Beautiful piece of fruit! All my trees were hit by crazy frosts, so even tho I keep checking the top limbs of my Nectarine hoping to find something left by a late bud, I’m resigned to having nothing this year but hoping for next year.
Nice Drew! I hope you savor it, and have many more chill hours for a much better harvest next season.
Wow, that’s early! Is this one grown in your greenhouse? If so, when does it ripen outdoors?
That looks like some greenhouse!
Drew that looks like a very good piece of fruit. The best ones are a little bit ugly like that.
Which of the new Texas varieties do you like and which have disappointed?
Do you know where a person could buy the good ones?
My trees are container grown and are outside during the winter to get chill hours and also because my gh is full of ornamentals used for the State Fair of Texas so no room. On frost nights during bloom I stuff them in a corner of my gh. When it gets emptied and the trees have bloomed and set fruit I move them indoors. I think Smooth Zest One would ripen early May outdoors the gh makes them ripen ahead of schedule for sure. It would bloom too early for me most years if I wasn’t able to pull them in but would be great for areas like the Texas Valley or Arizona certainly SoCal.
Drew
Oh yeah it’s a monster I grow Tomatoes in there along with my fruit trees and am adding figs, strawberries, a hydroponic tank and gh Bell Peppers this season as part of my Big Tex Urban Farms project. Wish me luck! Lord knows I need it trying to keep up with all this.
Drew
I think I will be able to tell you more this season but so far this one, Smooth Zest One, is the clear winner. It’s a white flesh and is supposedly tangy sweet but seems pretty darn low acid to me. Great flavor on this one. I hope to have Arctic Star in production next year so I can compare the two. I have fruited HBlaze and HRoyale before but is has been a few years. From memory this stacks up right there with them. I should have a few HRoyale later this summer so will see if memory serves me right. I was not impressed with Smooth Texan One and Smooth Texan Three only made a few fruit last year. I can’t find either of the Smooth Delights at all. ST 3 is very very low acid but something had an off taste to me but I may not have picked it a little to soon or something. Both will be ripening again in a couple of weeks and I will give an evaluation when they do. Last season these trees were available from Home Depot. I got my trees from local nurseries. They are grown by Tree Town USA and Ran Pro Farm. A local nursery that deals with them could order them for you. If you want let me know and I can supply contact info for these two nurseries. Thank you!
Drew
Nice looking nectarines. They remind me of spice z nectaplums. Have you tried growing any of the honey series or arctic series? You just can’t beat a perfectly ripe nectarine
Wow (nectarine)…mine just started blooming today.
What kind of temps do they maintain in that greenhouse?
They do look like nectaplums but definitely smaller. Yes I have Honey Royale (only a few fruit this year lack of chill) and partially due to your glowing reports of a year ago I ordered two Honey Kist as well. They are growing great. I had Honey Blaze in the past but the poor thing died when I was on vacation and had an irrigation mishap. They were the best nectarines I ever had. I think H Kist will be good also. I added Arctic Star this year too so I hoping to get some of those next year as well. Thanks!
Drew
It gets into the low 80’s during the day and the heater ( which rarely kicks on anymore) is set at 70 I think. So it stays above that.
Holy cats…that is some tropical conditions.
Get some mangosteens in there…
Is there a video of the greenhouse? Looks huge!
Heating to 70 would break the bank for most folks. Heating to 62 here in March averages greater than $10 per night for my 1700 sqft operation.
70F nights explains the early maturity.
You know I would love to and will add more tropical fruits in there but it is sooooo full during winter that I can hardly squeeze anything in. Yes I need to taylor my inventory better to add more tropical fruit.
DD
Let me search the company site and see if there is video. I will add some pics later for sure. Yes it is huge.
DD
You know the funny thing is the last few years it just hasn’t gotten very cold often, even at night. This gh has a very tall vaulted ceiling and it really seems to trap heat. Too much so in summer. Yes I know the setup I have would be un thinkable for the average home owner for sure. But your ability to create an artificial winter is still something I am very jealous of! I’m still not sure how you do it or figured out how to do it either.
Drew