I like Freckle Face nectarine a lot. It has good size, tastes good in wet years and excellent in dry years.
Bought my tree from Costco about 7 years ago. It was a Burchell tree on a Nemaguard rootstock. It has survived New England winters but it is in a protected location between two houses. The tree already had serious canker that killed one of the branches this year. I will graft it on other tree next year. I don’t think this tree will last very long.
The majority of my plums from multi-grafted trees.
Reema, Lavina, Nadia were all done.
Mt. Royal, French Improved, mirabelle are ripening now
Elephant Heart starts to ripen
Vision almost there.
Laroda a few weeks to go
A few years ago you showed photos of Vision as a very big plum: Favorite Euro Plums - #409 by mamuang
In this photo it seems much smaller. I also thought it was ripening in October for you; are you sure this one you are showing today is the same plum?
Ahmad,
Nothing got pass you 
I got many things to do in the spring so no time to thin Mt. Royal or Vision. The result - Mt Royal is only a bit bigger than a mirabelle and Vision is about 1/3 of its full size.
Well-thinned Vision is almost as big as an Elephant Heart.
Here were Mt. Royal with a poor thinning job.
And barely thinned Vision.
Vision are on branches to high too reach standing on the ground. No time to use a ladder to thin them.
@Ahmad
Thank you for your recommendation.
I put these two traps up yesterday afternoon. This was what they looked like this morning.
I wasted my time and money with the brand sold at Home Depot. It was not effective at all.
I have no sympathy for these yellow jackets. They have ruined too many of my plums. Of course, I should have listened to you and put yellow jacket traps up since the spring.
Not sure where you’re at but the yellow jackets actually prevents pests in my area by the looks of it. They only go after this that already have holes or pecks in it from what i can tell.
Maybe something to watch out for if you’re still getting holes and things after using this.
What pests in your area that yellow jackets prevent?
I have seen yellow jackets drill holes in my perfectly good plums and Euro pears. They do go after wounds made by bird pecking, too.
They do work here. They pick every bug around off my trees and plants. They don’t ever attack even with food around. Especially when the summer heat starts cranking up. And they drink out of my fountain a lot. Sometimes I’ll swish them out if they get stuck. I love them.
But the invasive types can be a real pita. I wish my neighbors would learn the difference. Luckily I don’t deal with the invasive types. In the Los Gatos mountains my friend had them so bad even pro pest control companies said they couldn’t help. So we put those traps up. About 10 around the backyard and they would be full every 4-5 days.
Aphids, thrips, the fluffy cotton bugs, scale, sap sucking beetles and fruit flies.
There are several species of yellow jackets in the US, and some have different diets. In general, during spring and early summer, they are looking for protein to feed their young and build the colony. Later in the summer they shift to wanting more sugars.
@Toadham, @Melon , @plants
Thank you for the education. These yellow jackets are zeroing in on my ripening fruit, esp. high sugar plums.
I left them alone in the spring and early summer. I have never seen them doing anything with thrips or aphids (I have ladybugs to thank for aphids).
Sounds like got the bad ones. I’d definitely try eradicate them then.
I’ve seen them clear thrips on my raspberries and I’ve only seen them on the fruits after the little chickadees peck their tiny pokes in them.
Honestly wish they would just take the entire fruit instead of leaving a peck here and there.
Over here in Washington and in Colorado, I’ve watched them clear out the fruits only after the birds have made their pecks or after some random damage but I’ve never seen them actually go after something without previous damage to it first.
Maybe we have different varieties. Mine won’t touch anything until after a hole has already been made. They love my raspberries but only for the nectar and thrips. I even pick blueberries with them cleaning my plant regularly until just about a week ago (my blueberry season ended then).
I believe thrips here are western flower thrips. They have done noticeble damage on my nectarines.
https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/managing_western_flower_thrips_in_peaches_and_nectarines
@alan
I think you mentioned no such weatern flower thrips in New York. Plenty of them in PA (see the article in the previous post) and in MA.
See below.
Did you finally identify them as thrips by seeing the insects? Otherwise I think it is a disservice to flatly state you have thrip damage. My investigation has shown me that you can get the same kind of symptoms from ovule damage during hard spring frosts- even at bud swell. I got deformed nectarines, but also a few nect varieties that set no fruit which began to provide evidence of ovule damage from frost. Then I got a lot of peaches that held onto the tree but stopped growing at golf ball sized and only rotted at harvest time without ripening, which is more evidence of freeze related ovule damage- that kind of damage I’ve seen before. Finally, even on nicely formed peaches and plums, brown rot was almost impossible to control this year for the first time on my site, seemingly coming from the interior of the fruit where fungicide can’t touch it, which further suggests the freeze diagnosis. Also, sites that I manage that are better situated and are somewhat warmer all had clean nectarines- it was colder sites that suddenly had damage that looked like thrip damage. I’ve never had a pest suddenly appear at such a wide range of sites out of nowhere. Usually I identify a new pest at just a couple of sites before the problem becomes widespread.
Next year when my trees are in bloom, I presume there will be identifiable thrips in the nects if they were the problem this year. Until I see that I will assume nothing but I’m leaning on blaming the Mar 23rd drop in temps. If you don’t clearly identify a pest I think it’s a mistake to assume if any other explanation is reasonable.
My yellow jackets go after bugs but also go after fruits. They can destroy figs and pears. For some reason this year they are not bad, I didn’t even put out my traps.
I oddly have nothing destroying my ripening fruit now, the deer are getting some of the lower fruits but that’s it. I’m sure this won’t last long unfortunately.
Alan,
You have said that you have not had thrips and it is a new pest to you. I only pointed out that thrips are not new to PA and MA. I do not know why they skip NY state or your orchard.
I don’t recall having hard freeze on March 23. I only have 3 nectarines/peach trees so I don’t have a lot to go by. What I have seen this year is damage that looked very much like thrip damage. I thinned them out.
I have no deformed nectarines or peaches. My 3 trees set very well. I thinned off buckets of fruitlets. The issue I have faced is brown rot and I blamed that on too much rain for too long and the use of paper bags to bag the fruit.
Last year was the first time I saw so many yellow jackets in pears. I bagged my pears so damage was minimal.
I will be more observant next year to see if they help me with aphids, thrips, scales, etc.
This year, plums are loaded. I have seen yellow jackets attacked plums since late July when the Early Magic started to ripen. They have been having a party since then.
I posted a pic of a yellow jacket drilling my fig somewhere upthread. My figs are in pots so they are easy to reach and bag.
Here that is usually a tell tale sign of pear psyla and includes the shriveling of growing tips of pears and sometimes encourages fungal issues that lead to premature defoliation, making the fruit worthless. On my site and others Bosc and Seckel are among the most susceptible and Harrow varieties and Bartlett the most resistant. Sheldon and Dutchess also seem to be resistant as well as a couple others I grow. I’ve never seen an issue with them in Asian pears.
Like aphids, psyla poops sugar while mining for protein and some fungus species capitalize on the free lunch.
The comment you posted flatly stated that thrips had done noticeable damage to your nectarines, which surprised me after our back and forth about the issue a few weeks back.
I am really struggling to get a clear understanding of all the pests I am dealing with and clarity on this forum is important to me. I will always challenge claims that seem questionable and I hope you will do the same for me.
Logic and sound deductive reasoning combined with limited anecdotes does not always create a clear path to genuine fact. I’ve taken the wrong turn on such paths too many times.
