We are in the midst of summer as of this writing, when a veritable plethora of ripening is occurring in the orchard with seemingly endless supplies of peaches, nectarines and plums as well as some early pears and apples. The bountiful crops can seem overwhelming at times with everything apparently ripening all at once. Even if you preserve your harvest, share with friends and neighbors and eat tons of fruit yourself and love every minute of it, wouldn't it be preferable to spread the harvest out and not have all your fruit ripen in midsummer? The happy response to that wishful pondering is, yes, it is very possible to have fruit early and late and still have the much loved peak summer favorites. You can have it all!
To start enjoying home grown fruit earlier in the year, plant varieties such as Sauzee Swirl, May Pride and Earlitreat peach, Desert Dawn, Desert Delight, Arctic Star and Desert Gold nectarine, any of the cherries, Methley and Beauty plum, Flavor Delight, Cot-N-Candy and Leah-cot Apriums, Sugar Twist Pluerry, nearly any apricot and Arctic Babe and Necta Zee miniature nectarines and Bonanza miniature peach, to name just a few. Choosing from that selection will provide fruit May into June.
After the July and early August peak, there are still months of ripening fruit left to enjoy. Mid to late August sees the arrival of August Pride, Indian Blood Cling, Rio Oso Gem, Kaweah, O'Henry and Sweet Bagel peaches, Earli Autumn and Autumn Glo apricots, Candy Heart Pluerry, Arctic Queen, Arctic Blaze, Goldmine and Liz's Late nectarines, Golden Nectar plum, European plums such as Blue Damson and prune plums. French, Italian and Stanley as well as Dapple Dandy and Flavor King Pluots and Garden Gold miniature peach and Garden Delight and Arctic Sprite miniature nectarines. Many apple and pear varieties also start ripening during that time.
September brings the start of peak apple season, Fairtime peach, Autumn Royal apricot, Flavor Punch Pluerry, Elephant Heart and Emerald Beaut plums, Flavor Grenade and Flavor Finale Pluots, Shinko Asian pear, Bosc, Comice, Kieffer and Blake's Pride pears and the beginning of jujube and persimmon picking, starting with Coffeecake and Izu. Jujubes and persimmons continue to ripen through October as do quinces, Pineapple and Rich's Jumbo, and Korean Giant Asian pear and the very late peaches, Octoberfest and Carnival. Even in November, Fuyu, Imoto, Hachiya, Saijo and Chocolate persimmons are still going as are the late apples like Yellow Newton Pippin, Granny smith, Pink Pearl, Pink Lady and Sundowner. Now that is spreading out the harvest!
We have some great new items for this season, all of which are mentioned above. First is Goldmine nectarine, a popular heirloom variety with white freestone flesh that ripens mid to late August. Second is Desert Gold peach, a yellow clingstone that ripens quite early, late May to early June, with excellent flavor for such an early variety. Next is Korean Giant Asian pear with very large round fruit and crisp, sweet flesh, ripening in October.
Returning to the catalogue are Izu persimmon and Persian Green plum. Izu is a very sweet and tasty non-astringent variety. The tree is relatively small and makes an excellent backyard persimmon. Persian Green plums are very popular in the Middle East where they are eaten while green and tart and are frequently pickled. They can also be allowed to ripen until soft and juicy.
We hope we have given you some food for thought regarding planning for successive harvesting and spreading the joy of home grown fruit over most of the year. Happy planting!