"I grafted the peach myself on an alicha. I like the fact that it is a peach and not an alicha [Caucasian plum]," says fruit grower and breeder Eglons Brūns about his first peach tree. He planted it about fifteen years ago. It is a well-known variety in Latvia, 'Maira'.
He has several peaches in his orchard, and this year there is so much fruit that he can take it to the market.
"I take them to Liepāja market, I also take them to Rīga market to show what I have. I don't ask a high price for such exotic fruit, but some [farmers] have other varieties. There are enough in Latvia," says Eglons Brūns.
Māris Narvils, a specialist in plant breeding, also started growing peaches in Southern Kurzeme several years ago. In his garden, 'Maira' peaches have already finished producing, but one fruit has been dropped this year in the recently planted 'Venita', a later variety.
To prevent the peaches from freezing, he wraps the fruit trees in agro-film, but this would not be possible for a large planting.
The inability to overwinter is one of the reasons why peaches cannot be planted commercially in Latvia at the moment, and why it is better to choose varieties that are proven to withstand.
"More or less, for those who would like to start something, 'Maira', 'Viktors', 'Sochnij', 'Spura', which are more known and in circulation, are safer. The others are a lottery," says Māris Narvils.
Ilze Grāvīte, a researcher at the Institute of Horticulture and assistant professor at the Latvian University of Biosciences and Technology, believes that peaches in Latvia cannot be considered as future commercial plants, but as an additional fruit tree grown on the farm.
"We are not experimenting with rootstocks, because the most popular and more widely used at the moment is the Caucasian plum. A lot of people order plants on the internet, and I am a bit worried about them, because the rootstocks that are used outside Latvia are mostly not good in our conditions, they have problems with winter hardiness," says Ilze Grāvīte.
Latvia has a very long dormancy period and a relatively short growing season, says Ilze Grāvīte.
"The problem is that every decade there are more and more volatile winters in Latvia, we have so many different winters. People say they grow for ten, fifteen years or more, but then one severe winter comes and all the gardens are wiped clean. Many peach trees are full, in Kurzeme you can hear it, but in Vidzeme and Latgale there are no peach trees at all, not even plum trees," says Grāvīte.
For plums, apricots and peaches, the researcher recommends replanting a variety that produces well every fifteen years.
