Wow, guess I did pretty good getting a few fruit two yrs running. But like you that involved a lot of hand pollination. I’ll hand pollinate Flavor Supreme every yr if needed but not much else.
I think this variety will go away in a few yrs. Bay Laurel Nursery didn’t sell it this yr.
That’s because all the really good stuff is only released to commercial growers. DWN promised that Royal Tioga cherry would be released in small numbers to the retail market this season, as an answer to poor bloom overlap between Royal Lee and Minnie Royal, as Tioga blooms in between. When I tried to order it, my local garden center actually called DWN to find out why it wasn’t on the SOFT form. They told them, “Sorry, not available this year.” So, that made me NOT happy.
Patty S.
I’d think there are plenty of hidden gems among 150,000 seedlings that aren’t suitable for commercial production for one reason or another. What I can understand is that sorting those out would be an overwhelming task. They taste the fruit when it’s commercially ripe, ie green. I saw that when I attended their tastings at Reedley every Thursday. Each week they brought down 40-50 advanced selections from Zaiger’s blocks in Modesto. Some looked great but they were too green to sort out the good ones.
Does anyone know what happened to those culumnar Myrobalan plums that DWN was going to release in 2010?
I looked at the Bella Gold patent (http://www.google.com/patents/USPP17826) and found a couple of interesting things. First, the patent includes no mention whatsoever of any peach heritage, and even apricot parentage is just a conjecture based on the fruit phenotype:
“The new variety of interspecific tree, [(Plum×Plumcots)×Unknown pollen], has these characteristics, (pubescent skin and apricot flesh texture) that indicate the paternal parent may be from apricot pollen.”
Second, in the list of “desirable features” the very first one mentioned is
“1. Regular and productive bearer of fruit.”
It’s just mind-blowing.
Zaiger seemed to have peaked and many of the interspecifics coming out now fall a little short. The pluerries should be better than they are. I myself have no desire to try them. Not to cut Zaiger short though. The early pluots are awesome, the nectarines are some of the best ever crossed. The Arctic and Honey series are a fantastic achievement. One of Zaiger’s greatest achievements is the Independence almond. It is changing the almond industry. 60% of almond trees sold last year were Independence almond trees. It is self fertile so a farmer can just grow these and have one harvest with the same volume of product as when two harvests were needed. This is a major decrease in labor costs. It is probably the best thing ever out of Zaiger. Not from my prospective though. I can’t grow almonds here. For me having to keep trees down to around 10 tress, I have plenty to choose from now.
I have a group of the Arctic series coming from Bay Laurel–Star, Rose and Glo… Unless there is some amazing new releases next year i’ll probably take a year off from ordering anything and concentrate on what i have.
I took this year off only ordering a Northline serviceberry tree and a Toro blueberry plant. Both really are shrubs, not trees. Also a replacement (for free) of Weeping Santa Rosa.
Peach parentage in Bella Gold comes from Geo Pride pluot, according to DWN. Geo Pride’s patent doesn’t state any peach in its parentage either.
Hi, my name is Rich, This is my first post.
I bought a bear root Candy Heart pluerry in late January and planted it in my backyard It is already producing!
It has several fruit that are approaching the size of small cherries. I live in East Palo Alto. It is located between
San Francisco and San Jose, an ideal area for growing stone fruit. I hope they survive so that I can do a taste
test later on. In the mean time I will do progress photos between now and then, I have experience growing
various cherry, pluots, apricots and other fruit and am looking forward to contributing.
What pollinators did you used?
Welcome, Rich, glad you found us! Think you’ll enjoy this forum, we have many really knowledgeable and helpful list members, and we have several list members in your general area. I see another stone fruit to the left of your Candy Heart? And we look forward to your report of the Candy Heart fruit. I just planted mine about 3 weeks ago, so no fruit for me this season, but hopefully maybe a few next season.
Patty S.
Hi Patty and Ulises,
The pollinator used is Burgundy. You can see it in the upper left of the lower photo.That tree was planted a few years ago, it is several feet away. It was full of blossoms last month and now has 100+ developing fruit. It is about 7’ tall. One of the fruit is visible in front of the stack of pavers.I did not hand pollinate the pluerry, the pollen must have drifted over or was pollinated by bees or insects. You can see the lavender in the background, they definitely attract bees.
One of the Candy Heart pluerries has three flowers buds, luckly, I saved Rainier cherry pollen to pollinate my Candy Heart and Nadia, that’s if Raintree ships it with flower buds.
photos of pluerry candy heart.
these fruits are not mine and I can not provide information for even taste I have not eaten, this tree has now been three years planted in Spain (it was a gift tom spellman dave wilson nursery to nursery Spanish geneticist)
It resembles Flavor Heart Pluot.
indeed, I think like you to view photos, even thought that I was cheating and that really was Flavor Heart Pluot (is that even the date of maturity of flavor heart and candy heart are similar)
I think the differences between the two is that flavor candy has small white spots or moles on your skin and heart no flavor (photo 2 looks good)
Based on its phenotype, Candy Heart could be a cross between a cherry and Flavor Heart Pluot.
Beautiful fruit. I’m looking forward to this one (i have one on order).
Mine is growing nicely. A little upright, but then, it’s squeezed between two pretty established trees (Flavor Finale pluot and Artic Star nectarine, which is a monster of a tree). Hoping for a few fruits next season.
Patty S.
