Flavor Grenade Pluot

Wow! Now those are beautiful!

Mine is now in “full” bloom – nothing like those of Bob & Bob, but the largest display I’ve had so far with this tree. :slight_smile:

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Were those boulders on the left side originally on your property?

They have been there as long as I have been here. From what the neighbors said, the previous owners put them in to flatten the yard. It used to be one big slope, but they made it a high area, then boulders, then a low area.

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Now leafing out with many fruit sets.

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Looking good Richard. I bought a few FG at our Publix a couple of years ago. Awesome taste.

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@Richard

Just so I have some perspective, how many fruit do you expect to let come to maturity from a tree that size

Mike

@MES111
So far it has been a sparse bloomer and bearer. If I do end up having to thin it I’ll follow the usual hands-width spacing plus complete removal from branches less than pencil width. That would probably yield around 60 fruits.

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given up on pluots, bloom heavy no fruits two years in a row, i’ll stick with what i got.

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My third leaf FG is in full bloom too :slight_smile:. FG and GeoPride in the photo.

What’s is interesting for me to observe this year, is that Flavor Supreme attracted the most bees, against FK, DD, FG, GP, ED and Splash! They were small native bees, not honey bees nor bumble bees. It remains to be seen whether this will translate into successful pollination or not…

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How did your pluots taste last year @BobVance? I know last year was miserable for us here in the NE with all the rainy and overcast days, but still your feedback should be useful…

I had two GP pluots only, they were prematurely cracked from rain, and I had to pick them because ants were all over them, still they were very sweet! I loved them.

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The pluots vary a lot in taste which is really cool. So do plums. I enjoy this fruit, and love the long shelf life. Looking forward to trying a few new pluots that will fruit for the first time this year.

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I didn’t get to eat any fruit. The I think a lot dropped early on. There were insect issues, and then animals finished them off. Later in the summer, I did a massive amount of pruning to open things up. Hopefully the additional sun hitting each remaining area will help keep the fruit hanging.

Edit:
I hacked both trees back very hard last summer and took out more wood today. Anything growing in the middle (or in from the outsides) was removed. Here’s a pic, though I’m not sure that it properly captures just how much was removed.

While I got rid of a lot, I needed to keep reminding myself that I wasn’t getting anything as it was and there should still be plenty of fruiting area, if it becomes productive. Better to err on the side of a slightly smaller crop of superior fruit than to underprune and either get nothing or (in some ways worse) a lot of poor quality fruit.

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Did it rain in San Diego today?!

Yes, 1/4 inch.

Our Flavor Grenade Pluot is flanked by a Katy Apricot and Beauty Plum. They all flowered during the same time with plenty of overlap. This year with the cooler winter it was covered with blossoms but only yielded 10 fruit sets. It’s a fabulous fruit and one of the lowest chill pluots. I’m happy with our 10 fruits but if this pattern continues in our 10b location it will be replaced.

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I have about thirty fruits on mine… which is a third leaf tree planted 2’ apart from Flavor Delight and GeoPride.

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And 3.5 chill zones lower than mine :slight_smile:

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