PF-24C it is still a very nice peach. I will try some of the other hardy ones if I get time. Good luck.

I hear ya Drew. I'm not really interested to much in ripening dates as much as I am in having successive ripening times for these peaches. I have my other 12 for flavor if need be. I'm more interested in these ones being my backup plan. If anyone could taste some of the store bought ones here over the last 3 years I think anything I could grow would have to equal our go above that. Most of the ones you can buy here taste very planty with little to no peach flavor.

Sean, here too, the peaches in store are terrible! So bad one bite, and in the trash. I can't even eat them. Once in awhile I hit on some good ones. But very rare. Well with the peaches you mentioned you should have some wonderful fruit! If I could have 12 peach trees, or more, yes I would do what you're doing. I have three trees, but hope to add 2-3 cultivars to each. So i should have 9 cultivars when all is grafted and all takes. It may take a few years to get all to take.

Olpea,

Already on it :^) Thanks!!!

I noticed someone in a post above mentioned "Polly"....it is a winner. When I lived in Zone 5 (Ia/Il./WI border) Polly never failed. A good one to add to your mix.