Dickey Farms preparing for promising peach season in Musella

After bad seasons in the recent past due to weather, Lee Dickey says he's excited for customers to enjoy fresh fruit.

MUSELLA, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – It’s almost that time of year when sweet Georgia peaches are ready to be picked and taken home, and this season is shaping up to be a good one.

Lee Dickey, co-owner of Dickey Farms, says the weather has been just right for an upcoming successful peach harvest.

“Right now, the peaches have been responding,” he said. “It’s been warm, so the peaches have bloomed, and they have passed the bloom stage, and we’ve got small baby peaches growing, so right now that all looks good. We’ve had adequate chilling hours this winter.”

Dickey says all of his peaches are harvested by hand.

“We started at the end of January, pruning the trees, and that’s by hand,” he said. “There is no mechanical pruning, so we have to trim and prune the trees. Sometimes there’s too much wood, branches will be too close together, so you have to sort them out so the peaches have room to grow. So, right now there is plenty of baby peaches on the trees.”

He also shared some tips on how to pick out the best peaches.

“You look at firmness and size, even if it’s a yellow-back peach, a little bit of blush to it, so hopefully they smell good, look good and most importantly taste good,” he said.

After a few years of unpredictable weather, Dickey says he’s excited for customers to enjoy fresh, high-quality fruit this season.

“Last year it was a great season,” he said. “We had peaches all season long, so I feel like we’ve had a few up and down years before. But this year’s looking really good, so hopefully people are excited about getting some great quality sweet peaches. I love seeing how excited people get about it. It just brings a lot of joy to me. I just love growing peaches.”

Dickey Farms is located at 3440 Musella Road in Musella.