Best Place to Buy Pluot Trees

and best Pluot to buy?

I am in zone 5a/b and would like to plant a Pluot tree or maybe two. Could anybody suggest the best kind for my zone and the best place from which to buy, with regard to quality and cost?

Thanks!

CJ

CJ, the best kind of Pluot for Indiana is the kind in the grocery .. the trees are very hard to grow anywhere east of the mississippi. They bloom very early and so often lose the blossoms to frost, are difficult to popllinate and have trouble setting fruit in all but the best of weather, developing fruit are prone to rot, and the trees are disease-prone. I have a couple pluot trees and I almost got one fruit this year off my 5-year-old tree but the squirrels beat me to it. I have mostly figured out the disease aspect, but getting fruit to set is very difficult. Even if the blossoms don't freeze out they just don't seem to pollinate.

I would instead recommend a American-Japanese hybrid plum tree such as Superior or Shiro. The fruit will still taste a lot better than a store-bought Pluot. Or if you are of the experimenting sort that doesn't mind failures, try a Pluot and see if you can figure it out. I haven't completely given up on mine yet, I'm going to give it a couple more years to see if I can get a good set of fruit on it. If you are going to try, get one with the latest blossoming time, e.g. Flavor King.

Scott

Thanks, Scot! I will take your advice and will try a Japanese hybrid plum. I am in a zone 5 and you, I believe, are in a zone 6. No sense pushing it to the limit.

You've reminded me, by the way, that I did a foolish thing this year. I planted an apricot tree this spring on the northwest side of my property.

I am either going to have to transplant it to the southeast or return it. I take it apricots are just as hard or harder to get to set fruit than pluots?

Thanks again!

CJ

CJ, apricots are a lot easier to grow than pluots. Some years you will get no fruit on the apricot, but for the years you get fruit you will often get a full load. Also they don't rot like pluots, the fruit moths and curculios have a harder time penetrating their fuzzy skin, and the trees are somewhat more disease-resistant. So I would keep the apricot. Also they tend to do better in cooler locations in the yard as long as its not a frost pocket, they will think its earlier in the season and will stay dormant longer. I have one peach planted right next to my house on the south side, and it blooms earlier than all my other fruit trees, even beating the apricots. So if your northwest location is cooler that would probably be better.

Scott

Well----Thanks, scott!

Saves me some trouble! But I do know that out this way people with apricot trees do not get fruit set fairly often because of late freezes subsequent to flower bloom.

With regard to fruit moths and curculios, I planted 3 plum trees last year, and my Luther Burbank was loaded with fruit this year. I took off some of it, and as soon as I saw holes in a several of the plums( I shouldn't have waited that long)I sprayed with Sevin and had no more problems. The fruit I harvested was in good shape. I did pick the plums probably a week or two early. They were not juicy and never became juicy. I ended up canning most of it. Plums can take a long time to ripen, can they not?

What is the advantage of the apricot tree staying dormant longer---that it flowers later and so is prone less to late frosts causing fruit not to set?

When I do get a harvest off the apricot tree, can I expect the apricots to be juicier than the ones I sometimes buy at the store? I have only bought really juicy apricots at the store once or twice. Boy were they good!

Scott, pluots need cross pollinizing. Since the breeding is 3/4 plum and 1/4 apricot, you can use a plum variety such as Santa Rosa. Also suggested is matching with an aprium (3/4 apricot, 1/4 plum). In my experience though the bloom times don't always coincide. My trees don't make a crop every year, but that's due more to the climate - I knew I was crowding my luck to try them in an 8b zone - more winter chill would make them happier. I have good results with my nectarine. I want to try pears next. Yuska

CJ, you will have luck something like your neighbors have had with apricots.

You are right on the advantage of staying dormant longer -- it will wake up in warmer weather and miss the freeze.

If your plums were not sweet and juicy they were harvested too early.

Apricots vary in how juicy they are so it depends on the variety.

Yuksa, I have a Santa Rosa planted 6' from my Flavor Supreme, plus a Shiro and a Satsuma right there as well. The blossoms are also overlapping a lot. So I don't think its for lack of opportunity. Hopefully it will do better next year. Zone 8b isn't too bad as far as chilling goes, usually zone 9+ is where chill gets too low. Or maybe you have some very high chill varieties.

Scott

I've grown Flavor Queen & Flavor Supreme, as well as several apricots, and here in my zone 6, southern KY, they're all a total bust. Due to temperature 'roller-coastering' in late winter, they almost always break dormancy and bloom late February to mid-March - invariably getting nuked by (not even late) frosts/freezes. In 10+ years of growing them, I think I had a single pluot fruit that survived beyond the frost-free date, and NEVER had an apricot successfully set fruit.