And maybe now you know why Europeans used to root prune to get highest quality fruit.
Damn, does this mean I have to grow trees in pots to get high sugar on wet years? Maybe I should try to master the art of root pruning.
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Thanks a lot they are a wonderful fruit. I love them dried. You get the same flavor dried. My daughter picked them out as her favorite of the dried fruits Iāve sent her.
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How about a big pot. Iād be thinking a big water tank, 50 to 100 gallons. That would allow a big tree but still control the water. Cover the top with plastic so rain runs off and set it on pallets so it canāt root into the ground.
My experience is the fruit would be small but high brix even with regular water. I probably didnāt thin enough.
Ahmad what was your fruit size like?
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Just from eyeball memory, I think ~2.5ā. I still have one on the tree, I will measure it when I go home. Interestingly, there was no noticeable difference in size between the in-ground and the potted tree fruits.
@fruitnut Update: they were mostly between 2-2.5ā.
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We had to pick the nectarines this morning. The weather has been too hot for them. I have the trees in 25 gallon pots, with garden landscape fabric at the bottom to stop the roots and soil from getting out, and a saucer under. The first year the fruits were pretty small, but this year they look normal and taste very sweet and good. Location does matter. The Arctic Queen is supposed to ripen in mid August, 3-4 weeks later than the Arctic Rose. The Arctic Queen is on the cooler side of the yard so it woke up earlier, and the fruit are good already. I will have to move the Arctic Rose, there are much less fruits and they are still small and unripe.
Arctic Queen is the first picture and Fantasia is the second.
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Those are very nice looking fruit. Congradulationsā¦!!
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Today Iāve finished picking my Emeraude nectarine tree and also picked a few Arctic Jay nectarines from grafts on the same tree. Emeraude is a nice nectarine, but Arctic Jay is way sweeter, even too sweet, I have to drink some water right after I eat them.
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@anon18642480 where are you located? How many fruits did you get per tree? I am assuming these are third leaf trees, right?
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I am about 30 miles east of Los Angeles. We only get about a dozen for these. I bought them in five gallon containers. The Fantasia and Honey Kist were planted the end of summer 2018. The Arctic series a year earlier, they need 6-700 hrs chill hours so I am very happy to have some fruits. The low chill nectarines like Double Delight or Goldmine planted summer 2018 have more fruits, but they are small and start ripening. The low chill ones that were planted like five years ago like Arctic Star or Atomic Red has a lot of fruits in ~20 gallon containers, the fruits were done already. In general, only trees planted in ground like plums, pluots, peach or figs will have a couple hundreds fruits on one tree. The nectarines in container have only a couple dozens which is enough for us.
In my area, except for the Donut peach, the nectarines taste much better than peaches and have no disease. The Double Delight tree in pot is shown below.
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It seems American farmers do it too 
.
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I started picking my Emeraude a couple of days ago, but it is in-ground and, unfortunately the brix is only ~14. Still, I can taste the flavor which I like.
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The key words are āto reduce excessive vigorā. Commercial fruit growers of scale generally donāt give a damn about quality beyond what the consumer sees.
Excessive vigor affects fruit color and requires more costs in pruning- reduced brix is a mere inconsequential side affect to the commercial value of the fruit.
Of course, the industry as a whole suffers the consequences of selling mediocre, not very sweet fruit, but the individual producer tends not to care. They donāt think that far ahead and know that the quality of what they sell wonāt, in itself, affect overall demand.
Personally, I think specific shipments of fruit should be graded by brix levels and priced accordingly. However, that would be bad for my business- if people could reliably buy great fruit they wouldnāt have to grow it to enjoy it and impress their friends.
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AQ looking fine!
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No nects on my trees this year, and the spouse bought some of those cartons from Trader Joes. They looked and smelled fine but were basically inedible. After 2 tries, the spouse gave up on nects and bought no more.
I donāt think they can fool all of the people all of the time.
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Like apricots, I have never come across any good store bought nects. Costco, Trader Joeās, local supermarkets (I usually do not shop at WholeFoods). They looked good but tasted mostly bland and/sour.
The nects I grow that I like is Arctic Star. I also grow Easternglo but have not had good luck with them taste-wise. They have tasted too sour/tart to my liking. Last year, our wet weather made them tasted diluted on top of that. I give it another try this year. If the taste does not improve, I will graft it over.
In my area, nects are not locally grown. Store bought is not an option. Home grown is the way to go but so far, it is 50/50.
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I think you should try growing Honeyblaze. The one I planted in my trial orchard died last season and a couple trees in my nursery were damaged, but I tasted one of its fruits from the one tree not burned by weather (too cold at the wrong time?) and it is clearly a good low-acid nectarine that gets up the brix. Remind me and I will send you a couple sticks.
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Thanks.
I like Blaze better than Royale. To, me it tastes much better
and also ripens earlier.
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H Royale is a wonderful fruit if you can get it just right. But itās hard to grow even in my greenhouse. Blaze is more productive. I also have earlier ones that I like just as well, Honey Lite and Fire. For most folks Blaze is a better bet because itās more available. Honey Kist is similar to Blaze.
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Does Kist and Blaze ripen at the same time? Is it worth having both?
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