Nectarine Tree Growing Peaches

General Fruit Growing
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So in March of this year (2021) as a bit of an impulse (I’ve never done fruit tree planting before) I grabbed a nectarine tree from Home Depot since it was cheap, and the planting may end up being temporary anyway (only for 3 or so years). The tree was the ‘Sunglo’ variety, and at purchase was around ~7’ tall (I’m assuming 2-3 years old), and was already in bloom.

Considering it was the first year of ownership, I was pleased to see about 20 fruit set after flowering, but as they developed, I noticed they were fuzzy. I know nectarines are just peaches without the fuzz, but since I’ve never grown either I thought at first that maybe some varieties just lose the fuzz as they develop. It did seem suspicious though, so the next time I was in the area I stopped by Home Depot and checked out the one remaining nectarine tree they had for this season, same variety (Sunglo), probably same shipment. It had perfectly smooth fruit (no fuzz). I decided to purchase this second tree (since it was likely the last they’d have available that season) and asked the Home Depot manager where they got their trees from. He said it was American Nursery Services (I’m sure Home Depot regionally sources many of their nursery items). So I e-mailed that company asking them if they knew what kind of tree I had. They stated they were just a ‘merchandising’ company and had nothing to do with sourcing the tree, and I had to talk to Home Depot again. I’m currently trying to get in touch with Home Depot national support to see if they can help, but I’m not optimistic.

Anyway, at first I was fine with the idea of just having Peaches from this tree (Peaches are good too!), and I wasn’t going to go through the trouble of digging it back up and hauling it back to return it. At first I thought that maybe someone had just mismarked a peach tree as a nectarine tree (there were 3 tags on the tree at purchase, all 3 said ‘Nectarine’). Unfortunately though, it’s almost August now and the fruit hasn’t grown beyond about 1 1/2’’ in diameter and is still green. Meanwhile the other ‘Sunglo’ I purchased has produced a few really nice tasty fruit.

My suspicion at this point is that the nursery failed to graft on the nectarine wood properly, and what I am in fact seeing is the rootstock producing sub-par fruit. Does this seem correct to anyone out there with experience with rootstock? I’d like to know since if it’s never going to produce decent fruit, I’m going to have to tear it out, which I’d like to do before I have to spray for peach leaf curl this winter.

sunglo
sunglo960×1280 288 KB

Since I’m a new user I can only embed one image, so I’ve combined these, the description for each, starting from top left, clockwise:

  1. Base of tree (don’t know if this shows much)

  2. Pruning by the nursery from previous years (you would think someone would notice it’s the wrong wood, the leaves do have a darker green look than the other ‘Sunglo’ nectarine tree I bought).

3.The fuzzy fruit as of July 30th, 2021, about 1 1/2’’ diameter, it’s been stalled out at this size for a month now.

  1. Tag still on the tree.
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Hello,

My guess would be that it is a mislabeled later-ripening peach. I’d give it a chance to see what it can produce. The fruit could possibly be small because its recently planted, or maybe they still have time to develop. I have a nectarine and a peach that both currently have only small still-developing fruit of about the same size. You could also graft other varieties onto it if you end up not enjoying it, rather than simply tear out.

3 Likes
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I agree with @YumYumTrees probably mislabeled. Graft looks intact. It would help to know what the roostock is. My guess even if it was rootstock peach would probably be citation which is supposed to be a good canning type peach anyways.

Generally people remove first year fruits so as to not stress the tree.

+1 for letting it grow out this year and seeing what you get.

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Many on here won’t buy any trees from a big box store because they are often mislabeled.

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I have several mislabeled trees. That happens no matter where you shop. Find out if you like the fruit and go from there.

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Big box stores are known for mislabeling plants. It happens at nurseries too but is not nearly as common. If you care about variety buy from a well known nursery that has good reviews. If you want a peach or a nectarine and don’t care about variety it does not matter as much.

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Thanks for all the replies everyone. I’ll go ahead and leave it in for a year and see what develops next season.

I do usually get plantings exclusively from local nurseries, lots of good options (Portland, Oregon area). This was more of a spur of the moment thing since the tree was so far along already.

As for the rootstock, often we get Lovell around here for its wet conditions tolerance but I’m not sure what this tree uses, another good question I’d like to ask the actual nursery if I could just track it down (still working on it, but I doubt I’ll get far).

Thanks again.

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So, how did it turn out for you?

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