I ended up buying an Evans Bali a few days ago, by the way. Nice looking little tree (about 6 feet tall sitting in its pot on my patio right now). Even has some flower buds, so maybe if I protect a few clusters of the cherries in mesh bags this year I'll even get to taste a dozen or so cherries this August. My main concern at this point is whether I have gotten a tree that will end up growing too large for the space I have. The label says 15 - 20 feet tall and 12-15 feet wide, though other things I have read have suggested that this variety gets 10-15 feet tall. I guess I am figuring I will try to keep it pruned to a smaller height. We'll see how this goes. If it produces good fruit in abundance, I will probably be willing to indulge its space needs. I know a person in the neighborhood with a Masabi cherry as it turns out, so maybe I can learn how to do grafting and get a branch of Masabi on my Evans Bali! Thanks everyone for answering my questions.

The McKay peach seems to be prone to bacterial spot. It had lesions on the trunk in spring 2012 and I had to cut it back to about 4' high. Last summer, every leaf developed terrible shot-holes, turned red, and eventually fell off. I sprayed copper while it was dormant this spring, and haven't seen any signs of disease so far. It just leafed out and bloomed at the same time as my apple trees (it's on the north side of my house, and was covered 3.5' deep in snow all winter). The weaker growth was killed by the drying winter winds, but flower buds survived on the remaining branch. Our winter low was only -10 F, though. I'm worried about this wet spring. I should have planted it in a 6' wide, 1' tall mound (or raised bed) since I have clay loam soil. I'm seriously considering digging it up and replanting it, perhaps this fall. The McKay peach is from WI, but from an hour north of Madison, WI. They've got sandy soil, and we have clay. I hope it pulls through the summer!

Hi Olpea- Good point on checking the Orbit label for better timing. I'm not sure if he has blossom blight... Does it go hand-in hand with Brown Rot? (In the same way that Sooty Blotch and Flyspec seem to go together on apples?) I seem to see the two of them together a lot. I wouldn't want to spray extra for something that isn't a threat. With his orchard unmaintained this year, and plenty of mummies on the tree, even if he gets the orchard all cleaned up this fall, I'm going to assume he has plenty of inoculum around. I'm surprised to learn that you spray for Brown Rot starting just a month before harvest. (sorry, Im new to peaches this is very unlike apples which Im more used to) What I am just realizing is that his mummies are from last year then. (Like I said, he gave up when his spraying/efforts were, ahem, fruitless). In fact, he might have mentioned in passing that the mummies were from last year and I didnt pick up on it until now. Ok, so Ill be looking at 2 sprays of Monterey Fungi Fighter prior in the month leading up to harvest. So, now that I think of it, my dwarf Empress peach bush with its first 9 peaches is probably very much in danger of brown rot then. I havent been able to come up with a ripen date for it. According to the local UPick, peaches ripen from Aug 1st to Sept 20th around here. So, if I order that MFF now, I might be able to spray it in time. Same thing for my friends orchard. You may have just saved my peaches! Though I suspect it may be the squirrels that will benefit from your advice, and not me! But thanks just the same! -Glenn Hi Harvestman- Ok, thanks, well attribute my stab at using Immunox/myclobutanyl on BR to that bad link. I dont know of a home-grower version of Indar, so Ill probably go with the Orbit timing info that Olpea gives above. Thanks! -Glenn

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.