My Nectarine Tree is a Peach - Wrong Label But Sweet Fruit

 

This spring I planted a new nectarine tree in my yard after the neighbors cats killed my peach tree by clawing the bark off.

I spent quite a bit of money on the tree and was super excited to get a new nectarine tree this year. I had a large nectarine tree that lasted about 20 years and was SO sad when it died. 

Here is a link where you can see the large nectarine tree we had for those 20 years. 

 

Here is a link to one where I show pruning it and it had all died but one branch due to boring insects. 

 

I took pictures when I planted it and thought I had posted about it, but I can't find a post about it so

once again, I think I took pictures and got busy and so I didn't post about it. 

I didn't think we would get any fruit this year since first year tree plantings don't usually produce fruit. This week we picked about ten pieces of fruit. I was sad that the fruit was fuzzy like peaches. However, the tree clearly states that it is a nectarine tree.

 We were thrilled that the fruit was VERY sweet and the bees had attacked them and most of them were dripping syrup / nectar. However, the fuzziness of the skin makes me believe that the tree is actually a peach tree. 

It will be interesting to see what grows next year. I know that nectarines tree

s can't grow from seeds or pits as they are a mix breed. I am wondering if the peach is more prevalent in this tree as the fruit was really sweet but was firm like a nectarine, or perhaps it was just the peaches weren't quite ripe. 

I hope it is a nectarine as I don't like the fuzz on peaches and I can't dehydrate the peaches with the skin on as my family doesn't like the fuzz on the dried fruit either. I had a wonderful peach tree and planted the new one from a seed that volunteered in my garden. When the cats killed it after I transplanted it, I was sad as it was a good peach tree, but was looking forward to a new nectarine tree! 

If it turns out that this tree is a peach tree, perhaps I will take out the front flowering plums and put in a late blooming apricot tree and a nectarine tree in their place so I can have those fruit trees in the future. My apricot froze after budding each year so 1 in ten years we would get a crop of apricots, so I hear the late blooming variety do well!

I have quite the orchard going now. This year, the pear has a bumper crop and nothing else had more than a handful to eat, but we did enjoy those handfuls of green plum, cherry, plum, and apple. 

Have a blessed and safe day~