All this rain we had recently made for some prime splitting weather. Splitting varies a lot from season to season but if it is splitting this year it is a good sign the variety is overly prone to splitting. Two of my apricots split badly in this latest rain and they have also done that several other previous years, so they are getting taken out. None of my nectarines split this year however. When I have a tree that splits I usually give it another year and if it doesn't do well I get rid of it. I did have one nectarine that was splitting, it did it for several years so its gone now.

Scott

Scott's got it right. And no, thinning won't help.

Is there a variety you can rec that does not split?

There are no varieties that don't split that I know of- they were originally bred for the west I think- certainly that's where most are grown commercially.

Summer Beaut has been pretty good here in southeastern NY, Hardired cracks like clay in the sun. Eastern Glo looks promising- but all will crack to some degree.

Keep the trees wide open and expect to need some extra fungicide. If you succeed, nectarines tend to be great off the tree- much more zing than any peach in my opinion as well as Fruitnuts. If we both agree to something it's probably valid.

keepitlow, I grafted in some necs into a peach tree and all the necs got pc and none of the peaches. Plant some reliable peaches they are easier to grow.

Ace=

Noticed the same thing. My nectarines (Red Gold) got hit hard by PC, but the peaches were almost left alone. The PC must not like that fuzz.

My nectarines haven't split, they are still small.

Peaches are much more resistant to PC here in southeastern NY than all common tree fruits besides pears.

Nectarines are one of the most difficult here to grow, although the PC is usually no problem if you're spraying enough to protect apples IME. It is their tendency to crack that makes them especially difficult.

I would never recommend nectarines as a first selection in an orchard here but if you can make them work there's nothing better to pick tree ripened.

Japanese plums are also much easier to defend against PC than European plums here in southeastern NY.

For my part I have only had one variety of nectarine split, Tashkent Gold. I have several heirlooms and I haven't seen a split so far in them. But, I haven't had nectarines too many years because I waited to get the peaches figured out first. Even if I have been able to avoid splitting there are still skin problems: bumpy skin, catfacing, lots of scab, etc. I have had some uggggggly nectarines! For the PC I find they are no worse than the plums -- worse than peaches but not unmanageable.

Scott

Here are the Hardiered nectarines in question. I cut the tree down. If it is that hard to grow it has to go. Will probably replace it with Saturn donut peach.

{{gwi:119753}}

Congrats, you got some mighty uggly nectarines there! I think there is both scab and bacterial spot on there along with the cracks. Nectarines seem to slurp up every skin problem.

Re: Saturn, I have had rot problems with them some years. This year they were ripening right during the recent 4-5 days of solid rain and half of them rotted. I had several other things ripening then which got only minor rots, so the Saturn did seem to get it worse. Two years ago they all rotted; other years they were fine so it depends a lot on when it rains and how many spores are about the orchard. Maybe one of the newer donut peaches is less prone to rot. The Galaxy I have never rots but its not quite as tasty as Saturn. I have some of the new NJ releases and maybe they will be less rot-prone.

Scott

What about 'Red Gold' nectarines instead of the peach? Do these nectarines resist splitting?

I looked into planting some nects. But around here, in addition to cracking, bacterial spot is a real issue.

I wanted to try Redgold because it's done well for Hman, but it's rated highly susc. to bac. spot, so I'm going to have to pass.

My RedGold aren't cracking, but they are in a whiskey barrel...so i have no idea if that helps with that sort of thing.

{{gwi:119754}}

Harvestman is the one with experience with RedGold. I have experience with one of its progeny, Venus, and so far it is not cracking. It is also sold by ACN which indicates commercial growers in the east have faith in it.

Any nectarine is going to have some ugly skin problems unless you are spraying like crazy, but if you want them for home use they will be OK. One of the reasons why I am trying a bunch of the older nectarines is to find one which is more resilient to skin diseases. I recently found that the Shekar Pareh apricot from Iran has zero skin problems, who would have ever imagined that an old variety from a dry climate would be so good for me. My Stanwick nectarine is also zero-defect at this point so it may be a good one. The Venus has a relatively high level of scab, but its still a lot less than your pictured fruits above (the bigger blackish spots are the scab).

Scott

Well how do the organic growers do it without tons of chemicals? Or do they just have better varieties of nectarines?

They grow in California? :) :) :) I'm serious...growing in this rainforest kind of sucks. Lets just all move to Nevada and run pipe from L Michigan :)

Yup, they all live in California where there is much less disease and no big rain dumps to crack fruit. I've not heard of a single person growing organic nectarines commercially in the east. For home use, I found that as long as the fruit didn't crack I still got great fruit. Some years the family wouldn't eat them as-is but if I peeled and sliced them they were a big hit. So it partly depends on what your goal is. I do hope that some of the varieties I am trying prove to be more amenable as far as the skin problems and cracking goes. Unless you are set on nectarines however, it is probably better to just put in a peach.

Scott

Yeah, growing organic nectarines in the desert is a snap.

I'm not organic. I spray my apples, and spray anything else if I see a problem on it. The only sprays my nectarines get is a dormant spray in the spring and one application of insecticide just on the bottom of the trunk to keep the ants out of the ripe fruit.

There's not much that can beat a tree ripe nectarine. They are supposed to just be fuzzless peaches, but I don't know where that idea came from. Flavor and texture are different. (love those peaches, too, and they go sprayless here in the desert)