Flavor Punch tastes amazing. It is not low chill in my area (inland San Diego). The patent has it blooming the first week of March in the Central Valley of CA, but it typically blooms in mid-April in San Diego. The bloom is scattered but that is pretty typical in San Diego for many highly productive prunus cultivars, and no big deal.
The lateness of bloom may be an issue though. Mid-April is pretty late. I am using (in bloom order locally) Flavor King, Sweet Treat/Flavor Finale, and Elephant Heart. All overlap at least partially. I have gotten a small amount of fruit every year since planting it in 2020.
Does anyone else in Southern California love this pluerry? For me it is a close second to Flavor King. Not sure if it will ever give me a full crop though, late blooms may correlate to imperfect floral development.
I have this variety, it’s the first year. I believe I tasted this fruit at the farmers market a few years ago and it’s very good, hence I went ahead and purchased one.
I slightly prefer Candy Heart over Flavor Punch. Both are super sweet >30 brix in my climate. Some may say they’re cloying sweet but for me, both are refreshing. They don’t have a lot of complex flavor but still add diversity to the other “spicy” plums/pluots like Flavor King and Santa Rosa
No cherry flavor. Both were equally vigorous but runted after 2 years. I pulled them out and saw huge crown galls. I’m replacing all the citation trees in my yard this year.
I have seen they quickly sell out so they must be good. Lots of nursery claim it’s hardy to zone 5 though Dave Wilson claims zone 6. I should have two coming in the next month as well as another pluerry that I may be pushing zones with. I am guessing the other one is candy heart.
Flavor Punch bloom, even in this otherwise perfect cold winter, is scattered, late, and weak. This does not look promising for crop load this year. Some of that reflects late fall growth from last year, which is expected to have aberrantly late awakening. Lower parts of the tree bloomed in late April and had some overlap with Flavor King and Flavor Finale. What did others experience this year?
My first leave Flavor Punch is blooming well after the mid of March in Seattle areas. Looks very promising for fruitlets forming but not sure about fruit setting and ripening time yet. Wait and see by the end of this summer. (Flavor punch, Sweet treat, Nadia and Splash Pluot are the same bloom period) 3.23rd.24
Great to know! Flavor Punch in inland San Diego is one of my latest to bloom, so we can assume it is indeed high chill. Mine have like a couple buds opening and that is it.
Flavor punch pluerry and the other 2 (I think they are called sweet treat and candy heart) made it in my area. I am thinking they could be hardier than others are thinking. I think my flavor grenade is dead so I do think it got cold enough to kill some things that are not hardy.
