Fruit from tree is Sweet Perfection

Terry Fowler and Helen Brookes with their variety of peach, dubbed Sweet Perfection, in their Georgetown orchard. Photo by Sally Rae.

It's a peach of a tree.

A variety of peach, from the Georgetown property of Terry Fowler and Helen Brookes, might solve the problem of leaf-curl for home gardeners and organic fruit producers.

When the North Otago couple bought their property 20 years ago, there was a peach tree growing at the end of the carport.

The tree was initially sprayed with copper during the winter to prevent leaf-curl but after several years they stopped spraying it, and then realised the tree did not get leaf curl. It also produced "beautiful" fruit.

They thought nothing more of it until a tree crops group from South Canterbury came for a visit to see the different things they were doing in their small, boutique orchard.

They grow a large number of different varieties outside their usual geographical area, like grapefruit, feijoas, almonds and loquat, as the property has its own micro-climate.

The couple were telling nurseryman John Penny about the peach tree and he was very interested because leaf curl was a "huge problem", particularly for home gardeners and organic producers.

Mr Penny later approached them to see if they would be prepared to make budwood available to be propagated at Thirkette Nurseries, near Nelson, to target the home gardener market.

A trial is now being set up for Plant Variety Rights accreditation, with budwood from other peach trees being accessed.

There were 50 characteristics of the fruit to be compared against similar trees and only one needed to be different for accreditation to occur, Dr Brookes said.

Most recently, the couple have been contacted by a journalist from Chile, who writes for new developments in fruit.

It was a Haven-type peach, with yellow flesh, a free stone and it was "particularly sweet and juicy" with a beautiful aroma.

The parent was grown from a stone.

The couple also went through the process to register a name and they came up with Sweet Perfection, which has been publicly notified.

They gave two trees to an Oamaru man who had a small fruit garden and while his other peach and nectarine trees suffered significantly from leaf curl, the two new trees did not.

The nice thing about it was it might never have been found "but for the fact of a fluke", Mr Fowler said.

For anyone wanting to make taste tests, there was a limited quantity of fruit available at Oamaru New World.