Irradiation doesn't change the taste of the food, he said. Irradiation has uses on foods other than meats. Irradiation prevents onions and potatoes from sprouting, and it kills the mold that quickly spoils strawberries. Red Haven is the first, high-quality peach of the year. It takes so many hours of cold before they can break bud and grow normally in the spring.
Contender has the longest chilling requirement of any of the commercially available peach varieties.
It'll actually break bud a little later than the other varieties, and just that little time difference is enough to make the difference between a crop and no crop. Peach acreage in Tennessee continues to decline due primarily to inconsistencies dictated by spring frosts and the high cost of orchard development. Tennessee peach growers produced just two crops in 10 years during the 1980s due to late frosts and freezes. The '90s yielded six crop seasons as adoption of frost-control techniques increased. A decade ago, the farm had 125 acres of peach trees and 125 acres of apple trees.