Fruit Trees & Citrus

Nectarine

A smooth-skinned peach with the same pruning and fruit fly routine.

Prunus persica var. nucipersica · Fruit Trees & Citrus · Perennial

When to plant Nectarine in Australia

Sourced timing by broad climate zone. Zones with no sourced timing for an action are left out rather than estimated.

Plant out seedlings
Cool, Temperate — Jun, Jul, Aug

Australian planting guide by climate zone

Sourced guidance by broad climate zone, shown as fixed months, timing relative to sowing or planting, or written growing advice. Your GrowCal calendar applies your regional growing profile, so its dates may sit earlier or later than the months below.

Nectarine planting timing by Australian climate zone
ActionCoolTemperateSubtropicalTropicalArid
Plant outJun, Jul, Aug
Details

Winter is the best time to plant bare-rooted fruit trees; the bare-root season lasts from June to August.

Jun, Jul, Aug
Details

Winter is the best time to plant bare-rooted fruit trees; the bare-root season lasts from June to August.

Low-chill varieties and spacing
Details

For warmer areas such as coastal Queensland and northern New South Wales, allow 4m between rows and 3m between trees; for cooler areas such as Kingaroy, 4m between rows and 2.5m between trees.

Climate guidance
Details

Nectarines share the peach chill requirement, and the Australian low-chill selections were developed for subtropical, not tropical, districts. Treat a nectarine in the tropics as marginal.

Climate guidance
Details

Nectarines are named among the stone fruit grown in arid Central Australia. They need irrigation through the hot months and protection from frost while in flower.

FeedNo sourced timing currently shownNo sourced timing currently shownMay, Jun
Details

Trees need enough nitrogen to keep them going until natural dormancy around May-June.

No sourced timing currently shownNo sourced timing currently shown
PruneNo sourced timing currently shownNo sourced timing currently shownWinter and summer pruning
Details

A productive low-chill tree can only be achieved with a combination of winter and summer pruning. Thin fruit at flowering, before the fruit has formed.

No sourced timing currently shownNo sourced timing currently shown
Pest checkNo sourced timing currently shownNo sourced timing currently shownFruit fly control
Details

Set up traps early in the season, well before fruit start to colour. Use bait sprays and cover sprays up until four weeks before harvest, then weekly cover sprays until harvest. Leaves yellow and fall naturally as trees go dormant. Leaves dropping early, before the end of April, means there is another problem.

No sourced timing currently shownNo sourced timing currently shown
HarvestFruits in summer and autumn
Details

The ABC Gardening Australia Fruit Guide states that peach and nectarine fruits in summer and autumn. The guide gives a season, not months, and picking time varies with variety and season, so GrowCal does not publish harvest months from it.

No sourced timing currently shownNo sourced timing currently shownNo sourced timing currently shownNo sourced timing currently shown

Only sourced growing and timing guidance is shown.

Zone notes

  • Tropical: Nectarines share the peach chill requirement, and the Australian low-chill selections were developed for subtropical, not tropical, districts. Treat a nectarine in the tropics as marginal.
  • Arid: Nectarines are named among the stone fruit grown in arid Central Australia. They need irrigation through the hot months and protection from frost while in flower.

About this data

This schedule is part of GrowCal's preview horticultural dataset — useful as general guidance, and still being validated. Conditions vary with your soil, aspect, frost and variety. Read more on the data & methodology page, or send us a correction.

Other plants in the GrowCal dataset, mostly from the same category.

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