Except for there have been and will be a lot of cloudy days.
As I said, most parts of MA have been soaked but Cape Cod (only 1.5 hours away from me) has been quite dry. MA is a small state. Even that, rain does not always reach every corner.
You are at least 3 hours from me. It makes a difference from what you and I have experience this summer.
Obviously you are right. I’m just hoping that you are about to turn the corner.
I just measured a TangO’s that came out at 15, which is very high for a peach on my property. I’ve had plenty of cloudy days also, so it would appear that the margin from adequate to inadequate sun is very narrow. * 8:36 pm
80°/65°
Partly Cloudy
17%
ENE 5 mph
87°/67°
Partly Cloudy
15%
S 7 mph
88°/69°
PM Thunderstorms
49%
S 9 mph
86°/70°
PM Thunderstorms
43%
SW 7 mph
88°/66°
PM Thunderstorms
39%
WSW 7 mph
82°/58°
Partly Cloudy
24%
NNW 8 mph
80°/59°
Partly Cloudy
24%
NNW 6 mph
81°/59°
Mostly Sunny
16%
NW 6 mph
80°/60°
Partly Cloudy
24%
NNE 5 mph
80°/61°
PM Showers
31%
ENE 6 mph
81°/60°
PM Showers
30%
E 6 mph
81°/60°
Partly Cloudy
24%
ENE 6 mph
80°/61°
AM Showers
30%
NW 6 mph
My first batch of Redhavens, picked two days ago, are nice and large but only 11-13 brix. Not worthless, but a little disappointing. C+ to B- range. I might dry them. The ones left on the tree are smaller and we have been dry for a week, so those should be better.
To my palate, once they get up to 13 they are good. Peaches here don’t usually rise above that for me although TangO’s seems to be good for another point or 2 as probably are most saucer or flat peaches. Too bad their pits tend to split in the rain and once that happens they are almost impossible to protect from rot.
Before I had a refractometer or knew what one was I had a Red Haven on a part of my property that bore beautiful bland fruit year after year. A few of its fruit would be sweet, but you had to bite into it to know which ones- they all looked beautiful. I removed the peach and switched over to JonBoy because of its reliably higher brix, although it ripens a few days later. I also used TangO’s for a time until we started getting a sequence of wet springs that made it split and rot beyond forgiving on my property. A client way upstate in CT never has had that problem with his Tang0 peaches. Further inland and better air circulation.
Great Yellow J. plum at 16-17. If you want a yellow plum that screams yellow this is the one.
I just looked up your description of this plum in an earlier post. Really enticing. I’ll bother you for scions this winter
Of course- they don’t like going into traps and he can get fresh fruit right from the tree 
I’ve been picking TangO which probably have decent brix, if I could squeeze any juice out. With the tree in the process of dying, the fruit has been water started and started the drying process. For most peaches that might be bad, but TangO is naturally rubbery, so it is just a bit more rubbery than usual. And a bit small. But otherwise tasty.
I gave up on Silver Gem getting better (still around 8 brix). In the Jam they go (at least a small batch). I’ve always removed skins for peach jam, but does it make as big a difference for nectarines?
Bob those Tangos are looking a bit Alien. Plums are really nice!
When I first read that I saw “Alan” and thought “ouch”. 
Those are actually white nectarines, though they have some red tinges. Pretty high acid- when I first tried them it was eye-watering, but now they are just sour (all while staying at 8 brix…)
Your weather in the NE has been horrible. You wait all winter with anticipation of blossoms making it through the last frost and then Mother Nature rears her sometimes really ugly head and rains like crazy, just to ruin beautiful fruit. She needs a trip to the bahamas. Your nectarines look so good, but sour? Wow.
That is bummer. I feel for you folks up in the NE. It’s happened here quite a bit in the lower Midwest. The only saving grace from this type of plague on stone fruit is that it’s usually temporary and only ruins the fruit for a while.
It’s interesting to hear reports about Silver Gem. It produced well for me, but I had trouble getting it to sugar up. I recall sometimes that nect was outstanding, but it needed a lot of dry weather to hit a good flavor.
I don’t know if you folks in the NE have noticed this, but I’ll mention it. Many times here, after receiving long periods of rain which would wash the flavor out of the peaches, if the weather quickly turned the opposite from cloudy, cool, and rainy to sunny, hot and dry, many peaches would turn bitter immediately following the hot dry weather. Then, after about a week, they would straighten back out.
It’s very rare here to get much rain after mid July in this area, which is why peaches are pretty good by the time Redhavens come in.
Btw, I think it’s amazing you have gotten any TangOs with all the rain you folks in the NE are getting. That peach is so hard to grow with rain. Mother Nature sneezes and that peach rots.
I’m almost an hour north of Manhattan. What town are you close to? I was thinking about 2 hours.
Removed two 5 gal buckets of remaining worthlees Redhaven peaches and buried them. Santa Rosa plums now ripe but 100 yellowjackets are eating them. I picked some good ones this morning by removing branches to get them away from the yellowjackets. The plan was to spray boric acid on the remaining fruit under attack but then the heavy rain started. Also dealing with a nest found at the house eaves. Hoping to get them under control before the pluouts and nectarines fully ripen.
Depending on traffic, an hour north of Manhattan could be still in the Bronx…
Ha. Well when there isn’t traffic slowing me down it takes me a little under an hour to reach Manhattan. I pretty much time my excursions to and from to avoid traffic.
That is one huge branch of nectarines!!!
That may be why they have such low brix- under-thinned and overloaded divides the sugar among more peaches. And the weight of the branch brought it close to the ground on the North side of the tree, so it got even less sun.
Two weeks after my last batch of peaches, we still have rain. 2-3” of downpour yesterday with a threat of tornadoes!!
Challenger dropped. They are huge. Quite bland with a hint of sweetness. Brix was about 11.5. In normal year, this variety could be good.
@mrsg47 you won’t like the rain we have got here this summer.
Well here in the northeast/NewEngland we are about to become the beneficiaries of Tropical Storm/Hurricane HENRI.
Batten down your brix.
Mike
I am so sorry for you! I remember one year my mirabelles looked like exploded grenades! It slso made my peaches taste like water! Ugh!
