Tashkent Gold nectarine is a seedling of a yellow fruited variety from Central Asia. The seeds were brought to the US by Andy Mariani (Morgan Hill, CA) in 1991. The fruit is small-medium, yellow-golden with a bit of red striping on some fruits; it is freestone. It sets heavily in CA Central Valley (Davis) and it is a delicious nectarine with low acid content. These fruits are coming from 2 years old graft made onto a mature peach tree.
Tashkent Gold fruits are in the above picture. The scions of Tashkent Gold are usually available from our sales site in winter at
reallygoodplants.com
Maria Gold is a seedling of Tashkent Gold crossed with a Californian nectarine. The fruit is small-medium, all yellow-golden, with occasional red blush by the fruit base. This variety has significantly richer flavor than Tashkent Gold, and higher acid content. It sets heavily in CA Central Valley (Davis and Vacaville). My fruits are coming from 1 year old grafts made onto mature trees.
Maria Gold fruits are in the above picture
Above is the only fruit of
Maria Gold with red blush that I found so far.
Silk Road is also a seedling of Tashkent Gold crossed with a Californian nectarine. The fruit is medium sized, golden-yellow with red striping/blush on a small percentage of fruits. It is complex in flavor and similar to Maria Gold. The breeders of this variety state that the fruit is pure yellow, but I see some red blush on some fruits grown in Vacaville and Isleton. Sets heavily in CA Central Valley. These fruits are from 1 year old graft on a mature rootstock tree (Vacaville) and from an established Silk Road tree in Isleton.
Above are the selected
Silk Road fruits with the most red blush.
Fruiting season
End of July in CA Central Valley. I started picking fruit on July 18 in 2017. Silk Road seemed to be the first to ripen, with Maria Gold next and then Tashkent Gold. There are just a few days between the harvest start dates for these varieties, and they seem to be mostly overlapping.
Fruit appearance
Tashkent Gold fruit has a pointy top, while Maria Gold and Silk Road are round. Here in CA Central Valley I have some green shoulders on Maria Gold and Silk Road. Tashkent Gold seems to ripen more evenly. All three varieties are very similar looking. Maria Gold fruit is a little smaller than the other two. In the image below: Tashkent Gold, Maria Gold, Silk Road.
Flavor
They all are excellent fruits. My favorite out of these is Maria Gold, very closely followed by Silk Road. These two have more intense flavor with higher acid content than Tashkent Gold. Maria Gold seems to have thinner skin than Silk Road. Tashkent Gold may be preferable by those who like fruit with less acid. All these fruits have sweet kernels.
Correction on July 24, 2017: Tashkent Gold fruits developed excellent rich flavor with strong apricot notes. All these three nectarines have apricoty flavor in them. Today I feel that Tashkent Gold has the most of it. I have a strong suspicion that Tashkent Gold requires high heat (>100F) during ripening season to develop the best flavor.
Where to find them
If you are looking for plant material, Tashkent Gold scions are usually available from our sales site
reallygoodplants.com
Maria Gold and Silk Road scions can be purchased from the Hybridizers Group of California Rare Fruit Growers at the
Santa Clara Valley chapter scion exchange in January.