Still deeply dormant here…
1 Like
Richard, your soil and mine are worlds apart. It looks so rich and loamy. Have you built it up over time? Also, are all your trees irrigated?
You’re seeing 1-2 inches of kiln dried redwood bark on top of the soil. 
Yes, all our outdoor plants are on automated irrigation.
Here’s our 4’ tall sapling loaded with fruit sets. This afternoon I removed 5 lbs of them - leaving 4 fruits on the primary scaffolding near the trunk. 
10 Likes
Looking good Richard! I think Peach or Nectarine on Citation works for you because you give it ample and regular irrigation. If it gets a bit dry, like how my stingy self keeps it, it’ll go dormant pretty soon. Dormant as in stop growing. So, in my new home all peaches/nectarines will be on Lovell.
4 Likes
@Richard Do you do anything with your thinning’s? I found lots of recipes for picked green peaches. And I suspect green peaches might work as well as the green Japanese apricots (ume plum). My wife is just going to kill me when she see me thinning the fruit this year. I going to have to try either or both of these projects.
I had same problem with citation when I lived in San Jose. Lovell was much better. I noticed before I left many of the dwn trees at retailers had switched to Lovell over citation, where it was reverse a few years before. I wonder if that was due to negative reports of citation.
If we did not thin our peach and nectarine the branches would break from the weight of maturing fruit. We’ve no motivation to utilize the immature fruits - especially with Citrus ripening at this time.
Excellent, @Richard, great pollination. I thinned my belle of georgia about 75% last year, but I can already tell this year will be much lighter.
1 Like
wow…that sure sets a lot of fruit…This reminds me, I need to get out and thin my tropic snow.
Most of the good varieties are still sold on Citation. Others are on Nemaguard but very few are on Lovell.
Another major problem is Crown Gall. @Girly lost a lot of trees to it as did I. I ordered Myro 29c rootstocks for plum/pluots.
1 Like
Bay Laurel is offering a lot of varieties on Lovell. I guess thats due to their customer complaints on Citation. Some of the new varieties are only offered on Citation even from DWN which they can’t do much about.
1 Like
Lovell is a poor performer in my location.
Not sure if this is specific to our location here. I even heard from Andy Mariani that he saw the same problems with Citation in his orchard. I don’t have any issues with Nemaguard. Young trees on Lovell are doing great. Trees of the same age on Citation are struggling. This is only peaches and nectarines. Apricots and Plums on Citation are doing fine.
3 Likes
Is your latest picture of Eva’s Pride Peach,I assume,photographed today?
Yes. It’s very early here.
I know that southern California has the climate to grow a lot of different things,but it is somewhat surprising to see near ripe Peaches this early.Even Dave Wilson Nursery has Eva’s Pride’s harvest window from late June into July,I guess in Hickman.
That’s a beautiful tree too.
1 Like
Big difference is that Hickman has a winter, cold period. Warms up in say March or April. If Richard’s location is anything like my parents in Orange County, they can get 90s in January… season starts EARLY.
1 Like
Ultra-low chill fruits meet their chill requirements early in the winter. As soon as the temp warms up a bit (which is early in So. Cal), they break dormancy and start to grow. If you see which trees are the worst violators of DWN table as observed in Hickman and Vista, its varieties like FlordaPrince and Eva’s Pride, specifically bred for low chill.
I’m curious to find out from @Richard if these early peaches sweeten up well. In my short experience here in coastal Bay Area, (yellow) peaches top around 15-16 average brix until we hit Aug when we see 100F temps.