Fruit Bud Hardiness of North Caucasus Seedlings and Other Foreign Peach Introductions

Abstract

Low temperatures, after peach fruit buds have begun to swell, are an annual hazard wherever peaches are grown. The spring of 1967 was a destructive one at the U.S. Plant Introduction Station, Glenn Dale, Maryland, insofar as cold damage to peaches is concerned. A complete loss of the Station's peach crop occurred, with certain exceptions. These exceptions were confined to a planting of North Caucasus seedlings ²and a few screenhouse-protected specimens. The former have been kept in the Station's outdoor collection for many years, awaiting a so-called "test year" to evaluate their cold hardiness properly.