What I am eating from my garden May 2015

phoenixtropicals

Pictured from bottom to top.
Early Grande peaches
Katy apricots
Arctic Star white nectarine

starch · Joined: 14 Mar 2015 Posts: 49

Nice! Good looking fruit. My peaches were a bust this year because of the birds. I thinned 3 dozen peaches down to a dozen in March and then I put flash tape up thinking this would protect the peaches. Last weekend the birds pecked every single peach I have. Bird netting it is from now on.

How do you like the Arctic Star necatarine? I have heard people rave about them in CA. Do you like them down here?

darkcoolboo · Joined: 17 Nov 2014 Posts: 129

Have you heard of Spicezee Interspecific Nectarine, Donut (Stark Saturn) Peach, and Garden Prince Almond. On a separate note, do you grow persimmon?

phoenixtropicals · Posted: Thu May 07, 2015 12:37 am Post subject:

I have cd's tied to string in my tree and it doesn't stop the birds completely but slows them down. Yes, netting works better but is a pain to put up. I have done netting some years. This year so far I am just doing the cd's. I have probably a 100 peaches on my Earli Grande so it's okay if the birds get some.

Artic Star seems to be a winner here. It is sweet and productive even though we had a very small amount of chill hours this winter.

I have Stark Saturn peach. It's still a pretty small tree and I just have a couple of fruit on it. I have Garden Prince almond too and it is getting to be a pretty big tree but the production is pathetic so far. Just a couple of almonds a year, even though it flowers heavily. I have a neighbor near by with almonds too so I would guess I am also getting some pollination from that.

I have plans to put a persimmon in to replace a Fuji apple I have that does nothing. It is was supposed to do well here because it is on a special M111 root stock, but its obvious it doesn't get enough chill. I'm going to dig it up in the winter and give it to a friend that lives in Laveen where it gets much colder at night.

Spicezee Interspecific Nectarine, nope don't have that one.

myamberdog · Posted: Fri May 08, 2015 11:30 am Post subject:

I'm eating, now, the last of my Florida Prince peaches - excellent flavor, but not cling free! Had about 75 peaches or so, and have a few dozen on my multi-grafted peach that are still green and ripening. The Florida Prince I've been enjoying for a whole month now, maybe even 5 weeks, and this is late for me. I seem to remember March being the beginning of peach time.

Anyway, nice haul PT, and looks like much more to come. Is the artic star
cling free (I'm guessing most if not all nectarine were bred with
this trait)? They do look great!

I'm also removing a couple apple trees - my Anna and my 4-n-1 cuz I
just don't like their flavor and/or production, and they seem to get mealy really quickly with our heat. Space is too valuable to keep a slacker in my garden!

Oh, and are you guys under any water restrictions now, like we are here
in SoCal and the desert? Some people are even vilifying people that have
fruit trees and gardens as being wasteful.....sheesh.....

M.A.D.!!!!!!!!!!

darkcoolboo · Joined: 17 Nov 2014 Posts: 129

PT - I'm growing Fuyu and expect fruit in 2 years - they DO take a while. You better make sure it's a good variety of persimmon. I don't think many people have read my Word document about some premier varieties of fruits; you should probably give it a second look.