YMC wrote:

I was thinking of growing a Nectarine tree in my backyard. My Uncle
used to have a really great one - it produced these fantastic fruits
which we allowed to ripen on the branch - then we plucked them when
they were ripe. They were the most sweetest things I've ever tasted.
But they were very easily damaged by that stage; so I suspect thats
why you can't buy them at the supermarket.

Any recommendations for a Nectarine tree?

We are in Melbourne eastern suburbs (clay soil). We have from memory a
Nectarine Goldmine. It is fantastic. Doesn't need spraying for
anything (did have leaf curl when it was younger but that is easily
fixed with a copper spray).

The variety that would suit you depends on where you live. Also in some
locations i believe you are obligated to perform certain pest control
activities such as spraying on certain fruits.

I recommend you get a free-stone nectarine. You do get the odd bug in
the fruit and with a free-stone nectarine, you can easily remove the
stone to look for insect damage (and cut that bit out - the bugs seem to
eat mostly near the stone but they don't eat much).

Our tree produce a huge amount of fruit - right now is the middle of
fruiting season, which is only a few weeks. Unless you have a large
family, you may find you need to give some away or preserve some. We
have tried bottling but have settledon dehydrating in an electric
dehydrator (dipped in lemon juice first to reduce discolouration).

We do have a vast array of wildlife eating the fruit (not just the
nectarines). I marvel at people who tell me they don't even need nets.

We have nets to keep out: ringtail and brushtail possums, birds (biggest
problem is introduced birds, particularly the thrush), flying foxes and
rats.

Nets are a pain. They continually need repairing and are very difficult
to get over the tree. We use a frame made from electrical conduit to
hold the net up and make it easier to get the net over the tree. For
temporary repairs of small holes, we use cloth pegs. If it is a large
hole, just put another net over it.

Rats will gnaw a hole through the net, Also they don't eat a whole
fruit - they will test fruit with a bite or two. The rats are not
tempted by rat traps nor rat bait. These factors make them a real
problem.

Birds (particularly thrushes) will find the smallest hole made by the
rats and get in.

Flying foxes are easily kept out by nets.

Possums just sit on the net and stick their paw through and then eat
through the net. They tend to consume the whole fruit and to not bite
fruit they are not going to eat (unlike rats and birds). So possums
aren't too much of a problem on nectarines (there's a lot of fruit to go
round).

However possums have nearly stripped our apricot tree bare of leaves and
fruit (no net there). They also do this to various native and decidious
trees. They eat our apples and they will rip a hole in nets over
apples. They are eating the new leaves off the apples but haven't
stripped them bare.

We haven't had much of a crop of apples in recent years and I was told
this year (too late) that it is because possums eat the apple blossom so
you have to net from before blossom time.

I recommend using stiff wire netting (not chook wire) at least from
ground up to around 1m around the drip line of the tree, then put bird
neeting above that. You probably need to fold out the bottom so it lies
on the ground for say 10cm to stop them burrowing. It needs to be 12mm
x 12mm mesh to keep rats out (might also keep out bees if your variety
requires bees to fertilize it). This wire netting should keep the rats
from gnawing holes and letting in themselves and the birds, as they
always gbaw holes at ground level. Don't know whether they are smart
enough to climb up to find they can gnaw a hole there - probably they
are. We haven't yet used wire netting on the nectarine.

We have a new Ballerina apple in a waterwell (self-watering) tub, and I
have built a cage out of stiff green wire netting, wire, cable ties and
those stakes made of plastic-covered metal tube. This encloses the
tomatoes in tubs, blueberry (does well here), raspberry and the
ballerina apple. It works well. Next time I would make a series of
frames 0.9m x 1.8m (suits the dimensions of the wire netting and the
stakes), then join them together to make a cage. This would be easily
packed away for next year, and rearranged to make a different sized
cage.

Another good thing about the cage is that you can easily put shadecloth
over the top when it is going to be very hot.

We've also got citrus, lemon, ruby grapefruit, tahitian and kaffir lime
and orange. Citrus gall wasp has become quite a problem and there is
nothing much you can do about it except pruning, traps and Vasili's
method of cutting the bark open and peeling it back a bit (very labour
intensive). The lemon does well. The others probably need more water
to get more fruit - they are still a bit young for this drought.

Plums (2) - not worth the effort - small crops and not that delicious
anyway.

Olives - good - no pests - but you need to treat the olives to remove
the bitter taste to make them edible.

Figs - for some reason our fig is extremely slow growing and is still
only about 1.8m high and spindly, despite being about 12 years old. Not
a lot of fruit.

Avocado (bought tree, not from seed) - never had any flower or fruit on
it.

Apricot - very good before the possums started eating all the leaves.
We have found it spindly and hard to prune so it develops a good shape.

Grapes (2) red and white - all eaten by wildlife - hard to net.

Blueberry - very good for a small bush in a waterwell tub. Need to keep
birds out.

Raspberry - nice fruit but not a large quantity. Need to keep birds
out.

Apples (2) fuji and granny smith. The fuji never fruited much but the
granny is excellent, provided the possums are kept out. Suffers from
codling moth so needs to be sprayed (or some other organic treatment).
But a home grown apple that ripens on the tree is absolutely delicious
and puts even the best commercial apples to shame. It's even better
than a really good nectarine.

Nectarine - the best fruit tree we have. Apart from netting and
pruning, in our climate it requires no care and fruit is very good.

None of our trees get watered. The citrus needed water to get
established - the others didn't need so much.

I think if we were starting again we would get dwarf fruit trees such as
Ballerina Apples (there are dwarf varieties of all fruit). These would
be easier to maintain and pick and net. I would consider a permanent or
semipermanent wire cage around all fruting trees except olives and
citrus. Possibly an electric fence of some kind. However in some areas
people seem to get away with no protection at all from wildlife.

Other things we've tried: strawberry (regular watering required - not
enough fruit - fungal problems although lessened if you get the large
fruit varieties), tomatoes (not much fruit, regular watering required
and fungal problems), rocket (great plant, doesn't need regular
watering, self seeding, looks after itself, can still eat when it goes
to seed, unlike lettuce), silver beet (doesn't need regular watering,
self seeding, looks after itself). Herbs; rosemary and mint will last
forever. Coriander is a waste of time - goes to seed if you look
sideways at it.

What would we plant again: nectarine, granny smith, lemon, olive, lime.
blueberry, orange (if a good water supply), rocket, silver beet. Kaffir
lime is good (and it makes a good lemongrass substitute).