Oh my Lois, if you house & feed them, they MULTIPLY. 
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I was way more live and let live until I lost a whole patch of various chard and broccoli to root eating voles or moles or whatever is doing it. Now I am trying to optimize the hawk’s sight lines down the rows of trees. I am shaping the branches in nearby trees near the branch she sits anyway, and pulling out any decorative cover plants that block views of rodents. We also let the exterminator put out some kind of bait stations.
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They’re multiplicitous, all right!
I distinguish between mice [white-footed field mice are what we have here] and voles, the latter being destructive [they got into my potatoes this year]
Not that I stand in the way of the cats hunting them, but I don’t freak out at their presence if they stay outside - inside, they’re marked for death
Anything that can carry the black plague and many other diseases is not welcome on my property.
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I was more of the mind to put my head in the sand and wait for the predator to come, i.e wait for someone else to solve my problem. Problems get worse thataway. Then it occurred to me that ‘man’ is the predator. Sigh. As I read the veggie and fruit losses of those on this forum and as I saw 8 squirrels in my front yard last spring, I just had to do something, or not grow food. Now I have zero tolerance for any rodents. I’m a novice and skiddish predator but I’m getting over it. Looking it as a neighborhood service.
The population seems to vary here a lot. Some years i kill a lot, some years its not too bad. I was killing voles left and right for the past few years and then this year i’ve killed very few, but now i’m trapping the normal house mice. Voles remind me more of little hamsters 
My biggest issue is that they will ring young trees.
My Lapins sweet cherry has 5 flowers open…weird.
People can carry it too! Sometimes you have to think before you speak! I’m going to try it!
On a better subject, My Nectaplums are looking ripe! The first one was good! Better than last year.
I picked a few to see if my Spice Zee Nectaplums were ripe. They are, so I harvested today. Same day as last year!
Not a bad haul for a backyard tree. 66 nectarines. I lost about 5 to possible brown rot. I lapsed a little on spraying. This tree is so strange, it loses it’s central leader to the cold one year. And keeps all it’s fruit buds 2 years later, when all other were damaged partially and even completely. So if you can get this tree established, it’s a good tree for the Midwest. Here is the tree today after harvest.
The fruit is a little tart. low sugar in my fruits this year. I thought it would be more with the drought.
Nice size fruit though!
I was thinking about removing this tree, and I’m glad I gave it another season. It produces well, fruits look pretty good, taste is not bad, it’s a pretty tree too! Keeping it.
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Glassy Winged Sharpshooters are everywhere right now. All over my citrus, figs, and blueberries. 
Those look great, Drew. It’s amazing to me to get so many fruit off that little tree. What is it, about 5 feet tall? Is that as big as it will get, and how old is it? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a Nectaplum before, but I’m still new to all this. I bet it has an interesting flavor.
So, what will you do with all that fruit? I imagine it won’t keep very long, right? Going to make some preserves or jam with it?
You might have mentioned it somewhere else, but how did your peaches do this year? Didn’t you have Indian Free and PF13? I’ve edited out Arctic Glo b/c I just saw that it’s a nectarine, but how’d it do?
The tree is about 6 feet tall. I have pruned it twice. last prune is where the red growth starts.
Now I can’t prune too late in the season. I will do more in the spring. I needed to prune it to a more uniform shape so I could throw netting over it.
I gave away about 20, or will, a couple people yet to pass on. I just froze 10 of them sliced, skinned, in apple juice for use during the winter. I will do ten more.
Even though it’s called a nectaplum, it tastes like a nectarine to me. It is rather a firm piece of fruit and has a decent shelf life. I have enough preserves, but may have to do some more. I’m going to make a red currant-nectarine crisp tomorrow, topped with ice cream. I have lot’s of red currants too.
Pf Lucky 13 was unlucky and all fruit buds died from a late freeze.
Arctic Glo produced about 35 fruits. Many fruit buds were damaged in the late freeze, Low brix this year and fruit was small. Still they were fantastic. All are gone.
Indian Free is not ripe yet, Usually at the start of October. Only about 20 fruits on the tree, again the late freeze.
Overall the nectaplum is a decent tree. Developed by Zaiger Genetics and distributed by Dave Wilson Nurseries. In my yard the California cultivars are doing quite well.
Those look fantastic. I should just plant mine in the ground and see how hardy it really is.
Mine were very small compared to yours, but were ripe a while ago. I thought they were good, but to me Tri Lite probably has the edge…but who knows. One year one variety is awesome the next year it isn’t… oh well. Its better then buying it in the store.
Your Indian Free won’t be ready until October? That seems really late for a peach. Is it worth the wait?
I’m wondering if a nectarine would do well here. My wife likes them, so I might want to try a couple. The UK ag site doesn’t really say yea or nay except for a couple varieties, but they aren’t too sure about peaches doing that well in this part of the state, either. They said it really depends on your site, such as being elevated, good cold air draining, etc, which is what we have. It’s the inopportune spring freezes that are the biggest drawback.
I guess if they do well up there in MI, then they should do OK here. Besides Arctic Glo, what other nects would you recommend?
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I think Indian Free is the Granny Smith and Emerald Beaut of the peach world. haha
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In my area, They ripen about a month earlier in CA Some others ripen even later, that I could not grow here. Our average frost date is October 15th, so it’s really pushing it! This is only the 2nd season with fruit. So maybe earlier or later this year? The fruit just started getting bigger though, so looks like October again. . Oh, both btw are 4th leaf, the nectaplum, and Indian Free. Both purchased from Bay Laurel. Arrived the first week of March growing, I asked MSU’s extension service if I should plant or heal? They said plant, and they went back into dormancy.
Indian Free is my favorite peach, although I’m a newbie and have tried very few.
Tri-lite I think was rated to zone 7? I looked at it, but zone 6a was pushing it. In containers, they should ripen earlier, and be smaller. Nectarines are hard to size up from what I have read here. My Arctic Glo was small size fruit this year. The nectaplum for whatever reason? Certainly nothing I did! Grows huge nectarines here. I think if I was you, I would keep it in a container. The 1st winter, I lost the central leader, it died back to about an inch above the graft union. It threw out three branches very low, all at the same height (not good!). I decided to keep them, and is the three scaffolds I have now. I was worried if I developed another central leader that the tree would not have a big enough caliper leader in size to survive the next winter. So I let them grow. I think it was a wise decision as the next winter was brutal too! It only had tip dieback.
I’m sure other nectarines are better, fruit are OK on Nectaplum, and the tree is producing, is pretty. I have to stop being so picky, it works, don’t fix it!
They do look fine
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Better for others to comment with more experience. None are easy to grow from what I hear.
From my notes I have that Mericrest is a good one. If you like low acid The Honey series is tops.
Hard to say if they will work in your area? Silver Gem I also have in my notes as a decent nectarine.
Fantasia has jumped to the top of my nectarine pile. It tastes excellent and sizes up well and does not rot badly. Mericrest is my #2, it tastes fantastic but does not size up well and is prone to rot. I have 6 varieties under trial now so I will have more data in a few years.
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Drew, those are great looking Spice Zee. Most of the time Spice Zee looks very ratty looking. It’s typically a very ugly piece of fruit.
Beautiful fruits, Drew51!