In my experience, that usually also means decent brix.
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Iāve wondered about the consistency of all the different refractometers. I think I got mine from Alibaba, so who knows how accurate it is. It reads 0 with distilled water but I was wondering if there is something consistent enough (maybe Coca Cola) that we can all test and compare results? I donāt have any regular Coke or Iād try it right now.
For the record, weāve been pretty dry in Ohio this year and Iāve had Redhavens average from 13 to 15, Veteran Peaches 13 to 15 and Reliance peaches that actually hit 16.5 but were not as good as the others. Veteran and Redhaven tasted very good. The Veteran tree was loaded, Redhaven was medium and Reliance only had 10 or so peaches on a decently sized two year old tree form a Big Box store. I was able to leave them all on the tree for quite awhile to fully ripen. In fact, some Reliance stayed on the tree for 10 days after I picked the Redhavens. I bought local apricots, Shiro plums, Castleton plums (I think) and white peaches from a farm stand up north last week, and everything was bland and read around 8 or 9, so at least my refractometer is not reading everything high.
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Oh yes, itās decent but not on the high end. For the latter Iām growing Snow Queen Nectarine.
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My best nectarines this season have been Fantaisia and Flavortop, followed by Harko. All awesome nectarines! I cut down my original Fantasia this winter and grafted it into my front orchard, prime high brix growing conditions. The 3 fruit I harvested were exceptional, even better than my Flavortop in back yard. I will be moving my Flavortop into front yard this winter, as this is my best fruit growing area! Brix readings were 25 for both Fantaisia I tested,
average 22 for other two. Pretty sure the front yard orchard is supreme, although the back yard fruit is larger! All these nectarines are very good Quality and well balanced, sweet, acid flavor! A few pics of Flavortop and Harko, Fantaisia did not get photographed, sorry.
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Top pics smaller Harko, bottom Large Flavortop. Fantasia is large too but small this year as first 3 fruit on last seasons graft.
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Those are beautiful and have the high quality appearance. You are making me want to move to CAā¦!! Very nice size for those brix readings.
What rootstock are they on?
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Yes those have the right look, enjoy
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How did you manage them, soil and water-wise?
I may have to stop reading about results achieved in areas with no rain during the growing season- it is a kind of torture- especially the photos.
I await our areas next summer drought with great anticipation. Maybe I should start growing a few trees in containers so I can control water.
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There are pictures of his orchard in posts 77-78 above. And I do believe that his trees are now near 4.5 months with little rain and minimal irrigation. I was just checking the Sacramento area and every day is still nonstop sun with highs 95-105F. Even my greenhouse canāt match this. Weāve had 9 weeks of rain and clouds.
I think that would help some. However trees in containers canāt be dried out like fruitgrower is doing. You need the big root system. Thatās the only way to achieve the required long term water deficit in the tree. Potted trees are wet half the time.
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In the east we just need to grow fruits that are good with low brix, Iām not a sugar freak anyway, so it works well for me. Plus other items like veggies love water and they grow well here. I say this but I do have better conditions than the Northeast. My brix this year has been between 15 and 20. not as good as 25 and up, but enough to produce a decent fruit. My nectaplum is just about ripe. A couple early ones were at 15, but on the north side. My plums are around 15 too so far, but most are not ripe. Satsuma looks ready harvesting today. Brix was 15 on one I picked. I thought I could get a few in the 25 range as it has been as dry as possible here. Looks like 20 is as high as I can go. Maybe some water from the raised beds, and in ground currants I water is making it to the trees? I need to water those plants. I just went out and took these photos to show dry conditions.
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Are you implying that minimal regular watering will not trigger the drought stress needed for the tree to withhold water from the fruit? I thought that is what you are doing.
Last year my potted Nectarines split when a drought-breaking rainstorm hit overnight. It was only a week or so before harvest. The rain had been dissipating before it would get here, but this rainstorm was more intense than I anticipated. This year I got smart and put rain skirts around the base of the trees to keep the rain out of the pots. I still need to put together an automated watering system. I forgot to water them once and the fruit wrinkled up. I thought they were done, but they re-inflated after watering. I assume that irregular watering could result in uneven development.
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Iām not growing fruit trees in pots any more. Havenāt for 5 yrs or so. Like you stated itās hard to short water in a pot. They are too wet or too dry and the cycle happens daily or over a couple days at most. In the ground the soil volume per tree is hundreds of times bigger. The tree needs weeks to adjust to a low water regime. The osmotic potential, a measure of sugars to water ratio, in the tree increases every day during that period. After the tree has adjusted you keep it there with small frequent irrigation say via drip.
Even crops like corn or sugarbeets take a couple weeks of drying to fully adjust their osmotic potential as drought stress increases. Trees have a bigger and deeper root system and can adjust even longer.
During drought the tree, in a way, has to be drier than the soil. Water moves from wetter to drier zones. The tree dries itself out by increasing itās osmotic potential. It increases the solids/water ratio which in the fruit is measured as brix.
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Same here. I donāt expect to get much over 20 brix. I actually liked some of the plums better at 15 brix. I donāt need high brix for low acid fruit as long as it has good flavor. I guess it depends on the specific variety.
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Tree roots spread a long distance. In my greenhouse I donāt have much room either.
The east with your clouds and humidity canāt equal the nonstop sun and dry heat in CA. Many things are very good at 15-20 brix. But thatās mostly acidic fruits not the low acid CA fruits.
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I agree with that. The sun and heat must contribute to brix too, as my trees are not getting a lot of water for sure. Some years it is hot too, but not this year, just average, a few 90F days, mostly 70ās. So maybe in those years where we get 100F days, like every 20 years or so 
I can do a touch better!
I also agree about the low acid fruits, more like no acid really. My Lucky 13 is light on acid, maybe a medium, itās mild, yet tastes darn good. The exception as most do not. We made smoothies with some of the peaches and my wife declared them her favorite smoothie so far. She has a sweet tooth. Here that means not tart, it doesnāt have to be real sweet, just not tart! Often I have her sample stuff I think is amazing and her face curls up in how tart they are. Hard to grow for her!
Speaking of sweet, I was looking at sugar canes, hmm interesting plant, some are extremely ornamental. Need sun all year though. It may be worth trying for me. I still have this urge to grow tropicals.
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Thanks for the compliments Fruitnut, the Fantaisia is on Nemeguard and the Flavortop is on Lovell. The recommended peach/nect root here is Lovell, but both seem to do well here. I do have some trees on Citation and St.Julian, but I believe the other two are better. I will experiment with grafting June pride peach on the latter two and see what performs best as I already have JP on Lovell and Nemeguard. This will take a few years to figure out. What are your thoughts on root? I know you have tried most of them.
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The first two or three feet of soil were dug up with a bobcat. The soil here is I believe a fine textured yolo clay loam. Then we spread six yards of organic compost and planted trees. We have about 3 inches of medium bark mulch on top but not around crown. I donāt fertalize the trees, but on occasion I put leftover fish water from my fishbox on any tree that looks like it needs some help. This happens mostly in spring time, both spring and fall better fishing than summer. Water wise they were getting dripped twice a week for a total of 12.6 gallons a week. I have increased that to 16.8 gallons, and will increase to about 30 as the trees get full grownā¦ They are mostly 4 year old trees around 8 feet tall and 10 foot diameter. The recommended amount of water per week for a tree 10 feet in diameter is 145 gallons. So, I donāt recommend this much deficit, but a third of the recommended amount should be fine for any full size fruit tree. I really wish the commercial guys would catch on, I believe most are wasting a lot of our states water on just a little size. I saw an arcticle on David Matsumottos peach trees and how through the drought they watered less an got the best tasting peaches ever, just loosing a little size on Gold Dust peach, a small peach to start with. I can tell you other peaches and nectarines will still size up quite well, but taste so much better with less water. I think your growing fruit in pots sounds promising, perhaps a small greenhouse with your favorite fruits? Sounds great!
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I had good luck initially with Citation. But itās so sensitive to crown gall that I probably wonāt plant it anywhere now. Krymsk 1 is OK for pluots but not apricot and Iām not sure about nectarine. So right now Iād favor Lovell if I were back in CA.
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Not if I cover the pots when I donāt want rain to reach the roots.
Iām interested in the specific details from Fruitgrower, including when he began to harvest the first high brix fruit of the season. Iām surprised you are not more curious about the precise amount of time of reduced water is required to achieve max brix.
OK, I just read Fruitgrowerās response- thank you fruit grower. It seems as though coming out of spring your deep clay loam must provide non-deficit water for longer than would be the case in most commercial orchards- how often do you reapply the bark? I assume you let the humus it creates build.
The problem is that we still donāt really know at what point during the growing season your trees experience water deficit.
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Longer than your estimate of one month. Iād say 2-3 months for the 24+ brix levels. You arenāt going to know unless you measure osmotic potential of the tree weekly starting in April in CA. And youād need fully watered trees and several stress levels. There are so so many variables: soil, climate, rootstock, tree spacing, ground cover, irrigation amount and method, etc. Drew has been dry for months and heās at about 20 max. CA is a whole higher level compared to the humid East.
Fruitgrower was applying 12.6 gal per 100 sq ft per week which equals only 0.2 inch per week. Thatās been increased to 16.8 which equals 0.28 inch per week. Recommended is 145 gal or 2.34 inch per week. Heās applying 12% of the recommended rate. All calculated based on 0.62 gallons per sq ft equals one inch of water. His total deficit since April 1 is about 35 inches minus maybe a couple inches of rainfall during that period. Thatās a very severe deficit. The soil might supply 8-10 inches max and that would be a very good soil. Even with 5 inches rain and 10 from the soil that leaves a 20 inch deficit. He probably hasnāt had 5 of rain and the soil isnāt out 10 inches so maybe 25 deficit. If you didnāt get any rain May thru Sept in NY you might be in the same ballpark, well after most stone fruit was harvested.
Youāve said your nectarines are both sides of 12 brix. Fruitgrowers are 25. Thatās 13 brix points for 25 inch deficit. A gain of one point for a 2 inch deficit. Maybe thatās too low.
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