Frost® Peach Tree

Peach trees are more cold resistant than you might think – the problem is they flower early, and blooms are often killed by spring frosts, so they rarely fruit in colder zones. That’s why the Frost Peach is such a fabulous variety for growers in zones 5 and 6 – it isn’t really any more hardy, but the flowers open later, when frosts are over, giving you a good harvest every year. It’s a big crop too, because this variety is a reliable, heavy cropper, and really delivers, in quantity and in quality. The fruits are yellow-skinned, with a very large dark-pink blush when ripe, and the yellow flesh is juicy, sweet and absolutely peachy. It’s a slipstone variety, so it’s very easy to eat or prepare for pies and preserves. Self-fertile, just one tree growing alone will give a full crop – great news if you have a small garden. Fruit is ready for harvesting from mid-summer to early fall, depending on your climate. The beautiful pink blossoms on the bare twigs in spring make it a great garden tree, to grow in a bed, spread out on a wall, or as a lawn specimen. Good disease resistance too. Old Jack Frost can’t touch this one.

• Yellow, slip-stone flesh is juicy and sweet
• Yellow skin, obscured by a large pink blush when ripe
• Self-fertile, so one tree gives a full crop
• Beautiful pink blossoms in spring
• Flowers late, so avoids spring frosts, meaning success in zone 5

Choose a spot in full sun for your Frost Peach. In zones 5 and 6 choose a sheltered space – spread out as an espalier on a south-facing wall is ideal. Avoid low-lying spots and frost pockets. The soil should be moist but well-drained, with a slight preference for acidic to neutral soil. Add plenty of rich compost or well-rotted manure when preparing the spot, as peaches like rich soil. Water your new tree frequently, and established trees when in bloom, if necessary, and during summer dry periods while the fruit is developing. Use compost as a mulch over the root zone, keeping it clear of the trunk, and watch out for string-trimmers if on a lawn. Prune from early into a fan on a wall, or an open vase shape for a free-standing tree, developing 4 or 5 main branches and keeping the center open Thin fruit when the size of quarter, leaving just one in each cluster, and spacing the fruits about 6 inches apart. Otherwise they will be small, and mostly stone. This variety has good resistance to several diseases of peaches, like leaf curl, so minimal or no spraying is needed.