Seems like Candy Heart is very low chill, much less than 800. First pluot/plum to flower. Just starting petal fall but it looks like it wants to set a large amount of fruit. I personally really like this fruit. Flavor King (avg brix 26) beats it in the flavor department, but if eating multiple fruits in one sitting I would rather eat multiple Candy Hearts (avg brix 22) rather than multiple flavor kings. Definitely better than sweet treat for me. Sweet treat is also low chill and sets lots of fruit but i find the flavor inconsistent. Some are good others are pure sweet and some have an earthy flavor that i dont like.
Were you ever able to buy Royal Tioga? I can only find it in Spain and they cannot ship here.
I killed my Inca moving it. I am planting a new one this spring. Can you tell me about the taste and best pollinizers?
As plum-cherry hybrids, do you thin pluerries like plums or let them be, like cherries, or something in between?
I’m thinning based on the size of the fruit, most of these these are basically pluots as far as I can tell. so thin like plums
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I mostly let Nadia be. It seems to space and size the fruits pretty well on its own.
Every year my candy heart blooms like crazy. Never gets pollinated because the rest of my yard is dead asleep. I have several plums and pluots nearby that never seem to be remotely blooming with the candy heart.
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Same story with my ‘Tri-Lite’ peach x plum and later aprium. Both heavy blooms not at the same time, way before any other prunus, and usually before any bees were about.
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Graft Spring Satin on a branch, it’s early blooming and 50% Apricot as is Candy heart.
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This probably won’t help presently,but some pollen could be collected from other Plums/Pluots and stored in a freezer and then hand distributed to the Candy Heart,during bloom.
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I assume candy heart would not be successful near Minneapolis, zone 4? Sounds delicious.
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@itheweatherman not sure if youd remember but was the 15 brix Candy Heart a little bland? My memory just says the plums I’ve tasted and measured with a brix meter start to be sweet at 17 brix.
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I wish the patent name on fruit trees matched the comercial name. It makes it confusing when checking if the patent is active or not for scion trade.
Candy Heart is patented under ‘Sweet Pixie 5’ apparently.
I wonder if the common name is generated by DWN. It would be nice if there was a statement linking the names.
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I usually look based on the patent number (e.g. “PP #12345”) when it’s listed. It’s not always shown though.
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DWN provides the patent numbers from the common name.
I’m just surprised the patent page doesn’t mention the common name.
I’d think legally there would be something clearer. One could easily feign ignorance saying the patent doesn’t match the tree.
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I spoke with DWN and suggested they update their pages this fall to include the patent name associated with the common marketed sales name of their Zaiger trees as well as an expiration date in the patent.
As an example Candy Heart Pluot is patented under Sweet Pixie 5.
Hopefully that happens and it makes it a bit easier to figure out if we are safe in sharing wood.
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