It’s time to start dreaming of those peach pies, crisps, cobblers, bellinis, melbas and jams.
In less than a month, a healthy crop of Grand Valley peaches is expected to start hitting fruit stands — much earlier than normal because of a warm snap in late winter.
In spite of disheartening rumors that Colorado’s entire peach crop was wiped out by a spring freeze, an estimated 80 to 90% of the peaches growing around Palisade survived and are thriving. They are now moving out of the fruitlet stage and into the equivalent of the teenage phase for fruits.
That means about 30 million pounds of peaches are expected to begin hitting farm stands and produce counters starting the second week in June.
“We’re going to have a nice crop this year,” said Kaleb Easter, operations manager for Cunningham Orchards near Palisade.
Fruit growers in the Grand Valley are ready to declare this year’s crop a winner after a plunge in temperatures April 17 and 18 threatened to freeze out peaches. The growers went to war against the deadly mid-20-degree temperatures with wind machines, sprinkler systems, smudge pots and an amino and calcium spray — all of which are designed to give budding fruits an advantage of a few degrees — enough to make or break a fruit crop.
Fruit growers in the North Fork Valley didn’t have the same luck even though they also gave it their all with all the warming techniques. The 10% of the Colorado peach crop that is grown there was totally wiped out.
In the spinning news cycles of social media that local fruit disaster soon spread around Colorado as the state’s entire peach crop being totally wiped out.
Charlie Talbott of Talbott Farms in Palisade cuts into a growing peach to demonstrate how the family checks for damage to the fruit after a hard freeze. Brown or black areas inside the peach are early signs that the freeze’s cold temperatures killed the peach. (Shannon Mullane, The Colorado Sun)“I would say that less than 5% of our crop overall was affected,” said Bruce Talbott, one of the owners of Talbott Farms, which includes 440 acres of peach orchards around Palisade.
That means Talbotts should have around 7 million pounds of peaches for sale this summer.
June 7 delivery date for peaches is really early
Consumers should expect to see the first peaches hitting fruit stands around June 7-10.
That is the earliest peach-picking time Easter knows of in the Grand Valley where ripening dates have been creeping forward.
In 2023, Cunningham’s workers first picked peaches on July 7. In 2024, the first fruit came off the trees on June 26, and in 2025 on June 20.
Those early peaches may thrill peach fans, but the downside is that the season will end early. Instead of stretching into September, the peach season will be tapering off in August.
“Plan to come early and get your peaches in July and August,” Easter said.
A box of fresh peaches at Kokopelli Farm Market located off I-70 north of Palisade. (William Woody, Special to the Colorado Sun)That is all dependent on two other crop-affecting factors now that the fear of freezes is behind growers. Hail can always batter peaches at all phases of growth. And, this year, water —or a lack of it — might affect the crop.
“Our big fear now is water, if we have to shut off the canals, we can’t finish off the crop,” Talbott said.
That fear has led to discussions in the Grand Valley about letting some field crops go dormant and transferring the water that would go to hay, alfalfa, vegetable and corn crops to the fruit farms.
The logic behind that is that field crops can be replanted, but fruit trees that might die from a lack of water can’t be so easily replaced. It takes six to seven years before a replacement fruit tree would be producing fruit again.
Easter said multiple discussions are going on each week about how those water switches might work and which field-crop farmers would be amenable to selling water to help the fruit crop survive.
Easter pointed out that the fact that this year’s peach crop is so early is a benefit if water supplies run out as feared. He said at Cunningham’s trees are typically watered through September before they are allowed to go dormant. This year, he said he can cut off watering in August.
“It’s a blessing with the water situation that the harvest is so early,” Easter said.
Easter said the biggest message for peach fans around the state is that there definitely are plenty of peaches and they should be prepared to stock up on their favorite fruits in July and August.
September, which has long been a favorite time for Front Range peach buyers to make the trek to the Grand Valley, will be too late, he said.
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