Caldesi 2000

Caldesi 2000 originates from Italy, where it was developed at the renowned “A. Caldesi” Agricultural Institute in Faenza by Professor Danilo Casalini. Due to its beautiful appearance, exceptionally firm flesh for an early variety, and premium, distinctive taste, it is considered the best, most sought-after, and economically most important white-fleshed nectarine in the world and in our region within its ripening period.

It is a fully self-fertile variety. It is characterized by a very high level of self-pollination and abundant flowering every year, so it reliably and stably bears in pure single-variety orchards without the presence of other pollinator varieties in the orchard. It is an universal pollinator for all other peach and nectarine varieties that flower at the same time. It flowers from medium-early to medium-late, with beautiful, large, and highly attractive rose-type, showy flowers with light pink petals.

The tree is moderate to medium in vigor, with robust scaffold branches that form a well-branched, regular, orderly, and medium-dense canopy. It enters full bearing very early, often producing its first commercial crop as early as the second year after planting. It bears regularly, abundantly, and exceptionally stably every year. Due to its inherent tendency toward abundant fruit set in clusters, mandatory strong winter pruning is required, along with mandatory hand thinning of the fruit in early summer, in order to prevent fruit size reduction and branch breakage under the weight of the crop. It is an ideal variety for intensive and high-density orchards.

It belongs to the group of early to medium-early summer nectarine varieties. In our region and under continental climatic conditions, it ripens in the second half of July, usually between July 15 and 25, around ten days before the standard Redhaven peach.

Harvesting takes place during the second half of July. The fruit ripens fairly uniformly on the tree, but hand picking in 2 passes is recommended in order to harvest only optimally colored and fully developed fruit at the stage of technological maturity.

It is characterized by exceptionally good storage ability for a white-fleshed variety. In cold storage, it can be successfully kept for 7–14 days. Due to its very firm, compact, and fleshy fruit, it tolerates picking, rough mechanical sizing, packing, and long-distance transport to distant markets very well, which is a true rarity among sensitive white-fleshed varieties. It is primarily intended for luxury fresh table consumption on domestic and foreign markets.

The fruit is large, with an average weight of 160–180 g, while with excellent agricultural practice individual fruit can reach over 200 g. It is uniform on the tree and regular in shape, round to slightly oval, with a weakly pronounced longitudinal groove. The skin is thin, smooth, completely without pubescence, and glossy. The ground color is creamy-white to pale greenish, covered over most of the fruit surface, more than 75–80%, by a beautiful, bright, glossy intense red blush on the sun-exposed side. The flesh is distinctly creamy-white to pale greenish, with pronounced red pigment and red veins that spread attractively from the area around the stone. It is very firm, compact, juicy, and fleshy. The taste is outstanding and refreshing, characterized by high sugar content, fine and pleasant acidity, and a luxurious varietal aroma. It belongs to the group of true clingstone nectarines: the flesh is firmly attached to the stone and does not separate from it even at full maturity.

It is moderately resistant to diseases. It shows excellent natural resistance of the wood and flower buds to low winter frosts during dormancy. On the other hand, like all nectarines due to their smooth skin, it is highly susceptible to peach leaf curl, Taphrina deformans, and susceptible to Monilinia and fruit rot, Monilinia laxa, in humid and rainy years before harvest, which requires mandatory, professional, and maximally regular preventive chemical protection, including copper-based blue spraying at the bud swelling stage and targeted fungicides throughout the growing season.

Our nectarine fruit trees are produced on highly compatible, certified rootstocks: vineyard peach seedling, an excellent standard for well-drained, light, and moderately fertile soils, and the modern vegetative rootstock St. Julien A, which successfully controls tree vigor on heavier and wetter soils, ensuring a perfect and long-lasting graft union.