I ate a few "Poppycot"s from the store today (California grown)... Kind of mushy, not very sweet... My kid liked them.

You still favor the nectarines over the apricots?

I already knocked over my container grown nectarine! I was moving that monster because we had a 35F night the other night and some how i lost control and she spilled over... Luckily it wasn't too bad and i was able to put it back in place...Its just starting to leaf out. I need some wheels to put under those pots!

Fruitnut, you're way ahead of most of us. Did you remember to save some pits from your Robaba fruits to try as "almonds" when they dry?

I just went out an picked my first 5 Royal Rosa fruits (one off the ground). They were on the mushy side, but texture was not terrible. No pitburn despite a short heat wave (101 degrees Saturday, 102 yesterday). Flavor was more bland than most of my other apricots. Some tartness, some sweetness. The best fruit was the smallest one with the highest color.

I just noticed a crack in the drip system, so the tree may have gotten too much water recently. But i've never har really good fruit from this tree. Good as early pollenizer, I guess, if you have a Flavorella. I didn't get a good fruit set on Royal Rosa this year (rain during bloom). This variety's reputation for disease resistance is not in reference to blossom rot, as far as I can tell. Tasty Rich sounds much better for early fruit.

Flavor Delight set heavily, as usual, and fruit is starting to ripen. I had to do a lot of thinning. I had heavy fruit set on a little volunteer apricot I grew as a lark. Blenheim set more fruit than Harcot this year. An anomaly. I have a little fruit on Royalty and a little more on Golden Amber. Losing my second Golden Amber tree. Will replace with a Pluot. I think it's too close to the house for good air circulation for an apricot.

I had an odd year for fruit set on Pluots, too. Flavor Supreme set more fruit than Dapple Dandy. Not typical. I wouldn't call it a heavy fruit set, but I may have a few to share this year. Its bloom was not as early in relationship to my other plums and Pluots this year. The Flavor Supreme fruits are already huge. Make the nearby apricots look really puny. I also got good fruit set on Emerald Beaut plum, at the other end of the Japanese plum bloom season. Yay.

Carolyn: My Flavor Supreme in a pot set well. The ones in the ground hardly at all. I've never had huge fruit on Flavor Supreme but they are ripening now and are very good. An early plum, Rubirosa, is also ripe and while not as sweet as Fl Supreme it is a pretty good plum. Arctic Star is also ripening and is excellent.

I had good fruit set on most of the pluot and plums. Emerald Beaut always sets too much fruit. I thinned way more this yr than in the past. I think I've been leaving too much fruit to the detriment of quality. Flavor Grenade is the champion fruit setter for me. I thin and thin and thin again. On plums and pluot I need to thin until they seem just right and then take off every other fruit; now I'd be about right.

The Fruitnut

Flavor Supreme is my most vigorous Pluot tree, even though it's in a sandy spot on Citation. I think this has something to do with the fruit size.

Emerald Beaut blooms long after most of my other plums and Pluots most years. Sometimes starts blooming after my European plum. I refrigerate blooms to pollenize it. This year there was quite a bit of bloom overlap between Emerald Beaut and Casselman, Flavor King and even Santa Rosa, so I got better fruit set on Emerald Beaut.

I have new trees of Flavor Grenade and Geo Pride coming along, and both set a lot of fruit, especially Geo Pride. Geo Pride bloomed with Flavor Supreme this year (but they're not near each other).

A stray puppy we're trying to place in a new home tried to girdle the Flavor Grenade a few weeks ago while teething, but does not seem to have been successful. He also damaged the Geo Pride. I wrapped the damaged trunks in perforated tape then put up fencing around the two little trees. Leaves look a little too yellow on the Flavor Grenade. We'll baby the tree for a while. One problem you probably don't have in the greenhouse.

It would be easy to get angry if the puppy weren't so dang cute.

I had never considered Rubirosa. What color is the flesh? I have Arctic Star nectarines sizing up, but will have to wait to see if they're as good as yours this year.

Most of the nectarines and peaches set well, except for a Fantasia nectarine - one of my oldest trees and it has never really produced. Wonder if it's on the wrong rootstock for its location or something? It always blooms fine. Tree is vigorous.

Rubirosa has purple skin and a light yellow/lime interior. Main fault is the flesh is rather soft. Does have a pleasant flavor.

I have a big crop of Geo Pride, Splash and Emerald Drop. They were all very good last yr. Never can have too many good varieties.

The Fruitnut

Fruit-

I would imagine its getting pretty hot inside the greenhouse. Do you use shade cloth or do you mist the plants? Do you have any sweet cherries?

My apricot report:
I ate my first (and last!) Royal Rosa yesterday. It was faintly apricot-ty, but delicious to me since it's been almost a year since I had fresh apricots (Yum!)
I also have only 1 (one) Blenheim on the way, because as I reported months ago, I ripped off most of the blossoms trying to cover the tree for a late frost, and then we too had rain. My new apricots didn't set any fruit either, but my Cot-N-Candy planted last year has 7 fruits coming along--I can't wait for my first taste!

Carla in Sac

Frank: The greenhouse which is 32ft by 54ft, has an evaporative cooling pad that is 4ft by 28ft. There are three 36 inch exhaust fans that pull air thru the cooling pad. With this setup I can keep summer highs in the 88-92F range, Right now highs are in the upper 80s. Sweet cherries on Giesla 5 haven't done well inside or out. I'm changing to Krymsk 5 which is supposed to be more tolerant of heat and drought stress...we'll see.

The Fruitnut

As noted above, the first Royal Rosa apricots I picked were not very good, though they seemed fully ripe. One had fallen and others fell off when touched lightly.

After a few days of withholding water after I discovered the cracked drip line (soil is still not dry) and after a few days of temperatures below the 100s, the remaining Royal Rosa apricots were pretty good today. Sweeter, with much more flavor. Really tasted like an apricot, with a little perfume-y touch. Still had some tartness, but the tartness was more balanced with sweetness and flavor. Texture was also improved. Still a little soft, but not watery. Fruit was much better than grocery store apricots today. Couldn't really say that a few days ago.

In addition to (probably) making apricots taste watery, the excess water from the split drip line also brought up a gopher that's likely been lurking around under this and other nearby fruit trees. We'll take care of that.

Well here is whats been up in austin area so far. I am waiting on June gold peach to finnish ripening should be soon. Didnt set quite as large a crop as normal because of a monster hail storm during its bloom period. Hail also got most of my first ever crop of Santa Rosa plum but there are a few left to get a sample this year. Donut peach set several peaches but they all withered and fell off. Im not sure if the hail may not have damaged the blossums on this too or if it was too young (second year in ground) to hold the fruit. Carolync1 I am having a similar experience with a nectarine. I have an Artic Fantasy that is definately old enough to fruit and doesnt. It bloomed well after the hail this year and once again bloomed up a storm and then set nothing like it always done. As I posted earlier it is probably on the way to the great orchard in the sky next planting season. Oh yeah, I also lost a whole crop of a nectarine called sunfree. It would have been its first. The squirells ate them all well before they were ripe. I will know next year to protect it earlier next season. Does any one else have sunfree? I am curiuos if it a good variety or not.

Keep the reports comming! This is fun.

Scape

After Royal Rosa, my next apricot variety to ripen was Royalty (Not Royal). As usual, they were big, beautiful, mushy and on the bland side. Time to think about grafting over some of the branches, leaving just a few to remind my husband of his Grandpa's apricots.

I have been harvesting Flavor Delight Apriums this week and last. The first ones tasted blander than usual. During this early part of the harvest, the fruit seemed to taste better after a few hours in the house, rather than fresh-picked.

I withheld water, and the later fruits were much better. I took a bowl of fruit to a party tonight - Flavor Delignt, Arctic Supreme nectarines and Flavor Supreme pluots. The nectarines and Pluots were excellent, but there were still people who preferred the Apriums.

Arctic Star was the sweetest of the three and full of flavor. Flavor Supreme had that characteristic very sweet, complex flavor with more tartness than Arctic Star. Flavor Delight tasted like a good apricot. A little soft for Fruitnut, I think.

I got two windfall Blenheim apricots today. Little ones. They were sweeter than the Flavor Delight. Very nice. Our weather may be moderate enough this week to ripen a few more Blenheims without pitburn. Rare here. I'm surprised that I got fruit on the Blenheim after our rains during its bloom season.

My Flavor Grenade tree expired from its earlier teething puppy trunk damage. I'll get one on Myro instead of Citation when I replace it.

Nice update!! My Arctic Star are done for the yr. But had some for nearly a month. They were incredibly sweet with good flavor and some crunchiness in the skin. The only reason I could see that any fruit lover might rate these below first rate is the soft nature of a fully ripe nectarine. They are pretty good firm ripe but nothing like soft ripe to me.

Flavor Supreme was also very sweet and flavorful. I'd rate them just below Arctic Star but each yr I have a hard time deciding which is best. In general for me the nectarines beat everything else.

My second white nectarine, Arctic Sweet, was good again but has usually been a notch below Arctic Star.

Arctic Jay is just starting. They are very big and beautiful this yr which has usually been a bad sign. It's usually been a sign of too much water. But I think these are going to be very good. They do have the russeting on the tips which is a positive indicator of high quality.

My second round of pluots beyond Flavor Supreme are giving indications of excessive water; sweet but soft fruit. So I've cut the water off since the first of June.

I always seem to have something over or under watered. But have had incredibly good fruit the last two months.

The Fruitnut

I can't decide on a favorite, either, but most days lately I go for the complexity of Flavor Supreme. I like to have a variety - apricots, nectarines, Pluots, plums. And peaches later in summer. Variety is the spice of life.

Alas, I don't think my Arctic Star will be producing fruit as long as yours did in the greenhouse. I agree that they are best when soft-ripe. If I'm going to eat a super-sweet nectarine when firm-ripe, I prefer the true freestones. Some of the commercial growers around here do a good job with these. I think they're generally the best of the store-bought stone fruits.

I forgot to mention that I also got some fruit from my little LE Cooke plumcot. The fruits are small, very soft, on the mushy side. The best ones taste like sweet perfume, though. They are only on for a few days. I wouldn't recommend a whole tree full of them for most people, though the tree is unusually pretty for a stone fruit, and has quite showy blossoms. They're fun for a taste. Some of the fruits grow right on the trunk of the tree.

My Arctic Star nectarines are my best-looking ones this year, other than maybe Heavenly White. I think I'd better pay attention to the thrip theory of damage to nectarines at the blossom stage next year. My Arctic Jays don't look so good, and as mentioned in another post, Fantasia has never had fruit for me. Maybe blossom shape has something to do with which cultivars are most affected.

I'm glad you mentioned getting the amount of water you give nectarines right. I have discovered that it makes a big difference for apricots, too. You would think I would have figured that out earlier, due to experiences with melons.

carolyn: What are you saying about thrips? Are you referring to the stippling that occurs mostly on the tip end of the fruit? I associate stippling with high quality. My experience with water and nectarines have lead me to some clear conclusions about water stress and nectarine quality. If nectarines are over watered during final swell stage, they are big, beautiful, clear skinned (little or no stippling), and brightly colored; but they have no taste and aren't sweet. If they are severely under watered the tip end cracks, the skin is tough, the fruit is small, it may have off flavors, and may or may not be sweet depending on how severe the stress is. When grown at the proper stress level, the fruit is ~ 80-90% of max size and there is a lot of stippling on the tip half of the fruit. Sugars are very high and flavor is high and complex.

The low acid white fleshed nectarines may require less stress than the yellow fleshed to optimize eating quality. I think the yellow-fleshed, low-acid nectarines are the greatest fruit I've ever eaten but they must be properly stressed to achieve the taste I like. My thinking is that commercial nectarines, and possibly other fruit in CA are over watered because the grower is paid for size and appearance, not for taste. There is also an element of risk growing fruit at high temperatures with any kind of stress. If mine go bad, I eat something else. A grower cann't afford a lost crop.

I think that commercial apples are over watered as well to the detriment of taste and sweetness.

The Fruitnut

Fruitnut, I wrote a response to your last question on underwatered nectarines, but I guess it didn't get through the system. I'm familiar with the underwatering symptoms you have specified. I've had that problem, too. But I'm talking about fruit which looks damaged even before the blossoms wither. The thread which discusses thrips is linked below.

I think you're right about overwatering. But after cherry season, I think the best commercial stone fruits in our area are the new supersweet nectarines, until later in the season when there are a few good varieties of commercial plums.

Update on CWB, Peachcot, etc:

This year, I got normal bloom on my Canadian White Blenheim. I think our area doesn't get enough chill some years. But I still had delayed foliation on Stark Sweetheart. So I guess CWB doesn't have the highest chill requirement in the world.

I also had some other varieties with some bloom during CWB's late bloom season. But the rain during bloom seemed to decimate the crop. I didn't get any Harcot fruit this year. I thought I had a few young fruits, but next time I looked, there was nothing. Not even fallen fruits. It's always been a reliable variety for me before. Don't know if it was blossom blight or our freak wind storms this year. Or maybe our Garden Partner ate them.

It's also odd that I got a decent crop of Blenheim during the same rainy bloom season. It's notorious for blossom blight. Maybe it's just luck - the days when bloom is heaviest vs. days when it rains.

I only got 3 or 4 CWB fruits on 2 trees. I ate the first one today. It had fallen off the tree. It was much sweeter than Blenheim, with a rich flavor different from the typical apricot. Refreshing rather than "sprightly", though it still had a touch of acid.

I think that this is the first one I've tasted which didn't get too much water while ripening. The texture was soft, but pleasant. The color is a creamy yellow-orange - not really close to white. No red blush. I would recommend CWB for areas with just a little more winter chill than ours. It needs a pollenizer which blooms late. It's a sweet pit variety.

We've also been getting fruit from a tree which is either a Peachcot or a Golden Amber. The Golden Amber near the house has died. It never did well in its location.

I bought the tree I now have as a Peachcot, but later learned that this was about the time the USDA mislabeled Peachcot scions which went to wholesaler LE Cooke in a virus elimination program. The next year, trees they sold as Peachcots were really Golden Amber. If you have one of their Peachcots which is older than 10 years old, you probably have their original strain. Peachcot trees sold after the error was corrected are probably a USDA stock variety, as far as I know. There's a nursery in Texas which sells an August-fruiting Peachcot with a low chill requirement. That idea always intrigued me.

Anyway, I am not quite sure if I have a Peachcot now or a Golden Amber. Both my defunct Golden Amber and the alleged Peachcot bloom over a long season. Fruiting is more prolonged than with most other apricots. Last year, I was pretty confident my "Peachcot" was Golden Amber. But this year, the flavor of the ripe fruit makes me think it might be a Peachcot, after all. The very ripe fruits are quite large, very sweet and very soft, but with a melting quality rather than a grainy or mushy quality like, say, Royalty. And it may be my imagination, but I thought I tasted some peach with the apricot. Very nice. The tree is susceptible to premature fruit drop. It's not growing in the best soil. Though it has prolonged bloom, I don't recall any signs of delayed foliation here, so it's probably suitable for areas with moderately low chill.

The fruits on my little volunteer apricot tree are almost ripe. I think I did fairly well in the volunteer fruit lottery. When almost ripe, the fruit is small, highly colored with a red blush, firm - crispy to rubbery, sweet and quite tasty. Freestone. Fuzz is very scant and some of the fruits got sun damage - ugly brown patches on the sun-exposed side. I think it may the the offspring of a commercial variety. The tree is brushy with lots of short branches off the main branches which resemble long thorns, though they're not really sharp. Branches are lax. Just one example of what you can get from planting an apricot seed.

I'm getting my first Santa Rosa plums. A ripe Santa Rosa really lets you know you're alive. Sweet and sour with a variety of intense flavors coming from each layer inside the fruit. The Weeping Santa Rosa is sweeter with very nice flavor, but eating a regular Santa Rosa is still a unique experience which I really like. We have too many, though. Time to call my husband's sister, who makes jam.

Here is a link that might be useful: nectarines and thrips

Do you need two plants to get a crop, or can you grow just one?

Apricots generally set better with another variety for pollination. Some are self fertile or partially so.