Prunus persica ‘Belle of Georgia’ (Peach)

Prunus persica ‘Belle of Georgia’ is a lovely peach tree adorned with profuse, fragrant, pink blossoms in early-mid spring. They are followed by large, creamy-white freestone peaches with brilliant red cheeks in late summer. The flesh is firm, white-tinged with red, sweet and juicy. 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.

• Typically reaches 18-25 ft. tall and wide (5-8 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 800–850 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. 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, and brown rot 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, cats, and horses.