Our Varieties & Picking Times

Bushel of Fredericksburg Peaches

The thing with farming is you can never guess what the outcome will be until it comes close to time of harvest. The 2023 peach crop has about a 20-25% set.
Earlier this spring, when our trees set blossom, we had expected a much higher outlook due to the abundance of blooms. Generally speaking, a blossom will turn into a peach. What we found, was after the blossoms fell off only a fraction of the baby peaches actually continued growing and maturing.
Why? This is due to the trees being stressed for a couple of reasons. The 2022 drought was very hard on the orchard, with it being the worst drought our family has experienced in about 50 years of raising peaches. This winter was mild and very sporadic. Our trees need cold weather during their dormant season to help them produce peaches.

Traveling for peaches:

The Hill Country fruit growers all have a much better early crop than late crop. This means you’ll want to come the first part of the season for your peaches & not to wait for freestones as there will not be many. May - Mid-June will be the best time to purchase large volumes of peaches.  A few of our freestone varieties such as Harvester, Red Globe, & Flame Prince have a decent set, but will most likely not be available in 1/2-bushel boxes. As always, we recommend calling before you come.

Historically, the peach variety ripening dates are as follows:



 

Regal

Goldprince

Sentinal

Gala

Harvester

Bounty

Majestic

Redglobe

Loring

Ruston Red

Redskin

Dixiland

Flame Prince

Big Red

Parade

Fairtime

 

May 12-20

May 20-June 5

June 1-14

June 1-14

June 5-20

June 20-July 5

June 25-July 10

June 25-July 10

June 25 -July 10

July 5-15

July 5-15

July 5-15

Aug 1-10

Aug 10 - 25

Aug 20-Sept 1

Sept 1-10

 

Semi-free

Semi-free

Semi-free

Semi-free

Freestone

Freestone

Freestone

Freestone

Freestone

Freestone

Freestone

Freestone

Freestone

Freestone

Freestone

Freestone

 

Keep in mind that harvest dates are impacted by weather, water and other conditions, so it is always best to contact us should you have specific questions about a variety of peach, availability date or other issue.