Glohaven Peach Tree

‘Peaches’ – even the word sounds delicious, and absolutely nothing beats the pleasure of eating a tree-ripened peach in the middle of summer. Sweet, flavorful juice dripping from yellow flesh that slides cleanly from the stone, all wrapped in a beautiful fuzz-free yellow skin mottled and blushed with red. This is the Glohaven Peach, a premium variety especially developed to thrive in colder areas where other varieties fail, and also to not need another tree as a pollinator, so ideal for small gardens.

When it comes to growing peach trees, it does take a little effort, so it really pays to start with the best tree available for your area, and with the Glohaven Peach you have found it. This tree was bred in Michigan by an expert, to create a tree that will grow well in the less-certain climate of northern states. It was developed to produce a generous crop of fruit even when grown alone, making it ideal for home gardeners, who usually have limited space for trees. It begins to produce early, fruits every year, and to top it all off the fruit comes cleanly away from the flesh and tastes superb. Even the skin is not a problem, for eating or for canning, as it is free of that annoying fuzz, so your fruit won’t even need peeling to enjoy at its best.

Growing Glohaven Peach Trees

Your Glohaven Peach Tree will grow into a spreading tree 12 to 15 feet tall and a similar size across. It should be trained into an open vase-like shape, with no branches in the center, to allow the maximum sunlight to penetrate into the tree and ripen your crop. You want to have 3 to 5 branches radiating outwards at an angle of about 45 degrees to create this main framework. From this framework smaller shoots will grow, and each spring, before blooming, remove the older, non-fruiting shoots, but leaving the ones which grew the previous year. These will have reddish bark, rather than the gray bark of older stems.

Especially in zone 5, or in a small garden, another way to grow a peach tree is on a south-facing wall. You can spread the stems out across the wall to create a framework, and then prune each year in the same way as for a free-standing tree. This method, known as espalier, traps warmth to help ripen the fruit, and means your tree takes up almost no room at all in the garden.

Harvesting Your Peaches

As spring comes, those young stems burst into bloom with beautiful pink flowers, which quickly turn into tiny green peaches. These develop over the late spring and early summer, and by mid-august they are ready to harvest. Once your tree is well-developed, you may need to thin the fruit when it about the size of a quarter. Remove excess fruits, leaving one every 3 to 5 inches on the branches. If there is a cluster, leave the center fruit and remove those around it. This will give you a crop of large, juicy peaches. If you don’t do this, your crop will be just tiny peaches that are mostly stone, with very little flesh. It may sound drastic, but fruit thinning really is a worthwhile thing to do.

History and Origins of the Glohaven Peach Tree

It is best to choose an early-ripening variety like the Glohaven Peach Tree if you live in colder areas, as late-ripening varieties can be difficult to ripen fully when fall comes early. The Glohaven Peach Tree has also been bred to bloom a little later than many other varieties, to protect the blooms from late frost, another potential problem in colder areas. This wonderful peach tree was the result of decades of breeding work by Dr Stanley Johnston of Michigan State University. He worked at the South Haven research station in Michigan from 1920 to 1969, and he tested 21,000 seedling peaches to find a handful of the best. His varieties all have ‘Haven’ in their names. The one he called ‘Glohaven’ was released in 1963.

Our trees are produced by attaching stem pieces of this tree to roots grown to support the tree and keep it healthy. They must be carefully nurtured and trained to become the young tree you will receive. Within a couple of years you should see your first peaches, and the tree will be producing its full harvest once it is about 8 years old. These carefully bred trees are so superior to seedling trees, or un-named varieties sold cheaply, that there really is no comparison. Our clients know this, and we know that our limited stock will soon be gone. Order now, and very soon you will be enjoying beautiful peaches fresh from your own garden – just imagine the pleasure of it.