I only have 2nd leaf peach trees, and it looks like any possible fruit buds were killed. Not a big deal as I was going to remove all but one or two fruit anyway. One that might have fruit is Indian Free, which is ironic since it needs a pollinator. It's possible my nectaplum has viable buds, and could pollinate. If that happens, I'm keeping the seeds, And Indian Nectaplum sounds like a cool tree! Both trees are starting to show some bud growth. My other peaches are leafing out. Which concerns me in the future. I may need a late blooming peach to pollinate Indian Free. A strange year, so hard to tell, young plants too, so time of blooming may adjust as they figure out the local climate. I have seen that with other plants. My cherries are at my cottage and I have no idea as ferry services are late due to lake ice. I have not been up there yet. During the last 10 years I would have the place open and running by now! I'm going Thursday to connect the water, and other opening procedures.

The best rootstock is Lovell. If you want more than one variety and you don't have a lot of space, I'd recommend you get a three-in-one or five-in-one peach. Those you can typically pre-order from Dave Wilson, and you'd want to do it now. Our nursery here in Santa Cruz doesn't charge extra, it's $19.99 no matter what, but the multiple grafted peaches are more. Citation is better if you want to plant several varieties together, they will stay small enough and not compete, but they will also use more water. I know, lots of choices, my personal recommendation would be to get a single variety peach on lovell, and then find someone from the CRFG who'd be willing to graft additional varieties onto your tree. Carla in Sacramento heard the same thing I did: Baby crawford is supposed to be one of the best, I was looking for that one last Winter, now I just plan on grafting it. Babock is not a good choice if you want something with a bit of a tang in it. Most white peaches are sweet and less acid. White nectarines have more acidity, and yellow peaches have yet more acidity, followed by yellow nectarines, and finally, red fleshed peaches which have the most acidity. Snow beauty peach is truly an amazing peach, it's much more flavored and sweeter and juicier than babock. Dave wilson says this about it: Snow Beauty White-fleshed taste test winner: one of the all time highest-scoring varieties in blind fruit tastings at Dave Wilson Nursery. Low acid, high sugar, tantalizing flavor. Large, very firm, attractive red skin. Harvest early to mid-July in Central California. Tested as 96.5GF330. Estimated chilling requirement 750-850 hours. Self-fruitful. Pat. No. 10175. (Zaiger)

"I think the exact point of damage is based a lot on the condition of the buds when the lowest temps come, which I know you know, Olpea. A big part of the equation is the weather leading up to low temps, but I don't think anyone has a clear map of cause and affect here." Hman, That's what is puzzling (that, and rare reports of peaches fruiting following weather of close to -30F, which is so extreme it seems to defy reason). I know I posted this link last winter, but Penn State (see link below) claims flower bud damage is generally extensive at -10F (which is exactly what I experienced). Yet I've read from you (and others) of no problems at -10F. Last winter we hit the -10F in the deepest part of winter, when trees should have been in the deepest dormancy. As I recall, there were no warm days to de-harden trees prior to the low temps. It was just long steady cold. It seemed to me it was really one of the better winters to harden off peaches before minimum temps hit. Yet my peach trees didn't shrug it off, like the ones in your area do. I think you are right, no one really has clear map of cause and effect. "Of those that produced at the house for you this year can you share some insights on how well you and the family like each?" Hi cckw, As you know, we had a weird summer (weatherwise). We had lots of rain early on, then a period of very dry weather, then lots and lots of rain toward the end of summer. So much rain the grass didn't go dormant at all. Lawns were green down here, when they should have been brown. I think rainfall is the biggest factor affecting flavor for some varieties. I had posted a few weeks ago that later ripening varieties don't seem to be affected by rainfall as much, but not too long after I posted that, I picked Encore, and it was clearly affected by the rain. O'Henry (a late peach which ripens before Encore) was very good, even with all the rain. Redskin ripens a bit earlier (but still a late peach) and it was also very good, as was Carolina Gold. Contender ripened in the dry part of summer, so it was also good. Redhaven and PF7a ripened during some pretty good rains this year. Redhaven is a hands down better peach than PF7a, but during heavy rains it does produce some watery flavor diluted peaches in the more shaded parts of the tree. I hate to mention that because by far most of the peaches are very very good, but it happens. Still I think Redhaven is such a good peach, it deserves to be planted in the Midwest. Earlystar always ripens during the rainy/wet part of summer and is always a good peach for an early peach. It's hard for me to say what variety was the best because the first picking from the very top of the canopy almost always produces great peaches. But I suppose (of the varieties I've mentioned) this year Carolina Gold produced the most consistently best peaches throughout the canopy. I like it that they don't brown either. Our unknown variety (which we've adopted and re-named Tubby Dubby) is still the best (which is why we "adopted" it). It's almost a nectarine - very little fuzz. It was the very best this year but only produced a handful of peaches. Here is a link that might be useful: Grab Some Buds

"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.