i know some of you grow peach. i always wanted to grow peach. lovely blossom, and wonderful fruit. 

yesterday, my 8 yr old came home from school and said that he wants to grow peach. he apparently found a seed from his school yard that has peach tree. 

what would be the good peach to grow? i like white peach. any specific variety? something that will do well in zone 7? good nursery for the source? 

We have peaches and nectarines.  Nothing compares to a tree ripened peach or nectarine.  Oh the juices and the sweetness!  The nectarines are basically a fuzzless peach. You can graft several varieties of peaches or nectarines onto one tree if you have limited space. Three or four varieties at the most.  Dave Wilson Nursery has a great series  available: Arctic Beauty, Arctic Jay, Arctic Queen...  They have a taste test chart at Dave Wilson also rating all their fruit.  I highly recommend the Saturn peach aka the Doughnut Peach they also have available.  It's white fleshed, prolific and tasty. You can have a local nursery order from them if they haven't already. 

Pete Bell of Georgia is nice peach  but if you don`t want o spray your trees go for nectarine Sunred, Surecrop, Durbin are good choice for southeast.

Spanish Peach

Pete,
One thing to pay attention to is the chill requirement. Many peaches bloom very early and you can lose the crop if you have a late frost or it is just too early for your climate.
Peaches are also pretty easy and and tasty (same tasty as on another thread) grown from seed. You are just gambeling with bloom time if it came from an unknown source. If you are interested I can share the method I use to start stone fruit from seed.

Not all peaches have showy blooms, all are pretty in bloom, but not all are what I would call showy.

Try Carmen if you can find it.

I also have scion wood for sevral white and red fleshed peaches, a red leafed peach and seedlings to share, PM me if you want some.

Sent you  PM .

Hi Pete,

Do you like white peaches because of their classic subacid flavor? Some white peach winners pack a bit of acid so watch out on that in case.

I believe your planting spot is not that different from mine in Virginia. With the exception of disease burden secondary to humidity, we are in prime peach growing land. Are you willing to spray with some light organic sprays? So far, I have only had some mild powdery mildew that neem oil controlled immediately. High density planting should be avoided in our area for peaches and other good plant hygiene precautions are warranted to decrease disease burden (max sun, max spacing, proper pruning letting sun hit the center of tree, ID'ing diseases early on, etc.)

Belle of Georgia is the classic white peach grown around here that has the classic subacid flavor and has good disease resistance. Although any tree-ripened peach will taste 2x as good as a store bought one, it is not tops for flavor. It also has bad fruit drop--as soon as they ripen, they all fall to the ground if left unpicked. Not a biggie though, still the classic tree due to disease resistance.

Redhaven is its equivalent for classic yellow peach with disease resistance--again not tops for flavor but tops for ease of growing and still a decent peach.

General rule of thumb with peaches is the later the season the better the flavor. Gold Dust and Harrow Diamond are the only good disease resistance and good flavor early varieties.

Winblo is Desmond Layne's (Clemson) favorite peach--a yellow one with exceptional flavor and good disease resistance--this variety is tougher to find.

I recommend Stark Brothers Nursery excellent reviews, been around for 100 years they have discounts, and free shipping available.
Lots of varieties to choose from, and support information, on planting, growing, spraying, tree sizes from dwarf sizes, semi-dwaft, standard sizes , and even even 2 varieties per trees types. I've got a few fruit trees coming from them in the middle of March myself.
www.StarkBro.com 

PS My Winblo is young but in 1-2 seasons should have scion if you'd like to graft onto whatever you decide on now. Just send me PM whenever if interested.

I was going to make a suggestion, but it seems persianmd2orchard reads my mind, or more likely reading the same data :)  Zaiger’s Arctic  series are supposed to be great, but I don’t know of anybody who has had success in the southeast.   

I did have a question for Eden however. Are you growing nectarine with good success in our area. I don’t grow any as I have always been under the impression they are tougher than peaches.  

http://www.millernurseries.com/
I've bought quite a few different fruit trees from them. I was very pleased.
They are bare root but I've never had any problems.
I have their Saturn, Red Haven, Elberta.
My favorite white peach is Belle of Georgia, it's my most reliable peach tree that I have.

@ Strudel I don't think nectarines are quite as hard as their reputation especially if you're willing to spray with whatever. I'm always interested in hearing positive nectarine reports in our climate! Eden is it as wet/humid in Georgia as Virginia? I imagine so. If so what if anything are you spraying the nectarines with?