The cartons from Trader Joe’s used to have Honey Blaze and Royal sometimes. Those were good.
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I bought a basket of cots from them early this season. Totally sucked. No sugar or flavor.
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Pretty close to the same. If you can get Blaze that’s all you need. If you can Kist is worth getting.
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Royale is actually more productive for me than Blaze, but
Blaze is so much better. I’m seriously considering top grafting
Blaze onto one of the Royales you did for me, and eventually
maybe even both. I have Kist coming. .
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And mealy, too
Worthless
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This thread motivated me to quantify the differences in growing conditions between Bay area (SCV) and Central valley (@fruitgrower and @Stan). I guess it can be summed up in two pics 
I was tracking the weather this entire spring and the difference was between 2-3F and it jumped to ~10F starting mid-June. The difference of 10F is also much more pronounced at 100 degree range in terms of brix build up, I’d think. Forget about 12 gallons a week, my peach tree hasn’t seen a single drop of water since Feb. I still don’t see any indication of water stress like Jon’s old pictures of his trees, still a lot of lush foliage. Couple of mistakes on my part - fertilizing with 3-12-12 GrowPro in Feb (probably not needed), not thinning enough (still!!) and watering closely planted new trees (still beyond the drip line and unavoidable this season). So, there is room for improvement but this tells me I should be focussing on late-season peaches, when the heat peaks in late July and August. Its not just the dry weather, but the Central Valley heat is also crucial to get great peaches/nectarines early in the summer
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Amazing flavor Honey Blaze, brix 22.5, from California’s Kingsburg orchard (Fresno). My tree won’t ripen it’s fruits till July 20-30. Edit: my son just cut another one, and it measured 25 brix! More delicious than mangoes…
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@californicus, our hottest months here are June, July, and August, but our record heat waves are almost always in late June, right as the Juneglo nectarines and June pride peaches are ripening. This has so far been a mild June, looks like 103 has been hottest day so far, and this last week has been between 75 and 85. So everything has been late here this year, nice to see some heat in the 10 day forecast. You guys have perfect apricot weather there, I would be growing a lot of those like @Stan if I lived down there. Your mid to late season peaches and nectarines should be great down there, so you are right to concentrate on those. If you need anymore scion next year let me know, I have some really good mid to late season varieties I would be happy to send with your fig cuttings next January. @Ahmad, wow, great looking fruit, glad you can enjoy those fruit! You have inspired me to go pick one of my 2 Honey Blaze I have growing on last years graft that you traded me. I have been waiting to try this one, but seemed a little to firm to pick yesterday. I did finally get to try Honey Spring this year, it was knock your socks off sweet!!
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Hi @Ahmad, amazingly beautiful piece of fruit! Do you get any bacterial spot in your location? I wanted to try Honey blaze a couple years ago, but the ACN description said it was susceptible to bacterial spot.
I do, but it’s under control with my spray schedule (last few years I used to spray copper octanoate 2-3 times during spring, which controlled BS, but caused some phytotoxicity, manifested in some leaf loss. This year, I switched to oxytetracycline, and I got some BS, but it was largely under control and my trees look very healthy). I also have other susceptible varieties: Arctic Jay, Arctic Star, Flavortop and Zephyr. The biggest issue is the risk of heavy rain close to picking time, which makes the fruits bland.
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Thank you! I’m glad it works for you. I might give it a try next year.
You are right. I’m lining up different varieties for different times to get a continuous harvest (at least as much my tiny yard allows me). I should focus most of the June for apricots and go to peaches and plums/pluots when the heat picks up. If I want to grow apricots like Stan, I need to take out my house and plant trees everywhere, then I might get to 10% of his size 
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So here is Honey Spring nectarine. It may be Honey Lite though, as HL is supposed to be really sweet and ripens just after HS. This is a first year tasting on a very small tree. The 2 fruit I tried are excellent, super sweet and juicy, and 32 brix. There were no off flavors as most fruit over 30 brix, and we really like this one, especially the kids. We look forward to trying these again next season! I see why @Fruitnut recommends the honey series nectarines. They are super good, however, to my taste, not quite as good as some with a bit of acid. I cant wait to try Honey Blaze and Honey Royale, which will be ripening soon!
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Wow, looks super sweet, but delicious. I generally don’t like fruit when it gets to those levels, especially if acid is lacking. I have a honey blaze that I hope to get fruit from next year. I can’t wait to try it. I did watch a video from Clemson that said these fruits can be eaten like an apple. At over 30 brix you might have too!
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I just ate a Honey Lite that was very sweet but lacked the special taste that the Honey series can have. It doesn’t come thru all the time maybe 80% of the time to my taste. I wish we could all share the same fruits so I could judge how many others appreciate what I do. When it comes to taste nothing it seems has universal appeal.
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@Phill_Boise_7a, I have not tried enough of these fruit to have solid opinion on flavor, but I can see why a lot of people like them. They are a firm fruit for that amount of sweetness and seem to not bruise like others. I also have noted that the fruit set does not have to be thinned as much as the old style fruits, so way less work to manage. Thrips don’t seem to bother the comercial varieties as bad as the old style fruits as well. The flavor is different than most so I like having some different tasting fruit. I hope you get to try your Honey Blaze next year, I think you might be surprised!
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@fruitnut, It would be awesome to be able to all share the same fruits and see what everybody likes! I think for my family, we are used to fruits with acid because we have been eating them for years. Most people though, probably prefer their fruit low acid, as you describe. In fact, if we lived elsewhere, I bet we would like low acid fruits best, because it is hard to grow high acid fruit with high brix anywhere else but in the California valley with water stressing. Almost nobody is doing this, so your taste is probably what most would go for anywhere else, and I would not recommend growing some of the high acid fruits without the conditions we have here. After checking the tags, this tree is labeled Honey Spring, and the picture was from June 5th, and after looking at the DWN website, I am almost sure this HS and not HL. The tree is small and this was my first harvest, so taste should improve over the next couple of years. I really hope to meet you in person at next years Figfest, too bad about Covid this year. I think we could all bring some fruit to taste test and see what everyone likes best, I would bet most like low acid though, be interesting to see!
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Would lose that bet with me. I love sweet fruit, but it is definitely second to intense tart flavor. While I agree that special conditions are needed, genetics in my experience is by far the critical factor. Just look at all the bland cardboard tomatoes in the grocery store and compare them to a juicy ripe Crnkovic Yugoslavian. There is no comparison which is why I don’t eat grocery store food coloring masquerading as a tomato.
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Where’s everyone getting these Honey series trees?
Got mine from Adams county nursery.
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