I grafted three nectarines this year. I already have two, Arctic Glo and The Nectaplum.
I bought wood from Robert Purvis, Seven different pieces and all took. His wood rocks!
Two were nectarines Red Gold, and Fantasia. I don’t have any yellows as the ones I have are whites. Both easily took. I also added Arctic Jay which just went off patent.
Looking forward to fruit in the future from these. I want to replace existing scaffolds with these new grafts. I’m just getting too many of one kind of fruit. I harvested Arctic Glo yesterday, rather late for Glo, about a week. But 80 fruit, I don’t need 80 on 4 scaffolds. Twenty on one scaffold would be perfect. So freezing most of it, giving away about 30 of them.
1 Like
The monsoon has parted and a few days of good heat and light is gradually bringing up the brix, at least in my Red Gold nectarine. Ones I picked today ranged from about 14 to 17 brix. 17 is enough to be excellent fruit by my palate. I have a Coral Star peach that I picked about 50 peaches from today, most weighing close to a pound. They tasted like they were under 12. An Earnie’s Choice right next to it had one over ripe peach left on it and it was quite a bit better. The first year the Coral Star bore it was exceptionally good, but now that it’s roots are well established it creates these softball sized peaches that are mediocre in flavor- too bad, because they have some acid. That tree gets grafted over or cut down.
The other WOW fruit in my orchard right now, besides the best of the Orange Red are my Elephant Heart plums- my tree has put out the best crop ever. They are my queen of J. plums. And a temperamental queen she is.
1 Like
I had a similar experience. Yesterday, I ate an 18 brix Amber nectarine from a nearby orchard… A very good sub acid yellow nectarine.
2 Likes
How would you describe the arctic glo’s flavor? I saw the pictures you posted way up above in this thread and the fruit looks fantastic. Might just get 1 Nect and 1 Peach, instead of 2 peaches, for the “orchard” that I’d like to put near my driveway.
It’s a white, high acid nectarine. Most are low acid, Arctic Jay is balanced. Arctic Glo has high acid. When ripe it has a lot of sugar too. It has a nectarine flavor with cranberry. Very unique. The red fleshed peaches like Indian Free are similar. Arctic Glo is better, drip down your face juicy. Ripens here the first week in August. Nectarines are harder to grow as the fuzz of peaches keeps many pests away. Many have given up on them. Here pest pressure is low. So it works well here.
1 Like
Might be a pain but I imagine bagging them can help with pests. Alan’s suggestion at the top of the page had me thinking fungus was what made nects harder in our humid climate.
After I left that comment I saw another post of yours where you said that anyone who likes red raspberry (one of my absolute favorites, I actually like the most acidic ones best) should like arctic glo. Thanks, I think I’ll order it.
Joe,
“I imagine bagging them can help with pests”. Not necessarily true.
It depends on what kinds of bags and what pests you want to protect your fruit against. There are several threads about bagging fruit. You can look it up to find out more about the topic.
Fair enough, another thing to learn about. I’m willing to spray any tree that needs it. As long as other people in climates similar to mine are able to get fruit, I’m willing to go for it.
If you are willing to spray chemicals, follow @alan’s sprayingschedule. If you want to go mostly organic, follow @scottfsmith’s.
1 Like
Have anyone tried the Zephyr nectarine before? It is a common one in the mid Atlantic and considered to be one of the best, if not the best sub acid, white nectarine. Personally, I think it is the best, flavor wise. I am eating 22-24 brix ones these days and they are sensational… It is significantly better than the 22 brix Arctic Jay that I grew this year. Granted, I have not tried high brix honey series yet, but white nectarine wise I think this is probably the best.
P.S. For the past few years, I have been getting it from a local orchard that knows how to grow fruit. My first crop this year is yet to reach peak ripeness, but I am not very optimistic as I failed to adequately thin 
.
2 Likes
If Zephyr is better than Arctic Star,then I want to to grow it.I haven’t tried Jay yet,my tree is not growing very well,but the Star was super.
Zephyr scions were added to my Fantasia a year or two ago,but they may have failed to grow.Brady
Zephyr was the fruit that got me into growing fruit trees, as when I first ate it from a farm stand in south jersey I was amazed by the flavor and the size (forgot to mention in my earlier post that it is a very big nectarine, 3-3.5” ones are not uncommon). I definitely recommend it.
3 Likes
Does it have any acid at all? I really like the whites with some acid and high brix! That usually means great flavor in my climate. Sure sounds good, and where you are at you probably don’t want the acid as it may make the fruit less sweet and harder to ripen. Looks like you found a gem for your climate! Thanks for introducing this variety!
2 Likes
It is not ultra low acid like some white peaches, it is low acid but still packs a lot of flavor, as I mentioned, more flavor than Arctic Jay and I think around the same level of acidity. Actually, it has a lot more flavor than any other white nectarine that I ate, and I ate a lot of high sugar, excellent ones, but unfortunately they were mostly from farmers markets and were unlabeled with the variety. I’d actually say that it is my top fruit period, I like it more than super sweet mangoes that I grew up eating in Egypt, and believe me, those mangoes are squarely at the top of the fruit ranking with nothing else beside them (disclaimer so that I don’t offend @fruitnut: I haven’t tasted quality Honey Royal yet 
). In conclusion, I unreservedly recommend it and I am confident you will like it, if not love it, and if you don’t, some one in your family will love it…
2 Likes
I have found flavor can vary in whites year to year. Flavor is terrible if you don’t thin properly. They need the sugar, the tree can only produce so much, so split the sugar for 80 fruits, or 300 fruits. Obvious what will be better. I made this mistake. I won’t ever do it again. I did it with Spice Zee necta-plum. When I had 300 it was the worst, most bland fruit that year in my orchard. I thought of pulling the tree. When it had only 50 it was the best fruit in my orchard. I’m so glad I didn’t pull the tree.
So don’t rate flavor in trees with over 100 fruits, you’re not getting a good sample of what the tree can do.
4 Likes
I planted several peaches . . . and a couple of nectarines, last spring. My peach trees are NOT doing well. In fact - 2 have gone to ‘peach heaven’. However . . . surprising to ME - the nectarines (Harko and Mericrest) are doing pretty well!
Go figure! They need pruning badly . . . but seem to be quite healthy.
Also - my Toka plum is liking Virginia very much . . . while others - ‘not so much’.
8 Likes
@Bradybb,
May I ask the source of your Zephyr scionwood? I have searched the net and can’t find anyone selling thie variety. I’ll probably have to shamelessly beg @Ahmad for some of his wood.
Thanks for your time.
1 Like
Adams County Nursery and Fowler both sell Zephyr. And no shame, that’s why we are here, to help one another …
From the Santa Clara Chapter CRFG scion exchange,in San Jose,CA.I may be going there in January,when that is happening.
The Hybridyzer Group’s offerings are sold for $5 each.
bb
Thanks Ahmad,
Looks like it’s Adams County if I can’t secure scionwood. Fowler appears to sale onsight only.
From your review this past season, this is the only fruit left out there that is desire.
1 Like