Nectarines just better

This is very helpful, thanks. I had picked the first few when I felt softening, only to discover brown rot or an oozing hole. Ordered some Immunox for next yr.

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Ditto - Alan’s torture! My stone fruit(s) are just not cooperating. I’m so jealous of you California people . . . Well, except for your crazy taxes!!! @#$%^&*()!!
:stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

@Ahmad
Maybe I’ll try a nectarine in a pot . . . and see what happens. We are bordered on 3 sides by SWAMP. Literally . . . swamp. I think it harbors moldy, fungusy, nasty stuff that is not friendly to my fruit trees.
My son has a neighbor, in Va Beach . . . just 25 minutes from my house - but 5 minutes from the oceanfront. Last spring he popped in 3 plums. They fruited that summer! No disease - no nothin’! This year they are covered with fruit.
I just don’t get it!
Micro climates at work, I suppose. And I’m in the WRONG one! :upside_down_face:

UPDATE on Sam’s Club ‘variety identified’ Nectarines.
This week’s variety was ‘Prince Jim’. It was described as having a blend of ‘tangy and sweetness’. But, to me . . . it was all sweet. I was disappointed, because I really miss the zing.

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This is the worst year in decades. In my region stonefruit tends to be reliable as anyplace without a Mediterranean climate. As long as you control pests.

I agree. Worst year. Glad it’s not just me.
Mine didn’t set ONE stinkin piece of fruit!
Only fruit I have are Goldrush apples. And I didn’t spray those correctly - so they are probably ‘buggy’.
Japanese Beetles and ‘something’ totally denuded my little Pink Lady apple.
It flowered for such a long period - that I didn’t want to spray, for the sake of the pollinators. That is going to be a problem.

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Yes, early spring here followed by a long stretch of cool wet weather complicated spray, especially if you didn’t want to increase the number of sprays to accommodate the long stretch of time when various varieties came into bloom. I’ve never had such a long period between first and last bloomers.

Yes, the Zaiger influence is a hugely mixed blessing. New nectarine varieties being pushed are mostly low acid for the corn sweetner over-loaded American public. At least the sugar in nectarines doesn’t encourage obesity and diabetes.

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Hi Alan,

I have three full size nectarine trees, two only had a light set this year but the third was set with maybe 30+ (to me that’s a lot lol) I noticed they are all beginning to shrivel and fall off the tree, at about quarter size. Only a couple of the larger ones remain unshriveled. The tree does not appear thirsty, and the shriveled fruits do not seem affected by anything, they’re just wrinkly and then fall off. Any idea what happened? The peaches all seem fine, this only happened with my nectarine trees that are near each other. I’m in west New York.

Ovaries can be killed by cold without killing the rest of blossom and fruit may form that drops prematurely. 4 years ago when we had a bad late frost I had peach trees with a third of the crop not growing beyond the size of golf balls and instead of dropping off they rotted at the perfect time to infect the good peaches. Fortunately I caught it and Indar saved my crop. Now I just knock off fruit that obviously has stopped growing when I see it.

Of course, insects can also destroy the seed causing fruit drop. Cut the fruit open and see if there’s any insect damage.

If you have land, I would plant it in the ground. In pots, the crop and fruit sizes are too small. You can plant two, one in the ground and one in a pot.

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My Arctic Star was hit by the April 17th freeze this year and I lost all of the crop except 10 fruits. I picked the first one, which was soft at the top, on June 6th, brix was 15, watery and very faint flavor. Not surprising, given the rains that we have been getting lately. Hence, I decided to leave the remaining fruits on the tree as long as possible, and that meant July 12th, when they were getting very soft. I put them in the fridge for a couple of days, and ate them today with my family. They were very nicely flavored (but not as intense as last year when I was growing this tree in a fabric pot) and the brix of the three that we measured was 24-26!

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As a tangent, last week I ate the last of the Honey Blaze nectarines from California, and the photos below speak for themselves :blush:. Even though I lost all my apricot crop, I would say I have been very fortunate this year…

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@Ahmad
When did you pick Arctic Jay?

Picked the first five yesterday :blush:. Probably will pick the bulk of the crop towards the end of the week.

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I just finished off my Summer Beaut’s, they were very good this year. I am not getting a lot of fruit thanks to a massive critter invasion this year, and I had to pick them all early so I would get some fruit. They were still excellent if a bit lower on brix than if I had been able to let them hang.

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@Ahmad
This year, we have had quite a dry summer. My Eastern Glo tastes the best of the 4 years it has fruited. A nice blend of acid and sweetness. Definitely is not a low acid nect.

Gave them to my neighbor and asked for her feedback. She said it was great and wanted to buy them.

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Even though I don’t like Easternglo very much (I like Summer Beaut and Sunglo a lot more), I have to say that these look very good. Dark color is usually a sign of high quality in nectarines. Happy for you :blush:.

Eastern Glo must have known it is on a chopping block. Everyone I gave them to said they were excellent. (Some of my friends and neighbors are very blunt in their assessments :joy:).

Long dry weather has really helped. I probably will collect some scionwood before removing the tree next spring,

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Not in Eastern Glo’s season, they are still hard then. Eastern Glo doesn’t seem to like wet weather, but I’m not growing it in the most advantageous part of my property. In drought it has been very good for an early nect. However ACN stopped selling it so maybe one of the replacements works better. I got 5 of the one I was told was best in EG’s season so I will know something in 2 or 3 more years.

You are right, they are later, but in Delaware they overlap Mamuang’s Easternglo :blush:. In EG’s season here, I have been enjoying Arctic Sweet, Arctic Glo and Honey Blaze which I think are superior to it.

How do you compare EG to Silvergem and Carene?

Carene is earlier, so early that it can be messed up by wet springs, like this year. It’s also very small, which isn’t surprising for such an early nect, but has intensely rich flavor at a time when that is an amazing feat. Silvergem is a white so I put it in a different class, but it is a very good one with the acid sugar balance I like and it also doesn’t tend to crack much- easy as a peach. So far, it’s been much better and earlier than Artic Glo, which I haven’t been impressed with. I grow a white whose name I forget but came from a French breeding program that ripens with Artic Glo but is much larger and when it doesn’t crack too much, superior. In areas where cracking isn’t such a problem, even around here on sites with dawn sun, it would be a very good commercial fruit because it’s the biggest early nect. If the name doesn’t come to me I’ll check the label tomorrow morning if you want to know what it is.

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