Spring here in S. NY started late, wet and cool, but in May it turned around and bright sunny days became sequential right to droughts door. Flavor May peaches and Carene nects ripening at this time were the best they’ve ever tasted, with the Carenes sometimes almost reaching 18 brix.
Then the monsoon arrived, and it turns out that Sri Lanka does not have the perfect climate for the fruit we grow here. What is amazing is that it appears only about a week of excessive cloudy and wet weather is required to make brix levels plummet. The last of my Carenes are not reaching 14. My Glenglo crop might as well be store bought and I will probably not enjoy another peach until several days of clear weather improves them. My nectarines are better, but right now, not great.
Growing fruit in the east is not the perfect occupation for perfectionists.
At least Fruitnut experienced crop failure so I won’t have to suffer from his gloating about 25+ brix nectarines this season.
My Redhaven is getting close to being ripe. I put a tarp under it yesterday to try to keep the rain away from some of the roots. It probably won’t help since the roots spread far but is worth a try.
I’m sorry for your change of fortune. Even here the summer rains s&uck. We had 3 inches this month but I haven’t watered my outdoor trees in some time and those that didn’t freeze out are coming in with high brix.
My indoor crop failed to pollinate but I’m getting some peaches and nectarines with a tiny seed and high brix.
I do notice a significant drop off in fig quality in the greenhouse just from the clouds and humidity when our monsoon sets in.
As you anticipate, I haven’t had luck with that method. The roots spread much farther than branches in most situations and the tree will get the max, it seems, as long as they can reach the wet soil. Research on just trying to stop cherries from cracking has found that cherries crack when the soil is too wet outside a waterproof enclosure.
Maybe what we need is a root proof ring to keep the root system corralled in the dry space. Roots will grow to water very quickly.
To me- same difference. Both would be compost. I will give away my peaches as long as other people like them.
This is the time that my J plums and pluots are ripening. So far, plums tasted like water with a pinch of sugar in them.
My Beauty plum was so bland, my family members refused to have another bite. First Nadia tasted like purple water. So did my lone mysterious E plum.
My first Gold Dust dropped today. I will wait a couple of days before eating it.
All my peaches and nectarines have bulked up noticebly with a week of rain. May rain again this afternoon. Then, we will have 3 day break before another thunder storm. I don’t have high hope on nectarines that will ripen in the next 5-10 days.
2" since March here in central texas plus 100+ temps has everything crispy. I’d take yall’s rain any day. That being said, everything that does come off the trees has been super tasty. Times like this is why I used super vigorous rootstock capable of finding water. I’ll prune in wet years when needed!
I just picked and ate my one and only Zard apricot that was split by rain. It was not ripe but had 18 brix. My rain-soaked Beauty plums’ Brix were between 8-10 and Nadia was 14. In this case. I’d take the split apricot anyday :)
Really I feel for you Alan. And pots are a poor subsitute for the right climate. I don’t much care for pots. Too much work for too little fruit. Maybe you need to retire back in CA.
My son tells me as soon as he sells his new app he will buy me an avocado farm in Gaviota. Probably better odds of that than me ever retiring there on my own money.
It’s OK, on years when we are gifted with a dry summer I appreciate perfect fruit much more than I ever did when I lived in S. CA. I had one perfect (for me) nectarine this season and I’m grateful for that. I can almost still taste it.
I’ve been around large apple trees my whole life and I’ve never seen that, even on the wettest years. I wonder if it is a dwarf tree thing.
I’m expecting my asian plums to be watered down after 10" of rain over 10 days of nearly constant wet conditions. Plus, the lack of direct sunlight would have restricted sugar production . Before that was a drought that stunted growth. The only thing good about this year was the frost free weather during bloom. Otherwise, the weather pattering is backwards from ideal.
It seems that lack of sun is more detrimental than too much rain. After 2 weeks of cloudy weather, my first shiro plums were completely flavorless, but there was a noticeable improvement in flavor after each sunny day that followed. The last ones I picked recently were very good despite the ground being saturated from periodic rain. Santa Rosa has surprised me the most so far. They have very intense flavor despite all the rain. Of course, they don’t set very well so it could be the advantage of being over thinned.
It all depends on the species. Plums don’t seem bothered much by too much water but peaches and nectarines are, from my experience- I have clients with irrigation systems that always over water their fruit trees so I’ve lots of opportunity to compare the effects- also by comparing sites with sandy soil to clay loams. Peach sugar is always higher where water availability is down. I was at a site this week with higher brix peaches than what are in my orchard. The soil there is very shallow - essentially years of rotted oak leaves over rock so it’s spongy and a bit water repellent. The oak trees have roots competing with the orchard- out competing the peaches, I should say- they’ve always been runts compared to my trees. My trees get significantly more sun, but much less competition for water, even though drainage is excellent.
This stuff is very difficult to get a handle on. One year I let grass grow tall under my trees but didn’t observe a benefit. Go figure.
That could be. I have limited amount peaches and nects this year due to winter damage, but it does seem that there is more uneven ripeness in the fruit that I have picked so far. It’s frustrating when there is really good parts mixed with astringent unripe parts.
It’s been a mixed bag. It’s one reason why I’ve been eating a lot of fruit salads and smoothies this year. It’s a great way to use a lot of damaged/subpar fruit. The sum is better than the parts!
