Just wanted any of your thoughts on this variety. Just accidently yielded to temptation and threw one on top of an order of strawberries. Curious on how it tastes and ripening times?
Hope it grows for you, I may try if it does.
I had one for about a decade. I liked it. It tended to overset more than other nectarines. I never thinned them enough to get normal size fruit. The fruit tended to be more plum sized. They had an interesting firm texture for a nectarine, which could be due to smaller size. The flavor was intense but still had a good balance of sugar and acid. It seemed a little easier to grow than some other nectarines. Fruit was least likely to rot and tree had less disease. Sunglo, for example, has the potential to produce higher quality fruit, but is plagued with more disease difficulties at my location. I wish I had grafted it to another tree before it died. I don’t need a whole tree, but I wouldn’t mind having a third of tree on a multigraft.
Here is Hardired nectarine next to Santa Rosa plum.
With pit removed by cutting around and twisting.
With only one tree I was still giving away boxes of them.
The tree at some point during harvest. It’s obvious I didn’t thin it enough. I don’t train them low to the ground like this anymore because the deer learned to like them over time. They even started tearing the nets down to get to the fruit.
I will let you know.
Thank you! That’s a very helpful write-up. I’m guessing that they ripened for you in mid to late August there in Elmira?
Mid-August, about a week after Redhaven.
Cool, I had already ordered Hardired from Raintree for this spring. The only other nectarine I have is John Rivers which is a very old white variety. Got my first fruits last summer, it was good. I sprayed it like I spray my peaches and it seemed fine.