Nice looking tree. Is it as sweet as fruitnut described it.

Tony

It is sweet and melting when dead ripe. One of my absolute favorite fruits.

Not just very sweet but great flavor when grown at high brix. I think mrclint has the high brix thing going. I'd also rate it one of my best. I did grow some lousy 14 brix once when the watering system went berzerk (likely operator error). They looked great and tasted bland.

How do you describe that tang of an excellent nectarine? Whatever you call it, Arctic Star has it along with sweetness. Very pleasant aroma and coloration as well. :)

I call it rich. Really good nectarines have the richest flavor of anything I grow. Have you tried any of the Honey series nectarines? I like Honey May, Honey Fire, Honey Blaze, Honey Royale, and Honey Diva. Have a couple more new ones planted this year. Honey Royale is my top fruit. Really rich at anything above 18 brix.

I'd rate the yellow fleshed, low acid Honey series as better than the white flesh Arctic series. But Arctic are good. DWN is still hanging onto the Honey series for commercial use. Honey Kist can be special ordered. ACN sells Honey Royale and Honey Blaze but probably won't ship to CA.

This post was edited by fruitnut on Mon, Mar 31, 14 at 23:39

Wow, nice looking tree. just had my two way bud graft of Goldmine and O'Henry leaf out about 3 weeks ago.My best all time fav has been Fantasia but would be interested in trying some other varieties if I could taste them. The Nectarines you get in the store are not often labeled as to variety and of course they are picked way too early. Anyone know somewhere in N. Ca. I can go for taste testing?.

I haven't tried a Honey series nectarine knowingly. They do sound great. I may need to find something to graft on top of Goldmine, which has a nice late ripening schedule, and good flavor, but splits like a bandit here.

This is next on my to buy list since it fits a gap early in the season between early apples and the first plums.

Goyo626, I like your plan. Successive ripening has been working well for me. Arctic Star harvests in between Desert Gold peach and Royal apricot and has some overlap with various berries and Beauty plum. It isn't precise, but works relatively well.