I have a Karla Rose nectarine that is on its second leaf. It has about 15 fruits on it and is a healthy looking tree. But after a recent rain, each and every single fruit on the tree cracked, and I mean cracked very, very bad in several different places. I know this can happen, but not to this extreme. If this is normal for this tree, I’m ready to pull it up today. Anyone have this tree? If so, is this cracking common? THanks
It can happen with many fruits. I’ve seen differences in cracking with Asian pears but it could just be timing of the rain event. So I’d say any nectarine can crack under the right conditions.
This is from research done at Auburn University.
Karla Rose (white flesh) produces fruits of excellent quality for home or local use but has severe problems with bacterial spot and fruit splitting some years.
Thanks guys. One of the reasons I was so upset is that I had 2 other nectarine trees that were at almost exactly the same stage (in terms of tree AND fruit size and age) and they didn’t have a single crack, while every single fruit on Karla Rose cracked all over. I was/am livid. But I guess I’ll leave it another year or two. I’ve never yet pulled out a good tree due to fruit disapointing me, but I know others do and this might be the first. My luck (ok, skill) with grafting peach and nects isn’t good enough to try and top work this thing.
Thanks again.
Either is mine. I’m thinking of pulling trees too.
A lot depends on the scion wood. I’ve had good success using thin scion wood
and 100% failures using thicker scion wood.
That’s interesting. I have the opposite experience with pears and apples. Maybe I will try some small wood.
‘Goldmine’ nectarine is a thrip magnet and splitter here. With so many excellent varieties available, a fruit tree prone to splitting is a candidate to be topworked.
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I’m referring to stone fruit mainly