These Summer Beaut nects are impressive to the eyes and weigh up to 12 oz, but almost every pit is split. So glad I’m not a commercial grower because this is just a terrible year for split pits but what I don’t eat or freeze I will give away with a warning. All I need is in this one tree but a lot more are coming. The trick is, which ones should I save as fruit is getting better as we continue to have droughtish weather.
First it was dry, then we had 3 weeks of monsoon and now it is dry again. I don’t think it was the wet weather that caused all the splits because the fruit already appeared to have lot of splits before we got about 16 inches of rain in less than a month. I suspect the embryos were damaged in Feb.
I will happily take the splits- just a few miles north of me there is no stone-fruit crop at all. At least my plums have been solid.
My Red Havens are HUGE this year. Look beautiful. When eating these beauties, I have found split pits galore. I never realized a split pit fruit truly degrades the quality of taste and texture.
Only about 25 peach were left on my tree with the wacky winter and spring freezes. After 1 month of no rain in May, we’ve been consistently getting rain almost every other day or so. The fruit quality is actually better when underthinned and smaller - very disappointing
It’s the rain not the light crop that’s hurting your peach quality. The rain reduces brix and the rapid growth of the fruit adds to the issue with split pits.
Split pits are worse when there’s a light crop. A light crop means faster growth of the remaining peaches which puts more stress on the pit.
Fruit quality will be best with adequate thinning, dry weather, and lots of sun.
Gee, is that why they do so much of it in the most western states?
Those of us in the humid region need to be inspired by the challenge. It’s exciting when you think the season is lost and then suddenly you get a mini-drought. The pits of peaches and nectarines are almost all split but brix is climbing and the quality of the flesh is good now- though not by your standards, but compared to what CA is shipping out.
The problem is that a terrible rot sometimes starts inside the damaged pit that is black and more disgusting than brown rot by 10fold. My TangO’s crop has been rendered nearly worthless because my site is sheltered from breezes so rot problems are increased. Rot from inside out cannot be controlled with fungicide. At least not by practical means.
My Fantasias are still ripening and I wonder how good they will be. The Feb deep freeze we had seems to have killed blossoms on top of the trees where the best flavored fruit usually is. I keep pruning to try to keep getting enough light down where the fruit is.
