New Peach Varieties – ‘Felicia’, ‘Evelynn’ and ‘Anna Rose’

The Rutgers/NJAES stone fruit breeding program, led by Joe Goffreda, continues to create, and release exciting new peach varieties. We, in collaboration with growers, also continue to develop the varieties by evaluating their performance in plantings in commercial orchards and at Rutgers Agricultural Research and Extension Center. During this key time of the season, historically Redhaven season, it is important for our area to capture a substantial market share with premium fresh peaches. We are glad to feature some new and improved peach options for this season.

Felicia is a recent release from Rutgers University. It is a very attractive freestone yellow-fleshed peach variety. It has attractive red to dark red skin, little pubescence, with traces of red in the flesh. It ripens a few days before Redhaven; however, unlike Redhaven, it retains firmness for longer while maintaining the balance of sweetness and acidity (Table 1). Fruit is large and firm-fleshed, which is essential for post-harvest handling. It has low susceptibility to bacterial spot.

Though Redhaven is still the standard, yellow-fleshed, traditional peach in this season, it has a few challenges. For example, fruit can ripen faster than it changes skin color. That means it requires experience to start picking. Felicia is a good choice if one is planning a replacement for Redhaven.

Evelynn is a yellow-fleshed peach with semi-free stone and firm flesh. It is a low-acid, very sweet peach that ripens with Redhaven. It retains firmness on trees and during storage for longer than Redhaven, giving extra days for marketing the fruit. It has a large size and attractive complete scarlet coloring, with smooth low pubescence. The full scarlet color with slight greenish-yellowish traces on the skin helps in harvest decisions. This variety is always productive and exhibits a low susceptibility to bacterial spot. Few varieties tick as many boxes as Evelynn. Already liked by commercial growers for its firmness and size.

It’s more cold, hardy than Redhaven and stays firm longer. It is an excellent sub-acid additional or replacement option for the Redhaven season (Table 1). In our fruit set evaluation of the various test block following the frost events in 2022, we noticed that Redhaven had a light crop while Evelynn had a moderate to normal crop.

Anna Rose (NJH 14-135) is a recently released white-fleshed peach variety. Anna Rose ripens after Klondike and before White Lady. It’s a freestone, sub-acid peach. It has always over-cropped and has an impressive fruit set, uniform shape, and attractive color. Its bud hardiness is high. It has very sweet sub-acid fruit (Table 1). Tree vigor was very high with a slight incidence of bacterial spot-on leaves and less on fruits.

Klondike is a pretty peach; however, the flavor is an area that is lacking. Also, it is a bit bud-tender and moderately to highly susceptible to bacterial spot in some years. White Lady gets skin discolored with abrasion and ink spot and has pronounced suture. It has an excellent sub-acid flavor; however, not as sweet as desired. Anna Rose may be a suitable replacement for Klondike and White Lady.

Table 1. Comparison of fruit physico-chemical characteristics of new and standard peach varieties.