I am in the Bay Area California and get up to 1000 chill hours. I am a sugar Junkie!
What are some of the highest brix fruits that you grow (especially growers in California - @Stan @fruitgrower, etc ?
Looking for specific varieties to try -
White Nectarine
Yellow Nectarine
White Peach
Yellow Peach
Pluots
Apricots
I’m a relative newbie to growing fruit trees, but I believe some cultivars of jujube have the highest brix. People like @jujubemulberry have reported consistently a brix of over 30 from their jujubes.
many juju cultivars approach or exceed 30 brix, As far as i remember: li, sugarcane, hj, sihong regularly reads 28 to more than 32(we used a cheap refracto that could only go as high as 32, btw). Of course flavor and texture counts as well, as the cultivar chico --even though at a ‘lower end’ of mid 20’s is actually better-quality overall compared to others that are sweeter due to its interesting flavor.
This is a good Question for @fruitnut, he really likes the low acid fruits that achieve the highest brix and flavor, so hopefully he will add a few to mine and @Stans list. For white nectarines the sweetest I ever grew are Arctic Jay and Arctic Star. Both are very sweet with more going on than just sweet, AS is in my opinion a little better, AJ being slightly sweeter. Both of these are usually at least 28 brix and AJ is often in the 30s. For yellow nectarines the September Honey is my sweetest, usually 28 to 30s. For white peaches, the white lady was very sweet but I never took a brix reading on it, the only white peaches I grow now are Silver Logan and Arctic Supreme. For yellow peaches I only grow traditional high acid, but my sweetest two are June Pride and Kaweah, 23 to 27 brix. For plums I would say Emerald Beaut, I like to pick them before they go into the 30s because they are too sweet at this point to me. For pluots I would say Emerald Drop and Flavor Queen, which I like to eat early as well, really like them in the mid 20s, but too sweet in the 30s. For apricots the only ones I really have tested are Tomcots, those were mostly 22 to 25 brix and very good. Many say Orangered is even better than Tomcot, unfortunately my tree died but I planted a new one this year. @Stan is growing more varieties of apricots in the heart of Californias prime apricot country than anyone here I believe. He will have some very good selections for you that will be sweeter and probably better than mine. He should also have some good advice on other really sweet fruits as will @fruitnut. Good luck with your selections!
It’s unusual to have 1000 c.h. in the Bay Area, I usually have 700-800 outside of Tracy. What’s your location? For high brix, summer temperatures and sun are more important. It’s easier to get higher brix fruit in hotter inland areas compared to foggy coastal areas. Also, control over irrigation is a key factor, you don’t want to overwater your fruit trees, but they need to get enough water to do well.
Figs are very sweet, especially the main crop, provided that you have enough summer heat. Most fig varieties love heat. Fig trees are also very easy to grow, they are basically weeds.
Another important thing to take into account is ripening time. You don’t want all your fruits to ripen over a short period of time — then you will have too much fruit for a few weeks and nothing for the rest of the summer. Plan carefully to have your fruit varieties ripening in a succession.
White Nectarine — Arctic series (note that Arctic Glo has more acid then the rest), Summer Silk, Spice Zee, Crimson Belle. Generally, if you have right growing conditions most white nectarines will have very high brix.
Yellow Nectarine — Honey series is subacid (Honey Kist is available to backyard growers), but many others will have high brix along with some acid kick.
White Peach — Donut (Stark Saturn), Strawberry Free, Snow Beauty, Nectar, Fei Cheng Tao, Paradise, Athena, Snow Giant and many others.
Yellow Peach — June Pride, Sweet Dream (low acid), Kaweah, Kit Donnell, Rio Oso Gem, Sweet September (low acid).
Pluots — Emerald Drop, Flavor Queen, Flavor Grenade are the sweetest, but Flavor Supreme and Flavor King have more interesting flavor.
Apricots — Orangered (top early season apricot for both brix and flavor), Golden Sweet, Tilton. Some other varieties may have lower brix but more interesting flavor, in my opinion. Get at least one white apricot variety, e.g., Lasgerdi Mashhad.
Do you happen to know how the Stark Donut peach compares to the Sauzee Swirl Donut Peach? I know the latter is early in May but is one preferable in terms of taste? I already have a gold dust on the way for early peaches but was curious about the Sauzee because it seems to ripen even earlier.
I have not tried Sauzee Swirl Donut Peach.