Nectarine - Harko, P. persica var. nucipersica 'Harko', a hardy nectarine, with red skinned, yellow fleshed fruit ripening in mid-August. This is a solid red, freestone nectarine with good quality and flavor. It is a consistent producer, with no split pits. It tends to overbear, so it must be thinned hard and early in order to get good fruit size. Most adaptable of all fruit trees for home gardens, Harko is a delightfully decorative tree that will produce frilly pink blossoms in the spring. The tree is vigorous, with a twiggy habit, which makes it more time-consuming to prune than other varieties and produces showy, large, single pink blossoms in the spring.
The nectarine fruit is a variety of the peach tree. Nectarines and peaches are similar in appearance and color as they differ only by a single gene, the gene for skin texture. The peach is dull and fuzzy while the nectarine is smooth and shiny. Nectarines contain a good amount of vitamins A and C. This tree can be kept to any height by summer pruning.