Nectarines just better

Yes. Easternglo. Thanks for the correction. Got it mix up with Earliglo strawberry?!!

@fruitnut, thanks for the suggestion about when to pick. They are in double bags covered by Surround. I’ll try squeezing them.

If Arctic Glo and Arctic Start taste good to me and the level of growing them is not different from peaches (meaning very difficult to get good fruit), I could switch to more nectarines and fewer peaches.

1 Like

Our family far prefers nectarines to peaches. If I could get better peach varieties in Canada then that could change but for now I only find Frost Peach on both combo trees and individual trees. In contrast I have Fantasia, Independence and HardiRed nectarines growing in my Urban Orchard. 1 peach vs 7 nectarine trees makes it easy to tell our favourite. I’m actually very tempted to pick up a second Fantasia as my fruit tree #50.

Anthony

4 Likes

I have two nectarine trees and they produce about a fifth of what similar sized peach trees do and the fruit of the nectarines all look like the cracked one above while peaches are beautiful.

1 Like

I’ll let you know, but Arctic Star has performed well so far. Also Raspberry Red and Spicezee are both good ones imo. Summer Silk is a new one for me and looks interesting…but probably another few weeks before ripe time.

1 Like

What is your nectarine pick for Lubbock? I’d like to add two or three next spring

1 Like

Lubbock has pretty decent chilling and spring freeze issues. So you don’t want the low chill stuff or any early bloomers. If you can find them Honey Blaze and Honey Royale for low acid types. Then some of the acidic types like Fantasia, Harko, Independence, or Mericrest. Any of the nectarines offered by Adam’s County Nursery would be worth trying.

1 Like

Thanks. That helps

1 Like

We picked some white nectarines from Styer’s orchard last week. My whole family agreed they were better than the white peaches and yellow nectarines. I still think my peaches are the best, but that’s cause I grew them.

2 Likes

Redgold and sunglo are some of the easier to grow here in missouri. And if you have a fairly dry summer, they are good tasting nectarines

2 Likes

You are funny FN. My 16 brix nects are divine and I like them at that just as much as the freaky ones I got from Honey Royale in the high 20’s. For years I’ve told you, the palate adjusts- you are just used to a higher level of sugar. The Honey Royale difference was more about being syrupy instead of extremely juicy than anything else. Fruit only needs so much sugar, but everyone’s needs are different.

4 Likes

The majority of my yellow flesh nectarines get frozen while firm ripe and I eat them every morning with oatmeal or waffles until I can pick fresh ones off my trees again. As long as I get some acid the variety is unimportant when they are used like this. I can’t remember if I have Sunglo, but if not, I’m certainly game to try it. This is not to say that I don’t appreciate very high quality when I’m eating them off the tree or a day off the tree.

1 Like

You have me convinced. Now that I know how difficult it is growing peaches with high humidity, cloudy weather, insects, fungus, squirrels, raccoons and birds I might as well put the effort into nectarines.

4 Likes

Thanks my trouble is late frost but that is probably trouble for most of us out of California. I didn’t mean to discount anyone else’s opinion on nectarines, fruitnut just lived in Amarillo for years and has the most experience growing in my conditions of anyone I know on here.

1 Like

The problem ime having with citation for peaches and nectarines is getting enough growth to actually have enough fruiting wood for the next year. My arctic jay which is in a pot and still has fruit on it, has literally 1 to 2 inches of new growth. My other ones on citation in the ground which only had a few fruit this year, have perhaps 6 inches. You get very good fruit, but at least for me not enough growth. It may result in not having much of a crop. I would be curious to see what results you get

1 Like

FN, I just found a Silver Gem with 19 %. It was good but not really better to my palate than the ones I’m getting with 16.

1 Like

This is an interesting topic and sort of coincidental for me because I’ve been thinking a lot about nectarines the last couple weeks.

I agree with all the comments that nectarines are indeed what I would call more “intense”. I have 18 trees of nects and have pretty much made the decision to get rid of them. I don’t know if anyone would be interested, but I’m speaking strictly from a commercial viewpoint here.

From that perspective, nectarines don’t seem to work commercially for me.

One issue is that they don’t yield very well compared to a peach, which seems to stem from their relatively smaller size (although fruit set also hasn’t been what I’d call great for most of my nectarines).

Another problem I have is that while the biggest and brightest nects are intense in sugar and acid, many of the smaller or a bit more shaded nects (on the same tree) are a bit too tart. So what I can sell as #1 fruit tends to be a small amount.

The last issue is that nects are hard to sell at the orchard. The skin is rarely very pretty (although Summer Beauts were beautiful this year). But most people who come to the orchard just don’t want them. This is probably something somewhat unique to my locale. In my locale, people are used to local peaches, or they don’t even really know what a nectarine is. At farmer’s markets in the city, people are a little more adventurous and they sell a little better.

Again, this is purely from a commercial viewpoint. As a homegrower if I could get the brix high enough on most of the nects, I’d probably try a few. In fact, even commercially I may not get rid of all my nects. For now, I intend to keep at least Summer Beaut, Nectafest and possibly Silver Gem. Silver Gem produced almost nothing for me this year (a challenging weather year). There wasn’t hardly enough fruit this year to evaluate much, but in the past the fruit has been exceptional.

8 Likes

My neighbor would agree with everything you stated. He had to talk people into sampling his nectarines at his fruit stands. Only then did people buy them. Many people he says won’t even try them because they aren’t as “pretty” as peaches, which like where you live, is what people are used to. And the sad part is the really top notch nectarines will have sugar spots and generally not as nice a look as the more plain tasting ones, and he says people buy with their eyes. And also they are not as productive as peaches. He says he had the same problem with gold rush apples. He had to talk people into trying them, as they aren’t pretty to people either. Now he always sells out as word of mouth spread over the years. He says the same for nectarines, he has loyal customers who want them, and always come looking for whatever variety is ripe. All in all more work and less profitable than peaches, but he still grows many varieties. The home grower who doesn’t need high production can be rewarded though

7 Likes

And buy the way he says sunglo and redgold are two of the easier to grow in our area, have you tried growing those. Summer beaut does well here, so those may do well for you as well

1 Like

I would think it almost impossible to make money on nectarines here in S. NY, although some orchards do grow them. This wet year in particular- so far the majority of fruit is badly cracked. However, the fruit is so superior to the early peaches in my orchard this year that most of my enjoyment is coming from them. Excess rain has also damaged the peaches, but only with insanely split pits, they are beautiful on the outside, except for TangO’s which have splits right through the flesh- truly a strange donut peach this year. At another site where I was yesterday they were much, much better. It is a site with very weak growing soil- light soil that has been very compacted except in the restricted area where we broke it up.

Diesel fuel for transporting nects from the west just isn’t expensive enough to make such difficult to grow fruit worth selling unless you developed a very high end market, which I’m sure would be possible. The tree ripe nectarines off my trees are unlike anything most people have ever tasted and seeing them get so excited is certainly fulfilling.

5 Likes

I wonder if that is part of why they can get higher brix- less fruit on the tree means the tree can better focus its sugars.

I was reminded tonight of an even harder to grow stone fruit which I think tastes even better. Apricots. The animals and bugs got all the fruit on my larger Montrose tree, but I got all 10 fruits on the small 2nd year tree (about 4’ tall) in the front yard (farther from the wooded area). It was over-cropped and shaded by an overhanging mulberry, which I pruned back a few weeks ago when it finished fruiting. So the fruit was small and on the dry side- enough so that it was hard to get a good brix reading (only 13-14 I think). But even with all these disadvantages, eating it alongside some of the peaches and nectarines, made me want more apricots. From what I’ve ripened in the yard, it looks like you can be picking them around here from mid June to late July, which takes you all the way up to Redhaven season. That is, if you manage to keep the trees alive, the late frosts, animals, and bugs at bay.

4 Likes