Thanks Brady.
I got lucky last Fri. Starting mid May, I stop by the farmers market every Fri on my way back home from work and continue to do that till late Nov. Often times I will find good quality fruit from CA or southern states much before or after local produce is available. So, last Fri I found a box of nectarines labeled Honey Lite and the nectarines had the right appearance, but were very hard, so I decided to take my chances and bought ~10 lbs. After arriving home, I picked the softest one of them and ate it, and man wasnāt it sweet! To make a long story short, I think I found the equivalent of first class mangoes in the USā¦ indeed they have some mango like flavor. My kids got crazy about them and the next morning I drove back to the Farmers Market and bought 30 more poundsā¦ Below is a photo of sample, brix measured 18.5 and 16 (measured after they fully ripened on the counter).
Note: For the sake of comparison, Zephyr nectarines are still strongly competitive with those Honey Lite, and they have quite different flavor dimension. So, if you like white nectarines (even if you donāt 
), you have got to try the Zephyrā¦
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Now youāre talking. Thatās some first class fruit.
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Yes, even here in NY, we can purchase reasonably sweet nectarines in spring thanks to Zaiger genetics. What pisses me off is that you donāt know what you are getting theses days until you bite into it as far as low acid or normal acid fruit.
Some of us would like the flavor of a nectarine and not a mango when we buy them, or at least know what we are purchasing. A few years back I got a few fruit from my Honey Royale nectarine that reached 25 brix, almost 10 points higher than by best nectarines on a good year. I agree, it was more like a mango than a nectarine, but actually an all new fruit experience.
My squirrels have a similar palate to FN- they just love the low acid-high brix stuff, so Iāve not been able to harvest any of the very light crops this variety has born since. Even my chipmunks make a special effort to take it well before itās ripe.
I thought it was going to set a heavy crop this year, but most of the fruit ended up being blanks and stopped enlarging.
I do like the idea of being able to grow "mangoesā in upstate NY, so the tree will not be cut down yet, but I canāt recommend the variety for our region- but some of us believe the climate is getting warmer. Maybe next year will be the year and in a few more, all that will be coming from CA are dates.
Birds too. Obviously they have good taste in fruitā¦!! Honey Royale is not a heavy bearer even in my GH. Outside itās even worse. Honey Lite and Blaze are much heavier setters and taste about the same.
Even here nectarines are much harder to grow outdoors than peaches.
You must like the mango flavor or youād have cut that tree down.
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Thatās interesting. HR IS a heavy bearer for me, as is Blaze, Double
Delight and Red Gold. This year, I built a net hoop house for my
Royal and Blaze, In order so the squirrels and birds couldnāt get them.
Iām harvesting Blaze now and just had two for breakfast. The Royals
are not yet fully ripe. DD are almost ready to pick, but are quite small this year, which I contribute to the scorching month long drought that we had in May. Red Gold is a later variety that needs another month. The only down side to nectarines is their tendency to brown rot on the bottoms. Peaches donāt do that.
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I love mangoes. I also love nectarines with some acid kick. I wish I could grow 20 brix acid nects, but really, when they get to about 15, for me, itās probably the same level of pleasure.
The palate tends to compare to recent experience. My first nects of the year are always store bought, and even on a bad year, my nects trounce what I can buy here.
The big commercial growers in CA tend to go for tons per acre instead of brix per fruit.
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I had a 16 brix acid nectarine yesterday. The acid and sugar were in balance. It was good, certainly not great, but better than the peaches. It doesnāt come close to the low acid Honey series when they are 20-28 brix.
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I havenāt had an edible store nect for 2 years, and none coming from my trees this year
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You guys need to try Red Gold. Itās sweet, but with a good acid
kick. Itās also very large.
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I just had a 24 brix Morus Nigra. It reminded me that some acidic fruits seem very high in flavor. Bing cherries are another. Acid peaches and nectarines to me are just acid and whatever sugar there is, nothing else. Acid by itās self is just something to mask the lack of flavor. There has to be something other than just acid to taste good to me. Bing and Nigra have that something else in spades.
I could say the same for sugar
Iāve grown Red Gold for years- its first crop was badly cracked and I almost cut it down. Iāve since learned that cracking is a lot more about the timing of rain than the variety of nect. Same thing for brix here in the northeast. Drought during the 2-3 weeks leading to ripening can make all the difference.
This is a tough place to come to a fair verdict on varieties. 10 years before the jury can go home.
Red Gold is innocent and a fine, large and reliable nect with traditional nect acidity according to my court.
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What you donāt want to admit is that certain fruits that are high sugar are also high flavor and itās not acid. Just chop down your Honey Royale and think about something you can actually attain.
fruitnut,
Where can I get a Honey Lite and will there be much difference between that and Honey Kist,which I already have?bb
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I doubt that thereās enough difference between Honey Lite, Kist, Blaze, Royale, or Diva to make much difference. If you can grow Kist to above 20 brix youāll know if you like that flavor. Itās quite likely that some people will like them a lot more than others.
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Are any of the Honey ones better for lack of rot/cracking? That is my major criterion in selection. Iām generally not too wild about the low acid types but I should at least have one of them in my 50 varieties, eh? 
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How do you expect Fruitnut to know the answer to that question while he grows his fruits in west Texas desert, in a greenhouse, under water deficit?! 
Sorry Scott, but could not help but pick on you ā¦
I will let you know how my Honey Blaze trees fare this year.
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I havenāt had any rot in the GH. Outside yes but itās not brown rot, I donāt think anyway. Itās more about the stinkbugs feeding that leads to rot. So I canāt answer that question. What Iād try out East is Lite and Blaze.
I should add that thereās a small chance that I have Fire and Lite labels mixed up. I know which trees I like so I could send the good wood.
ACN used to carry both HB and HR, they discontinued the latter and still carry the former. Based on that Iād think HB is more successful in our climate, at least with commercial spray program. I remember reading in one of their presentations that HB is the best low acid yellow nectarine that they tested.
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