2024 Southern California Stone Fruit Bloom Times

General Fruit Growing
101

Do any of you grow both Red Heart plum and Beauty plum. I was wondering if both of their bloom times coincide with each other?

102

James, I hope White Diamond nectarine works out for you, it was more on the lower acid side for my taste so I ultimately decided to give it to someone else. It was highly susceptible to Brown rot and the oriental fruit moths loved this tree. But here in West Los Angeles the tree grew well and fruited heavily in a couple of years that I had it in a barrel.

I can’t buy anything more from Tomorrow’s Harvest website, (Burchell claims to have sold the site to Nature’s Hill). Burchell won’t sell to backyard orchardists anymore. So do you have any suggestions where I can purchase Burchell’s trees online?

103

Which Burchell varieties are you interested in?

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104

From Burchell
Freckle face
BN9
BN6
BN7
Summerflare30
Summerflare32

105

I have Freckle Face, can send you scions next winter. I am not familiar with the others you mentioned, have you tried them before?

106

Me too,if available?

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107

Sure thing Brady. Just remind me next Feb.

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108

Thanks for the offer Ahmad

This list contains so many gems

BN6 & BN9 are Burchell’s designation
They refer to them also as Snowflare 23 & 28. The snow part because they are white nectarines

BN9 sold by Andy’s Orchard as Constellation is to my tastes, the finest nectarine I have ever eaten. It’s high acid high sugar balance is incredible

BN6 sold as Pegasus is also a high acid high sugar white nectarine offering. Excellent taste, yet BN9 is still my favorite.

If you enjoy white nectarines like Snow Queen, Heavenly White & Stanwick…your palate will love BN6 & BN9. Both their plant patents have expired, but Burchell will note sell them to backyard orchard it’s….onlynto commercial growers of at least 100

The other Burchell BN listed items are the Summerflare high acid yellow nectarines. Imagine Late Le Grand & Red Diamond…just way better tasting.

Visit my Twitter at Michael Salmaggi & you will see my pics and experiences tasting them

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109

Nice posts on Twitter, I encourage you post such posts here, you will get much more interest and interaction… I heard that Andy Mariani does participate in scion exchanges, perhaps you can request those varieties from him.

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110

Great posts above on the Burchell cultivars.

SnackTime (Burchell) is my best flavored early nectarine this year. It was a cool spring so Desert Dawn was good but not its best year. Desert Delight was not as good as I have tasted it elsewhere.

Some recent brix readings on stone fruit:
Belle magnifique tart cherry, brix 17, was balanced and good
Amarena di Pescara tart cherry 2 weeks later, brix 16.5, was also very good
I could eat a bunch of both of these.

Flavor Delight aprium was 18, my son liked it, to me it tasted better than commercial but not special
Nicole apricot was brix 20, full of flavor, tart and complex, was much better.

My son did a blind taste test on me by accident. I was picking from the Flavor Delight tree and he said “eat this one” and it was really good and I said “wow, maybe Flavor Delight is better than I thought” and he said “no Dad, I got it from that tree” (pointing at Nicole).

I maintain that Nicole should be much more widely available at So Cal nurseries than Flavor Delight. It is slightly earlier, and better. It needs a pollinizer but Tropic Gold/Blenheim pollinizes well.

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111

Hi James,
I just joined this forum after reading a bunch of your posts. I was looking for a way to send a direct message on this site, but couldn’t find any? I was wondering if you are available for a chat. My wife and I just bought a nice plot of land in Poway (High Valley area), to build our new house on. I am making plans for a future orchard and since we will be practically neighbors, I would love to pick you brain on all things fruit-related! When you have a moment, send me a quick note by email - genesmasher at Yahoo. Thanks! Vadim

112

Did Arctic Jay give you a good crop? Taste?

113

I planted Arctic Jay near an old pine stump and the tree is pretty unhealthy. At Andy’s Orchard tasting it was in the top half for flavor but not the top 10%. I hope to get you better information in a few years.

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114

Thank you. I was just curious to know if it sets well in your low chill location.