I am trying half a dozen new nectarines to see if there is one that is sizing up better and more reliable. So far Summer Beaut is looking like a winner but its the first year of it for me. I have several others that have not ripened yet but which are also looking good at this point. John Rivers has been working very well, but it is a white-fleshed nectarine. John Rivers is earlier than any of the others and it gets little spot for some reason. All the other ones seem to have a little bit but it is not setting back their growth too much. If they give me good fruit this year I will call them winners, this is a real test summer with all the raining and rotting going on.
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Scott, my Shui Mi Tao is sizing up slowly. Still very green and medium-sized. I believe it should ripen by the end of Aug. My netting is going up tomorrow. I would love to add ‘Eagle Beak’ but cannot find it.
That sounds about like mine. Some of them are deformed, with little dimples coming out the sides - strange.
I had Eagle Beak but it always rotted horribly. It was on a bad rootstock, I tried to move it this spring but the scions had no vigor and the grafts did not take. So, my Eagle Beak days look to be over. I wanted to keep it to cross it with something - if it had rot resistance it would be a fantastic peach. The CRFG cross of it that I had, Longevity, was just as bad for the rot and worse for flavor.
Thanks Scott, funny that you say a few of your shui mi tao are deformed. One of mine has a nose! I’ve left it on the tree because it does look like a face. I just love exotic looking and tasting fruit. Too bad about ‘Eagle Beak’. What did you think of those ‘Shark’s teeth’ plums? Or watermelon plums from Israel. They look good.
Those plums just looked odd to me, something about the shape I didn’t like. The pointed peaches on the other hand I find really cool-looking.
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Boy, I’d just love to grow some of these cool stone fruits - Eagle Beak, Shark Tooth, and Watermelon. Does anyone know where we can get them or get scionwood? I don’t have issues with rot out here in S. California, and bet they’d all do very well out here!!
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HQ and Scott, I have fog, but (fingers crossed no brown rot) OR I am just lucky over the past ten years. I would love to try some of those strange looking things (especially the peach) then the watermelon plum. I really love ‘Eagle Beak’, I"ll still look for it and if I find scion wood, HQ I will let you know!
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Thanks, mrsg47. Will watch for any updates on this.
Its available from ARS, thats where I got it from:
http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/acc/display.pl?1535829
Of course now you have to go through an official society to get wood from them so it is a lot harder than it was a few months ago…
Thanks Scott. I’ve requested scionwood, so hopefully, I’ll have some to graft next season. Now, to find Shark’s Tooth and Watermelon. Not sure if those cultivars are here, yet, in the USA, though.
Patty, the Davis repository is no longer accepting orders from individuals. There was a thread about that here in the spring. They had too many people using it for common varieties and they did not have the staff to fill the orders. Here is the announcement on their website:
http://www.ars-grin.gov/npgs/orders.html
Last I heard the CRFG was planning on putting orders through, and other societies may as well, but besides that only researchers will have orders honored. Or so they say. I asked them if growingfruit.org counts and they replied that if we got official nonprofit status we could also put in an order. You can find a discussion of that in the staff-only forum.
Hmm, looking at the page above it seems to apply to all repositories. Thats news to me, last I heard it was Davis only. Too bad for budding backyard fruit experimenters. I have pretty much run through all their collection I might be interested in so its no great loss for me personally, but I learned a huge amount and found some fantastic varieties through them.
Well, that’s too bad, Scott. I missed that thread. I’m sure I’ll get an email here shortly, telling me they will not fill my request. So sad. I’ll have to see if I can find scionwood elsewhere.
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I think they’ve had that message for at least 2-3 years. I remember the text from when I first requested apple scionwood 2 years ago. I made sure to request only uncommon varieties so that “purposes that can utilize readily available commercial cultivars” wouldn’t apply. I’m a “small scale experimenter”, not a “small gardener”. 
I haven’t ordered anything from Davis yet, but I’m hoping to do so this spring. In particular, I want to try Bluetit, a plum which Stephen Hayes has spoken highly of. Doh- when posting the link I just noticed that it has gone unavailable.
Ah, thats good to hear. I’m pretty sure Davis is not going to fill orders from individuals this year though. I got a direct reply from the head of that repository which said so in unambiguous language.
Scott-- How has your Hoyt apricot faired over the years? You mentioned in another thread that it is among the few truly late-blooming apricots (along w/ Zard). Thanks.
Matt, Hoyt has bloomed only two years and fruited only this last year (and not much). It was a perfectly OK cot but not in the category of the better ones. It was smaller, stringier, and less tasty than the Tomcot, Orangered, etc cots. But it was good on the rot and splitting front.
Oh, I should also add that Florilege fruited this last summer and was a real winner. It is good on all fronts: diseases, taste, texture, splitting. One other thing I like is it is somewhat later, I have too many early-ripening cots as breeders have more focused on that arena.
Scott, not sure if you’ve already mentioned this, but where’d you get this one from? It sounds like a winner for the northeast.
I got scionwood, from Bob Purvis. I’m not sure if he is publicly selling them or its part of the test program for the NAFEX Apricot Interest Group he runs (and I am a member of). Probably the former but I’m not sure. Willow Drive Nursery is selling trees, not sure they will sell in small enough quantity though.
Given that the last year was a very challenging one for rot and diseases and it also fruited early and reliably I think its looking really good. But it needs a few more years to fully prove itself.
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Scott-
I’m in 6A WV which is quite close to you. If you were to recommend 2 apricots/apriums and 2 nectarines what would they be? I’ve heard some much great things about Tomcot and Orangered that I’m wondering how well they would do for me. Also wondering about honey Royale nectarine in my climate. Any thoughts?
Tomcot is still my #1 favorite apricot. Orangered is very good but is somewhat prone to rot. I am probably going to put Florilege as my #2 after I confirm the good results of this year; its later whereas Orangered and Tomcot are not so far apart.
For nectarines I really like John Rivers which is a very old variety that may be hard to find. I am trialing a bunch of newer varieties looking for rot-resistant ones and so far Sunglo is winning that (but several have yet to fruit). Rot tends to be much worse on nectarines, as well as bacterial spot. I don’t know anything about Honey Royale. There are many many modern peach and nectarine varieties and I have grown very few of them.
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