I am in zone 10- east county san diego, have chill hours from 100-400, it does get hot in the summer.
I really want a green gage plum, but requires 700 chill hours.
I actually messaged walter anderson and he said his parents had a green gage but was in bay ho, which has about 400 or less chill hours, a couple people advice me to return the tree. Anyone grew a green gage that’s outside of your chill hours?
Will it work if I put ice on it from Oct to December to help with chill hours?
Since, I prefer green plums and pluots over the purple variety, my other options are a flavor grenade, emerald drop or shiro, anyone who had tasted all of them and if so which pluot tastes the best?
my last question, if you have a snow queen nectarine, would you get a spice zee nectaplum as well? Are they very close in taste?
I have both & they are growing 4 feet apart from each other, so I have a good perspective to compare my experiences with them. Plus I have a 2nd snow queen tree 60 feet away. Flavour…Snow queen is consistently higher acid than Nectaplum. Snow Queen’s flavour is inconsistent…some are absolutely delicous, with only Crimson Belle CRFG & Burchell Nursery BN-9 Snowflare 23 (Constellation sold by Andys Orchard) have a better higher acid/high sugar taste. The more thinning of fruitlets on the snow queen results in larger fruit & more intense flavour, yet they are subject to cracking (God forbid the fruit gets moisture on them during the late spring as their skins absorb it for that ugly cracked leather look). Nectaplum, when dead ripe, can have a higher acid taste, rivalling a Snow Queen. Nectaplum, when thinned, has consistently larger fruits (which is a joy to see), as it has a more consistent shape than Snow Queen. The Nectaplums that I bought at the farmers market cosmetically looked unpleasing (cracked skin, fruit thrip damage & pale red colour), coupled with a fruit taste that was great, but not excellent. Last year I tasted ripe farmers market Nectaplum, Snow Queen & Snowflare 23/BN-9/Constellation together & felt the Snowflare was far superior in flavour based on its higher acid & higher sugar/brix….which is what I crave in nectarines. The Snow Queen was 2nd & Nectaplum came in 3rd. I felt all 3 were excellent to great tasting. I took a gamble on growing my own Nectaplum & it has far exceeded my expectations…notably on taste. Nectaplums grown in my front yard cosmetically look way better (little or no skin cracking, though some have the dreaded fruit thrip exterior skin damage). My Nectaplum fruits have a much darker red colouring (attractive) than what I see at farmers market grown Nectaplums. Mine have a way better favour with a much more intense acid and sugar balance when ripe. If you only have room for one of these two, choose the Nectaplum. Although I did a high density planting (backyard orchard culture) of both the Snow Queen & Nectaplum next to each other, I would suggest you grow them both. Ornamentally, Nectaplum’s purple leaves, in early spring, are a sight to behold…& then some leaves transform into green. But if you have room for both, plant them next to each other as they are distinctly different looking & tasting varieties.
As to the greengage plums, there is no one who has successfully grown them here in Southern California. I’ve grown flavour grenade as they grow well and are good pollenizer, flavout is crunchy yet nothing to rave about. Flavour King is excellent tasting…of all the summer plums, only a dead ripe green gage tastes better. Also look at Dapple Supreme…great taste.
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