Peach growers in Alabama are looking for competitive new cultivars to address various production challenges and improve production sustainably. The Clemson University Peach Breeding Program (CUPBP) has recently developed advanced breeding lines. Several advanced selections were repotted to possess a combination of desirable traits, including tolerance to bacterial spot, early season ripening, and excellent fruit quality. These cultivars can considerably contribute to the sustainability of peach production in the Southeast.

In 2025, the CUPBP released three new cultivars: advanced selection SC-2 was released as ‘CaroRes Wonder’ (PP36,072), SC-1 became ‘EveRes Ruby’ (PP36, 112), and SC-9 was named ‘CaroRes Delight’ (PP36,741). Planting material from the advanced selections SC-2 and SC-1 was introduced for testing in Alabama growing conditions, and trees were planted at the Chilton Research and Extension Center near Clanton in 2017. Trees of SC-9 were planted in the same location in 2019. The goal was to evaluate the new hybrids’ vegetative growth, phenological development, cropping potential, fruit quality attributes, and tolerance to bacterial spot disease.

‘CaroRes Wonder’ requires about 500 chilling hours to break dormancy. In central Alabama, this cultivar blooms in mid-February to early March. ‘CaroRes Wonder’ sustained flower-bud cold damage during spring frost events in mid-February of 2020 and 2021 and in mid-March of 2023. The fruit ripens early, in mid-to-late-May (figure 1).

The first commercial crop of ‘CaroRes Wonder’ was harvested in 2021, when extremely low temperatures in mid-February caused significant damage to developing flower buds in central Alabama. As a result, early varieties had about 35 percent flower bud survivability. In contrast ‘CaroRes Wonder’ had 80 percent bud survivability and produced an excellent crop of 84.3 lb per tree. The cumulative yield per tree from 2021, 2022, and 2024 was 371.6 lb per tree (table 1). The cold temperatures (20 degrees F) in mid-March 2023, when the trees were in full bloom, caused a complete crop loss for the season.

In 2024, ‘CaroRes Wonder’ had an individual fruit weight of 147.9 grams and a total soluble solids of 11.1% (table 2). Fruit taste was excellent, with juicy, slightly acidic, and firm flesh. Fruit holds the flesh firmness well on the tree but will soften if left for a few days past commercial maturity as flesh is melting. ‘CaroRes Wonder’ produces high pack out volume with uniform fruit size. Fruit appearance is attractive with almost 100% blush cover (figure 2). Heavy bacterial spot infection occurred in mid-May 2024, which caused moderate symptoms on ‘CaroRes Wonder’ fruit (figure 3).