Yay Patty,I hope my young Nectaplum will get some ripe fruit next year.
How long did yours take? Thanks,Brady

This was the third year for my Nectaplum. I had a few fruit last year, this year I had to seriously thin the tree, and I still have so much fruit, I had to support two large branches.

Patty S.

So is it more plum or more nectarine (flavor)?

I'll be getting a few peacotums and nectaplums next year. Can't wait to try them.

More nectarine I would say, than plum, but definitely sweeter than the average nectarine, and has a really rich flavor. And, no bitter "zing" from the skin, which I hate about stone fruit. The texture of the flesh is probably more like a nectarine, but it's not quite the same as a nectarine. Smoother and more dense. Very nice fruit, one of my favorites in my collection. For taste, hardiness, production, and, it's also a really pretty tree.

Patty S.

I have had quite a bit on my stone fruit trees too. I think the cold winter had something to do with it. I lost branches on Eva's pride peach and Spice-zee nectaplum after thinning several times. Pluots are loaded this year.

Spice-zee tastes mostly like a white nectarine to me. A little bit of tangyness. Good flavor. Can't taste the plum. Fruit is very large.

I think our really (record) cold winter has something to do with it, too, Tom. My Arctic Star nectarine was also just loaded. It's been a great stone fruit year for all of us in San Diego county, my CRFG buddies are also reporting increased fruit production.

Patty S.

Many stone fruits come from zones more like mine. I have been fighting the regulars about growing them all year, and they can and will grow fine in the Midwest. My Nectaplum was planted this year, it sprouted very low branches so I had to develop a new central leader. Which turned out to be easy! It's been in the ground only 4 months and I headed the new central leader already. Three nice scaffolds resulted, so I'm losing very little time. It still will be probably 2 years before fruit, but it looks great and growing super well.
Thanks for the positive reports on taste. I look forward to mine producing! And yeah the tree is gorgeous!

Patty,

I have had scarring on the bottom of most of my nectaplums. i think it has happened every year (3 or 4 years now). I am guessing it may be some type fungus damaging the fruit when it is starting to form. Maybe thrips.

My Panamint nectarine has done it in the past but didn't this year. It also blooms a little later and we were dry later in the spring. Have you seen this on your nectaplums or nectarines?

Tom

{{gwi:122002}}

{{gwi:122003}}

This post was edited by econ0003 on Thu, Jul 18, 13 at 0:58

Hi, Patty, did your robada apricot fruit this year? I am wondering about its chill requirement.

Tom-

A lot of my pluots (most of them) seem to have what I call "russeting"...? I have no idea why, but it doesn't seem to be any disease/fungus.. I was thinking it was my very cold spring/rainy period that caused it but i have no clue. Maybe its sun scalding??? Be interesting to see if Fruitnut gets anything like it in his greenhouse. My donut peaches and various other peaches show no such markings, nor do my hybrid plums.

Drew-
You might find this interesting...
link

Me, too, Tome and Drew:
{{gwi:122004}}

Not sure what causes this odd scarring, doesn't affect the flavor or texture, is just on the surface of the skin. Had to sneak in one of my ginormous Lamb Hass avocados. This tree has really taken off this year. I have a small crop of avos this year, but the avos ripening for next year, oh my! I must have over 100 avos on that tree. Sandiego4s, I don't have a Robada apricot in my line up.

Patty S.

Thanks for the link Frank! Very cool! I can't wait till my trees mature, so I can add data to our knowledge. For example you're wondering if the scalding is cold related, well my fruit could answer that since it's always cold here, but it will be 2 years before I can give any decent results. I should get some fruit next year, but not much. Maybe enough to bring to that peach expo though!! Besides the Nectaplum, I do have pluots growing here too.
OK, now I will definitely have to add the Pluerry too, just to see if it will grow here or not? I suspect it will do fine!

I am having some serious peach and nectarine envy here!!! Sigh........

Can't wait to see pictures!

I had one enormous peach on my potted dwarf and 5 average sized nectarines and I thought I was doing great. Lol!!!

I chopped down my Bella Gold peacotum. It's a beautiful piece of fruit but no where nearly as good as Orangered apricot that ripened at the same time. My tree had very curled up leaves again this year. Maybe someone else will have a different opinion but here it was no contest, Orangered by TKO in one swing. Anymore I don't have time or room for pretty faces without substance.

I like Spice Zee. Agree with Patty that the texture is smoother than most nectarine. But it's no better than Arctic Jay and not nearly as good as Honey Royale for my taste. I was eating all three at the same time although Honey Royale is somewhat later. Mine has some russeting even in the greenhouse. Not an issue for me.

My Sweet Treat pluerry fruit is still rock hard. The fruit is well colored but no bigger than my biggest sweet cherry. I was expecting it to be earlier but being just planted this year it got a late start. Bay Laurel says it ripens in 2-3 weeks so guess it's not late.

This post was edited by fruitnut on Wed, Jul 17, 13 at 10:44

Just a cool fact: Spicezee nectaplum is 50% nectarine, 37.50% peach, and 12.50% plum.

"For example you're wondering if the scalding is cold related..."

My two Flavor Top Nectarine have (had because I ate one) ugly scalding all over the skin, and I believe that's probably cold related. I remember that back in early April we had temps in the high 30's for three to four days. Then the following days my two nectarines started to develop ugly scalding.

Russeting of nectarines is common here. I see it frequently on double delight, arctic star & goldmine. It does not impact flavor in the least.

I've got some catching up to do on 'cados, mine are still very young and small. A fruitful 'cado is money.

I want to avoid the russeting since it is a weak point on the fruit. Coastal fog at night causes water to collect on the russeting and mold can form. Bugs also attack this part of the fruit. The normal part of the skin is much better at fighting off diseases and pests.

This post was edited by econ0003 on Thu, Jul 18, 13 at 0:00

We were wondering what causes the russeting, mrclint. Which I found out is due to thrips, should have figured that out with all the citrus trees I have. Insecticidal soap applied to the blossoms in the evening, after the bees have gone back to the hive will reduce thrip damage. Fortunately for me, I haven't had any mold issues, which is surprising, because I have every fungal thing you can have, due to my rather dense plantings across my yard. And, this is the only one of my avos that has really taken off. It must have hit the water motherlode somehow, it has doubled in size in a year. We were bowled over at the number of next year's avos on it, so I will make sure the water gets increased if we have a heat wave. You're right, that's a money tree for sure, considering avos are at least a buck a piece or more, even here in avo country.

Patty S.

Here is a link that might be useful: UCANR Ventura County: Nectarine Problems

Patty,

I guess the thrips are so small that I never saw them.

I wonder if spraying the flowers with insecticidal soap affects their fertilization?

Tom

Interesting link, Patty. I wonder why peaches aren't affected in such a way. I don't find the russeting to be a problem at all. Gnarly cat-faced heirloom tomatoes can go for $5 a pound in some places. Hardly worth spraying for.

The USDA grading sheet for nectarines mentions russeting 25 times. I guess it's a major stumbling block for folks that like blemish free fruit.

Yes, Tom, like most flower thrips, they are extremely small. I think the article said the size of the dot on the letter "i". I'm thinking maybe? the russeting is there, but lessened due to the fuzz (both as an obstacle for the thrips, and as a camouflage for us being able to see it clearly? Just a guess. And Tom, if you spray in the evening, when the thrips are active, that gives the soap spray time to dry by morning, and it should not affect the bees.

Patty S.