Paul Friday, a peach breeder of many years is a long time Michigan peach grower who realized the peach varieties popular 50 years ago lacked in size, color, flavor, firmness, disease resistance, and winter hardiness. He also noted that many peach trees also lacked in quality, hardiness and vigor. So he searched his orchards on a regular basis looking for new strains, genetic mutations and interesting chance seedlings. The result of these early on intensive investigations led to 6 new cultivars on test, some of which were used as parents when he later began making true genetic crosses. The results of the very long total process are the development of 31 new peach and nectarine varieties that are now being grown internationally. Jerry Frecon, New Jersey hort agent, and many other testers around the country keep him updated as to how his new introductions are doing in their environment. As a result of putting most of his attention towards peaches for a long period of time the Flamin' FuryŽ series is now one of the most exciting peach breeding programs developed in decades. Moreover, this series includes a 15 week harvest period, which has expanded peach harvest in Michigan by way over a month with high quality and large fruit. All varieties released have been under observation and testing for many years. An exception is the extraordinary variety PF 24-C cold hardy. It has only been on test since 1997 but very successfully survived a severe winter freeze in 1999, when no other variety did. A devastating late spring freeze on May 21, 2002 wiped out 15 varieties around it. Again it needed to be thinned. So for these striking reasons this one has been released somewhat prematurely. Twice it passed very unusual circumstances with flying colors in a relatively short period of time. That string of events was bad for growers in Michigan but certainly tested this cultivar for both the peach and peach tree. Paul Friday continues to evaluate new peach cultivars from his program, and those with superior attributes as to both peaches and peach trees will be selected for further release as in the past. Many new exciting fruit tree varieties are continuosly being released. So scan his" Varieties Page" from time to time to stay updated on new developments. For example, he has just released a very interesting, very late variety, Big George, which ripens 54 days after Redhaven! It has very large, firm, colorful fruit that has tested 15 brix.
Multiple tests for wood cold hardiness of Paul Friday's peach varieties, using Redhaven as a standard, were conducted by professor James Flore at Michigan State University throughout 1992 and 1993 winters in MSU chill chambers. With a score of 5 being the best rating and 1 being the lowest, Redhaven scored 1.4. 13 Paul Friday cultivars scored 2-3, 15 scored 3-4, and 24 scored 4-5. The very few varieties that scored the same or lower than Redhaven were immediately discarded from Paul's peach breeding program.
The Flamin' FuryŽ Series of Peaches has been an ongoing breeding that has made a vast number of genetic crosses in the past 27 years. Over time 31 varieties have been selected, patented and released. I believe that a viable breeding program is one where a continuous effort is made to make improvements over the older introductions. With that in mind, it is now featuring and promoting 21 varieties that have been selected as the very best from this series with any outstanding new selections replacing older varieties for their ripening time frame.
Incorrect references to my varieties are sometimes made such as Flaming FuryŽ, Flaming Fury, Flamin Fury and PF varieties. So in looking for information on others sites about this series you might also look at these mistakenly marked sites.
mutations and interesting chance seedlings. The result of these early on intensive investigations led to 6 new cultivars on test, some of which were used as parents when he later began making true genetic crosses. The results of the very long total process are the development of 31 new peach and nectarine varieties that are now being grown internationally. Jerry Frecon, New Jersey hort agent, and many other testers around the country keep him updated as to how his new introductions are doing in their environment. As a result of putting most of his attention towards peaches for a long period of time the Flamin' FuryŽ series is now one of the most exciting peach breeding programs developed in decades. Moreover, this series includes a 15 week harvest period, which has expanded peach harvest in Michigan by way over a month with high quality and large fruit. All varieties released have been under observation and testing for many years. An exception is the extraordinary variety PF 24-C cold hardy. It has only been on test since 1997 but very successfully survived a severe winter freeze in 1999, when no other variety did. A devastating late spring freeze on May 21, 2002 wiped out 15 varieties around it. Again it needed to be thinned. So for these striking reasons this one has been released somewhat prematurely. Twice it passed very unusual circumstances with flying colors in a relatively short period of time. That string of events was bad for growers in Michigan but certainly tested this cultivar for both the peach and peach tree. Paul Friday continues to evaluate new peach cultivars from his program, and those with superior attributes as to both peaches and peach trees will be selected for further release as in the past. Many new exciting fruit tree varieties are continuosly being released. So scan his" Varieties Page" from time to time to stay updated on new developments. For example, he has just released a very interesting, very late variety, Big George, which ripens 54 days after Redhaven! It has very large, firm, colorful fruit that has tested 15 brix.
