Most North Texas peach farmers picking bumper crops

Weeks after heavy rains deluged the farm, a tractor remains stuck in the mud-caked fields at Doak Orchards in Montague County.

Some 60 miles south in Parker County, at Hutton Fruit Farm, owner Gary Hutton slipped on rain boots and picked peaches on foot because the fields were too muddy to maneuver by tractor.

Yet despite a few weather-induced obstacles from one of the wettest springs on record, some growers say this is a banner year for peaches, a notoriously fickle crop.

“It is a fantastic season,” said John Doak, who has grown peaches for nearly 40 years at his farm just outside Bowie. “The fruit has a good size, great flavor and nice color.”

Statewide the crop has been fair in some areas but good in most, said Larry Stein, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service horticulturist at Uvalde, who specializes in fruit crops.

North Texas and the Hill Country have done better than most, Stein said.

The sweet summer fruit has arrived just in time for Saturday’s Parker County Peach Festival, which is expected to draw more than 30,000 people to downtown Weatherford. Festgoers can feast on fried peach pie, homemade peach ice cream, peach salsa and much more.

In past years, the festival has had to import peaches from other parts of Texas and even out of state. Not this year.

“We have a bumper crop,” said Tammy Gazzola, president of the Weatherford Chamber of Commerce, which organizes the festival. “This is the best crop in years.”

‘A very good crop’

Doak Orchards is overflowing with 20 acres of red-tinged and pale-colored peaches. Doak, who grows about 20 varieties, said spring and early summer rains gave the peaches a heft unseen in recent years.

For the first time in years, Doak said, he has not needed to irrigate the crops, which has saved money.

At Hutton Fruit Farm outside Weatherford, rain diluted the flavor of some of the early varieties, Hutton said, but the latest batch is sweet and juicy.

While rain helped grow peaches, it also helped grow grass and weeds, he said. In the spring, muddy fields prevented farmers from thinning the trees — a necessity for maintaining a healthy crop.

“The rain helped and hurt, but we now have a very good crop,” Hutton said. “We expect to pick a whole lot of peaches in the next three weeks.”

‘Brown rot’

Not all growers have fared so well.

At B&G Gardens in Poolville, which is in Parker County, farmers could not drive into fields to spray the 240 trees with pesticides, so worms and insects got into some of the fruit.

Holding up two peaches, farm co-owner Ben Walker pointed to soft splotches covering the fruit.

“Brown rot,” Walker said, talking about the devastating fungus. “We have probably lost one-fifth of our crop. But if things dry out, there’s still hope.”

Stein said brown rot has been a problem statewide, explaining that “the rain creates the wet environment that allows the disease organism to grow.”

Hail also damaged some crops in North Texas.

‘No two years are alike’

Peach farms once dotted this region’s rural landscape, growers say, but new subdivisions have increasingly replaced old family farms. Today, Parker County is home to six to eight peach growers, less than half the number just 20 years ago, said Jon Green, Parker County agricultural extension agent.

Yet this region has long been known for its peaches, Green said, thanks to the climate, which offers the ideal number of cold days for the trees to set fruit, and the sandy loam soil, which provides excellent drainage.

On Wednesday, Doak sold baskets of peaches and tomatoes at the Cowtown Farmers Market in Fort Worth. He said growing peaches requires patience and persistence.

“No two years are alike. You never know what you’ll get from year to year,” he said. “You have to constantly read and do your research. It’s a very hands-on job.”

This story was originally published July 8, 2015 at 3:50 PM with the headline "Most North Texas peach farmers picking bumper crops."