I am certainly no fruit tree expert. But the wife and I have planted several of them over the last 10 years living on this property.
Peach trees will tend to do better than most apple varieties in our climate. Apples can obviously be grown here too though. We have a green apple tree that does decent every few years.
Get a mixture of different peach varieties. Put a couple white peaches in there too. Try to find some that ripen early summer and some of that ripen late summer to stagger harvest.
Try to seek out varieties that are proven to do well in Oklahoma.
The wife and I have had success transplanting small baby trees from under established peach trees. Typically pop up like crazy in the spring. We have never tried cloning/grafting. When you grow from seed, it’s not guaranteed the peaches will be the same as the parent tree. But we’ve had good luck with it. Plus it’s free.. Some of the nurseries get pricey.
Word of warning: be prepared to wait several years before seeing any fruit, and from there be prepared to only get a ‘good’ harvest every 3 years or so haha! Seems like between the wind/hail/late frost/bugs/etc it takes lots of things to go correctly in order to get a good peach crop. That has been our experience anyway.
Yeah ... I've gathered from reading that the fruit trees are gonna be cyclical when it comes to getting a harvest. And that they are gonna require me to actually become a master gardener or sorts. BUT ... I have all the time in the world now that I'm not working ... And I have just recently begun to wonder JUST how much I could actually produce here.
I have the ability to freeze dry, can, dehydrate, freeze, and ferment anything under the sun so now I am really curious as to just how much of my own food I can produce on my own.
In fact, I am SO all over the place right now -- for example I've got the hens for eggs. But I also have an incubator so I can raise meat birds if I want. All I need is a rooster. The neighbor has a rooster. I already supplement their pellets with "trash" from the garden. And I also feed them mealworms for treats. Hey!! I wonder if I can start my own mealworm farm?? Oh YAKNOW??!?! I have red wigglers in thee compost pile -- I CAN FARM WORMS!! AND ... I've read fermenting their pellets and feeding them sprouts also cuts WAY back on expenses and makes for healthier (and tastier) eggs and meat. See what I mean?? My ADHD goes into overdrive.