Did you know that the Nectarine is often referred to as a miracle plant.
The first nectarine was grown spontaneously as a bud sport. Which means that it grew morphologically different from the rest of the plant, which was a Peach tree.
The basic difference is that Peaches have a fuzzy skin, while in Nectarines the fuzzy skin gene is recessive.
Trevallan usually stocks Sunnybelle Nectarines. Sunnybelle Nectarine is a medium sized fruit with white flesh. It’s skin is bright red with light sugar speckles.
Normally nectarines don’t grow well in some parts of Ipswich but this guy is a low chill nectarine and it has been said to have one of the best flavours of a low chill nectarine range.
When we talk about some fruit trees we need to talk about chilling hours.
Chilling hours means number of hours a fruit tree needs to be exposed to effective winter temperatures for flower buds to break dormancy. This varies between varieties.
Most nectarine varieties need 700-900 chill hours but there are some low chill varieties available that need about 150-400 chill hours.
To check your chill hours you need to determine the average temperature for the coldest month (usually July). I found this great chart on Heritage Fruit Trees website that gives us an indication of chill hours to average temperatures.
Ipswich’s average temperature for July 2019 was about 15C (2018 was 16 and 2017 was 17).
So this means that if our average is between 17-15 degrees this means our chill units sit around 300. So we should be able to grow these nectarines without any hassle.
Sunnybelle can get to around 2-4m and can be grown in large pots with excellent quality potting mix (we recommend Platinum Potting Mix) or in the ground. If planting in the ground make sure your soil is excellent quality (we recommend Searles Garden Soil). For fruit trees I tend to dig my holes at least two to three times as big as pot in comes in and backfill with excellent quality garden soil. They much prefer full sun but can handle a little shade during summer. It is best to give these guys a good fertilise with Organic Link as soon as the weather warms up. I find alternating my fortnightly liquid fertiliser between Triple Boost and Potash and Silica helps the plant stay healthy and produce more fruit.
These guys tend to be deciduous, this means they drop their leaves in colder months. So don’t panic if during cooler months your tree doesn’t look fantastic.
Sunnybelle Nectarines have beautiful pink flowers that appear as soon as it starts to get warm. They will sometimes appear before leaves even start to form after their winter shedding. Did you know that the nectarine flower symbolises a desire to do nice things for others and encourage sweet words. It is also about enhancing gentleness and softens our character, bringing out our best intentions. Sunnybelle Nectarines are self pollinating (they don’t need another Nectarine to help produce fruit). The fruit will start to form usually by October.
Nectarines are really susceptible to fruit fly so I would also buy a fruit fly exclusion net so you can not only grow yummy nectarines but actually enjoy your nectarines!
Sunnybelle Nectarine is a great fruit tree for any size garden.