I’ve finally found a place in Canada that is selling a Zaiger pluot! This is really exciting for me but it’s one of the more questionable ones as far as hardiness goes or so it seems according to my research. Some places are saying it’s USDA zone 5 but I found a few places saying USDA zone 7. I’m adventurous and I’d push to zone 6 but zone 7 is just nutty! I’m fine if it doesn’t produce fruit every year cuz a late spring freeze gets the blossoms sometimes but if the whole tree could die there is no point. I would love a Dapple Dandy too but I’ve yet to find a Canadian place that sells them! You Americans are so spoiled for choice! LOL
Flavor Supreme is hardy here in zone 5b/6a but it never fruits. I have had it six years and it produced 3 fruit one year. These three fruit were on a limb that had black knot, so I cut it off. I have yet to taste the fruit. I won’t either, I grafted it over. I did leave one branch. I don’t get late freezes here. It’s not that! All my other pluots produce just fine. It seems to only produce in warm zones. I would avoid it. Can you get Spring Satin plumcot? That is a super good one.
Yes, the bees do not like the flowers. That is why no fruit. I guess if I hand pollinated I would get fruit. Thanks for asking. I’m going to do just that this spring.
What I do is take pollen donor flower and cut male parts off into a jar. Put the jar in a dry location and let the pollen dry a week, if you have the time? It’s easier to put on the flowers with a brush when dry. It turns darker too, so easier to see. Don’t worry about the male parts besides pollen, just press brush into pollen and apply. You are going to need another plum. Santa Rosa is best. A very good plum too, The weeping is better.
I very much wanted this pluot to work for me in Z5 as i have heard it is similar to elephant heart in flavour which is extremely good and hardy to z5 but blooms too early for me. Sadly Flavor supreme had like 85% dieback in a real winter for me.
It does not need a real winter to do that. I have lost two from dieback, this occurred in early fall each time. I have grown eleven Pluots , Flavor Supreme and Dapple Dandy are most disease prone of all the varieties I’ve tried. I’ll only grow it on grafted branches from now on.
Mine died after last winter… but it wasn’t in the greatest spot…and it was a very cold winter. The only fruit i’ve gotten off a FS was on a 4 in 1 container tree and even then it wasn’t but a couple of fruits… somewhat of a turd to me… but it was good (to eat) and it is early (for this climate(. I might have a branch grafted somewhere but if not i wouldn’t replace it…
Sometimes I think I have mislabeled fruit, or other people do. It got to -12F here and Flavor Supreme was fine. Dapple Dandy is trouble free here, just about perfect actually. Always fruits, always a lot, big fruit too, tasty. I have read a lot of bad reviews of DD. So I decided I have to try the fruit myself. Many also dogged Flavor Queen as bland tasteless fruit. Here it has a tropical taste and is very sweet, I love it! Big fruit too, but not a great producer. It is so different from other pluots fruits. So I added other yellows like Vermont.
All gardening is local and my fungal treatments for brown rot work super well. I just don’t have any rot issues with rot prone or resistant types. Neither have rot. I think I have seen 5 or 6 fruit with rot in the 7 years I have been growing these fruit.
So when you read reports keep in mind all gardening is local.
Richard is in Denver, Co. Drew is in eastern Michigan by Lake St. Clair. You couldn’t get two more different Zone 5 environments than that. It is notoriously hard to grow fruit so close to the front range. It is possible for Denver have a -20F night (Zone 5) followed by a 60F degree day or vice-versa.
I think based on lake location that @LinzOrganicToronto would be more like Drew’s location than Richard’s.
Yeah the year after i planted most all my fruit trees we had a 68 degree swing in 12 hours and like 80 degree swing in 24 hours this was the year that @milehighgirl had such rough luck. I lost a lot of trees
A few years ago I planted Elephant Heart and Satsuma but they both died after the mildest fall due, I believe, to not having hardened off properly. My neighbor’s Santa Rosa did survive, however. It’s not just a matter of whether they will survive, but also if the blooms will survive, and in my experience, they will not. From now on it’s just European plums for me.
Nice to see ya and hope things are going good for you and atleast we have not had to water this winter! You really helped encourage me when i was starting and appreciate all your old posts!
Thanks for chiming in everyone!
Drew, I agree, Spring Satin is a delicious plumcot but I already grow it. In fact, it’s the reason I want more plum x apricot crosses! LOL
I hear Purple Heart plum compares in flavour to some of the Zaiger pluots but is much easier to grow? Does anyone grow that one?
