Arctic Star & Arctic Glo, when do they ripen?

When I read about these nectarines, comments are from people fron CA or Southwest @fruitnut or even from the midwest.

Do we have growers of Arctic Glo and Arctic Star in the east coast? I would like to find out when they will ripen. I have a couple fruit of each from the last year’s grafts… Not sure when to pick them. Only have a couple so I would like to pick them at the right time if possible. Thanks.

Right time is when they jump into your hand :slight_smile:. So touch them often, if they look almost ready.

I pick when they start to soften. That’s the right time anywhere if you like soft ripe fruit. If you like firm ripe fruit it will take some first hand experience. But color can help.

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arctic star is pretty good, hope you like it.

I have mine in missouri in a pot. It’s low chill and at least for me blooms earlier than the rest. So late freezes may be more of a problem with it without protection

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Thank you. One or two of them are in Clemson bags so I can’t see them. The others are in perforated bags that are well covered with Surround. In other words, I can’t really figure out their color very well. I can see that Arctic Glohave turn red while other peaches ( Autumn Star) around them have not but they are late peaches.

That’s why having some dates to go by would be really helpful in my situation.

Many people say they are sweet and tart. I hope they are more sweet than tart. Can’t eat much tart fruit these days.

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Mam, I used to have a tree of Arctic Jay, when I first started my orchard . The nectarines were sweet and very good. Lost the tree to borers, before I knew about spraying. I know that tree grows well where we live. Also the blossoms of the tree are beautiful.

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Glad to hear they grow well here. Their large, deep pink showy flowers are definitely beautiful.

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arctic jay is perhaps my all-time fave, and if misery loves company, we lost our nects and peach trees to borers too. Our neighbor’s plum tree fell victim as well. [quote=“mamuang, post:6, topic:11963”]
hope they are more sweet than tart
[/quote]

jays and stars are definitely that, with no metallic or bitter after-taste of the flesh closest to the pit

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I have both fruiting…they are both sizing up faster then any other nectarine I have…not ripe yet

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Thank you all for your input.

@mrsg47, it appears anyone, who grows this Arctic series, likes it. I wish more people in the east coast grow them. Wonder if @BobVance or @alan grow any in this series.

I’m trialing one of them, but can’t remember which, Has a few fruit almost ripe. Hard to imagine it will surpass Silver Gem, which is such a great early white nect and bred for the east. For a very early yellow nect, Carene will be hard to top as well. Both are much more interesting to my palate than any peaches I have now, including Gold Dust, which would need to get higher brix to be really good. Of course this year is challenging with the excessive rain. Gold Dust was better 2 years ago and quite good. My nects are getting up adequate sugar but cracking too much because of all the water.

Gold Dust gets too red too early and is a bird magnet. It also is excessively vegetative on my site, requiring a lot of summer pruning to encourage non-sucker, fruitful wood. But it is a young tree. It is, by far, my most beautiful early peach, and is as pretty as any I grow. Who cares? I don’t sell the fruit. However, the deep orange flesh is probably quite high in carotene for a peach.

Drew’s comment reminds me that I have Arctic Glo

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I don’t have Arctic Star but Glo ripens the first week of August here. Fantastic fruit, my favorite of all my trees. @alan Arctic Glo will be as good or better than the ones you mentioned. I think you have that as you mentioned it once. Good choice, you will not be disappointed. I’ll add Silver Gem and Carene to my list. I would like a good yellow.
If you like a good acid-sugar balance, Glo is awesome. It’s sweet yet has that acid too. Unlike almost all other white nectarines, it’s really very unique. I crossed it with Indian Free and have three seedlings growing.

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@alan, yours are almost ripe. @Drew51 is a week or two from now. So I guess mine must be around the end of next week, then.

I have both Glo and Star, I think. They were grafted last year and have grown so much, much faster than any peach grafts on the same tree. When I checked one of the tags yesterday, the wire was about to girdle ( I made a decent size loop) the graft. They just grow!!!

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Nope, I don’t have any. I tried to graft one of them last year, but that was the time all my peaches/nects failed.

My Gold dust was entombed by my kiwi and I just released it yesterday. I also budded it to another tree, to have a 2nd one which isn’t in such a precarious position.

How early is Carmen? I have a 2nd year tree with 5-6 peaches on it. The descriptions just say “early”, but Carment is over 100 years old and I’m not sure if it is really early, or just early in the same sense Redhaven was when it first came out.

Regarding Arctic Glo, ACN has a good maturity chart which puts it starting on 7/21 and continuing into the first week of August. That’s for for Southern PA, so maybe a week later for you?

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Thanks, Bob. I checked that chart a few years back. It is either about the same or a week ahead of me.

When I said about soil borne pathogens at the site ( on another thread, I just realized), I meant for a fruit tree. Veggies don’t count :smile: isn’t growing beans good for the soil?

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Walked by my peach tree today. This Arctic star fell but was in the organza bag. The scionwood was grafted on a peach tree last year. The fruit looks very clean. I could not find any entry hole. It is still hard so I will let it be for a few days before trying it. So happy to get one clean fruit.

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The Arctic Star in the pic was softened today but it was rather bland. Somehow, it dropped before it fully ripened.

Today, another Arctic Star, in a Clemson bag, was soft to a touch. Turned out the soft area next to the branch got brown rot :worried:. The fruit had almost no stem and attached tightly to the branch. I sprayed with Immunox and Triazicide before I bagged. Obviously, it was not enough. It could be that with no stem, it was difficult for fungicide to get to that area.

I cut off the rot area and ate a good section of it. It was very sweet with brix at 20. I don’t get 20 brix on any of my fruit so this was very good news. Hopefully the other two remaining nects will ripen with no rot (could be wishful thinking. I also have 2 Arctic Glo that I hope will ripen without any incident, too.

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Artic Glo has looked ripe for weeks but they are hard as rocks still. Some varieties are bred to be picked hard and just don’t ripen on the tree. Presumably I will learn about AG any day now. Hard fruit I’ve sampled isn’t that promising.

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Arctic Glo will soften. If it wasn’t good it’s not ready. The fruit is amazing here. I tried one that was damaged and it was fantastic. It should be ready in a week. Mine seemed way sweet for Arctic Glo. It’s a high brick year for sure. If the flesh was not very red it’s not ready. The fruit usually colors up before ripe. It goes rather quick from hard to soft. It has a decent shelf life but best preserved when fully ripe.

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