Pluot tree blooms too early

Ugh. I’ve got a quad-graft Pluot, and it’s supposed to hit 29 on Saturday here. Buds on the smallest branches are swelling, although I’m not quite as far along as the pictures in this thread.

Any ideas besides praying?

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If the buds are only swelling 29 won’t bother it. But it would bother flowers.

HI all ,I am a newbie hear, Atlanta , _ have abareroot 4 n 1 pluot purchased this winter. FS,FQ,DD, and FK. I planted it in Early Jan. On Feb 5 I noticed it had begun to bud out. Freeze occurred that weekend with temps dropping into the low 20’s. No damage but i did not realize budding occurred so early. Rookie error. Not sure I will ever see fruit on that tree_

I usually get fruit on my plum trees every other year for the same reason. This year I had pea sized plums when we got a late freeze of 24 for a couple days. I’ve just learned to live with it though at least for me it doesn’t matter as much since I have plenty of room for other trees.

Don’t put much stock in that result. Reason is that your tree may have had lots of chilling before you planted it. Maybe more than you will usually get by that time of yr. Early end to chilling equals early bloom.

That said yes it is likely to bloom too early most yrs. That’s just how pluots operate. Good luck with your tree.

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After looking through a list of chill hours, they don’t seem to be any worse than common asian plums.

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Great topic to keep track of those of us that want to push the zone limit with Pluots. Awaiting a multigraft pluot tree here in Z7a and wouldn’t mind having a harvest every other year than none at all.
Makes me ponder if placement in the yard is a key aspect, placing a tree on the north side of my property where the winter sun would not hit the tree directly leading up until summer solstice. Any thoughts on that? Future developments will be reported…

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My same results living in 8a. In fact several of my J-Plums are a bit earlier.

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Thx all. I forgot to mention that the weather has been on the warmer side this winter, with a week with temps in the upper 60’s and back to freezing, and then back to the 60’s. I imagine that may have something to do with it also. Yhat being said , as you all suggest, low chill varieties suffer from late freezes. Thx for the input .

Yes a good thread, it’s that zone 7. I grow pluots here in zone 6a and well maybe because of the lakes, we go from cold to warm. Hardly ever any early warm ups. My pluots have produced steady the last three years, they do great, as do Japanese plums. They bloom around May 1st no matter the chill hours. Not sure why that is? It just is.

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I could live with fruit every other year considering, I have the worse compacted, hardpan laden, nontopsoil having yard in the world. Poor construction practices has led to terrible soil conditions that I try to improve in 8x8 ft squares. Radial trenching is also in the plan.

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Up here in Canada (Atlantic coast) z5b-6 near large bodies of water, we are able to get fairly consistent crops from J plums and euros most years. Our biggest concern is disease (b canker) resulting from southwest injury and perhaps hardiness issues (depending on variety). Another common theme is biennial fruiting habit of some varieties…not sure if this a thinning problem or something else.

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I have about six different pluots and about the same amount of Asian plum. All these plus two native plums bloomed within ten days. My only exception was a new unknown pluot that bloomed about 10 days early. All the fruit on the early one was wiped out and the others are to be determined.

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My three pluots, planted last year, are barely waking up now, just a few tiny leaf sprigs are showing up. No blooms yet, but I doubt the trees would produce any fruit in their second year anyway.

All my other trees are still looking like they’re mostly asleep still, although these three days in the 60s might coax some buds to pop. My transplanted wild plum has very tiny red buds showing.

I know I’ll be lucky to get anything from my pluots most years, but wanted to try anyways.

@Auburn, what pluots so you have and is this the first year they’ve bloomed?

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Here in 7a/b, the quad Pluot tree blooms something like 2 weeks before my Apricot or the quad Plum tree which in turn are substantially before anything else. It’s in full bloom when the other two have only the very earliest flowers opening. I barely have bud swell in the Apples or Cherries, and the various berries are only budding.

The 20 degree nights we had didn’t seem to bother the earliest blooms/buds much, but there was little wind and it only hit 20 maybe an hour before dawn.

We’ll see if I get fruit this year.

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This is the second year they bloomed. I’m not certain the variety list is correct. Flavor King, Splash, Spring Satin, Fall Fiesta, and a couple of unknowns.

Mine have actually stayed dormant this year, the buds are swelling now and will probably bloom later this month. Might actually get a decent crop this year. I did get one flavor queen last year, tasted great, the others fell off after a frost. Glad I didn’t remove it.

Matthew

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