The fruit looks wonderful and has great size. That smile says it all…!!
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I’m just about done picking Red Gold from a really big tree. They look just like yours this year and they are good but not as sweet as when they are a bit smaller (less rain during the growing season). It has shown itself to be a very productive variety here in S. NY, even though the first year it bore fruit there was a lot of cracking. I thought it was because it was a West Coast variety, but it has produced almost all perfect fruit since and is the most productive and beautiful nect I grow based on the last 5 years.
How consistent is cropping at your western site?
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Very consistent! Usually my Red Baron peach next to it is consistent too, but I only got a handful from it this year. I picked about a dozen more Red Golds this morning and there are still about a half dozen left on my tree. I can’t imagine getting these any sweeter and they get watered by the sprinklers ever other day due to the strawberries I have growing under it. So I do get some cracking, which I’d be more worried about if I wanted to sell these. I just let them get pretty soft before I pick them.
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One thing I’m beginning to notice about these Red Golds is that after a while, they’re too much of a good thing! The flavor is so intense, I begin to lose appreciation for it, and that’s when I’m thankful for something a little calmer and smoother like my Red Baron peaches.
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I agree that nectarines are no replacement for peaches. I just use a lot more nectarines- partially because I find them much more useful out of the freezer and I eat them all winter and spring if I avoid crop failure as part of my breakfast in oatmeal or over waffles. .
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I do the same thing, however I also do that with peaches, but after being frozen and put on top of oatmeal or waffles, pancakes, etc., I can’t tell the difference between the two.
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Holy cow, this tasted good. I think this is the first nectarine I’ve ever eaten in my life. I only got one fruit, everything else was destroyed, even this had a couple of bird pecks from early in the season. Went right through the bag, but somehow the nectarine made it.
Fantasia. My youngest daughter liked it, which is a good sign. She was struggling with the words “taste like a peach, but then at the end taste like a lemon…”. “Aftertaste.” I said.
It’s a lot sweeter, rich, and has a good zing to it at the end, unlike all of the peaches I’ve tasted locally. The peaches are good, just very different with a consistent mellow soft slightly sweet flavor.
At the end of the bird peck I found this. Is it just mold or something on the pit?
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Not sure, but the pit looks like it’s smiling!
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I’m getting scion for Fantasia after @Bradybb showed me one. Also Red Gold. But peach nectarine scion is tough, still gonna try. I have a few takes at last with peach!
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Well, you can try it at different times and find out what works where you are. I still can’t quite believe that later grafting of plums doesn’t work there, but what do I know about your neck of the woods. Here I find plums to be more flexible than peaches but that peaches can be grafted pretty late, even preceding hot weather.
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Part of it may be that the scion is weak by the time it becomes warm, I have a bad fridge or something?
Until someone in your region has success later you probably won’t find out for sure. If I was in your shoes I’d stick with what works. Better to get them growing as early as you can so they have more time to establish. Also, pests like leafhoppers and aphids become more of a problem when grafts have the freshest most tender growth on a tree. You’ve convinced me to try some early grafts again.
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In your last picture, the white stuff in the flesh next to the pit is undifferentiated cell tissue. Basically it’s a sort of callus tissue. Doesn’t hurt anything, other than eye appeal. Safe to eat.
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OK great, that’s good to know, thanks.
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I’ve harvested most of my Mericrest nectarines and they completely overcome any difficulty in getting up the brix this year. More intensely flavored than the Red Gold that are ripening at almost the same time and the one I just measured came in at 20 brix, but I think the sugar is not evenly distributed through individual fruit. It is still the most highly flavored yellow I’ve had this year and it’s over a 20 year old tree. I never would have tasted one if I hadn’t started using Indar- it is definitely a cracker.
Unfortunately it was never very vigorous and is now trying to fall over.
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Alan I think you’re in zone 6, correct? If so me being i’m zone 5 and harvested my Mericrest well over 2-3 weeks ago.
can’t erase this
Well, the sources I’m looking at say it ripens with Glohaven peach which is just a day or 2 in front of Coralstar and Coralstar just finished here as well.
I’ve no certainty in my ID- I planted it a very long time ago and don’t even know my source, but remember choosing the 2 hardiest nects available- Mericrest and Hardired and Hardired is earlier than Mericrest, so I’m making the guess that is what this is. It would seem 2 or 3 weeks ago would be much too early for this variety in Z5, though according to what Seed Savers and ACN say. Also a guideline from U of Missouri which puts it 17 days after Red Haven which should have been ripening where you are at the time you say Mericrest was. .
I have see @tonytran, zone 5 NE harvested several fruit 2-3 weeks ahead of me (zone 6).
Recently @JamesWNY in NY, zone 6, harvested PF24 C peaches 2-3 weeks ahead of me, same fruit, same zone and close proximity, too.
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This year seems off as far as fruit ripening in my area. Everything is about 2-3 weeks earlier ripening than normal. We have had a weird spring and I think that is what messed up all the ripening here. Not sure what happened in everyone else’s zones.
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