Prunus persica Hale Haven (Peach)

Prunus persica 'Hale Haven' is a vigorous and fast-growing peach tree adorned with profuse, fragrant, pink blossoms in mid-spring. Resistant to frost, they are followed by a heavy crop of large, freestone, orange-yellow fruits blushed deep carmine in early-mid summer. The flesh is firm, sweet, and juicy and the tough skin prevents bruising. Perfect for eating, baking, and canning. Self-pollinating, this peach tree forms a rounded crown with upwardly-reaching branches clothed in lanceolate, dark green, deciduous leaves. The foliage provides a deep yellow fall display. A popular peach variety for its high-yielding properties.

• Grows up to 15-25 ft. tall (4-8 m) and 8-20 ft. wide (2-6 m).
• Performs best in full sun in moist, slightly acidic to neutral, well-drained soils. Peaches and nectarines take well to espalier and can be nicely fan-trained against a wall.
• This peach tree has a chill hours requirement of 850-900 (hours of temperatures below 45ºF (7ºC) in the winter for their buds to open in the spring)
• Peach and nectarine trees require annual pruning to remain strong, and healthy and produce bountiful harvests. Such regular pruning will also keep the tree at a workable height, for harvesting, pruning, and pest control. Unpruned peach trees will soon stop producing.
• Watch for aphids, scales, or squirrels. Protect peaches against peach leaf curl, by covering the plant from fall to spring. Bacterial canker, silver leaf, brown rot and replant diseases may cause problems.
• Peaches are propagated by grafting onto rootstocks for fruit or can be propagated by seed, although the fruit from the seedlings is likely to be inferior in flavor to the parent. Seed-raised trees take four to five years to bear fruit.
• Toxic to dogs, toxic to cats, toxic to horses.