I kind of doubt it, because Santa Rosa is pretty shy bearing for most people in the PNW. This mystery tree fruited after 2 summers in the ground, with a small but decent crop of very large plums for its first year. . I have a Santa Rosa that has been in the ground for I guess 4 years. It is one of my few plum trees that still hasn’t produced after being in ground for that long. I also grafted a branch of elephant heart onto a 20+ year old shiro and it fruited the next year. The Santa Rosa graft I put on the same Shiro tree still hasn’t fruited and its been on that tree longer than the EH. Not many people seem to have good cropping with Santa Rosa in our mild PNW climate.
I guess you never know though. When my Santa Rosa finally starts producing I guess I’ll know for sure.
yes, @vitog told me that he had the santa rosa for 20+ years and production is close to none in PNW. so I would say its a NO NO on santa rosa for me until something happens (climate change).
Those are large yellow egg plums in the background. Yellow egg is my largest Euro plum, and they are a pretty good sized plum themselves. These mystery plums in question are quite large. They are larger than almost all my other Japanese plums plumcots/pluots etc. Do Santa Rosa plums get to be this size? I’ve never acually seen or eaten Santa Rosa plums, as they’re not too common on the West coast of Canada.
I think most people who have Santa Rosa in my part of the world, mostly keep it for pollination, (rather than production).
Oh man, more rain today. It was just pouring super heavy about a half hour ago. Hopefully it will put a damper on all the fires in BC, but it sure sucks for the plums still on the trees. I think I’ll pick most of what’s left of my plums quickly before splitting sets in. What a difference this summer, as the last half dozen summers we barely saw a drop of rain.
At least the trees are all looking healthy with no real sign of heat stress this year.
I know lots of guys in the PNW grow many different varieties of pluots. In Canada we have access to only a handful of Pluot varieties. I was just curious how you would rate the following varieties on their attributes when grown in the PNW.
Flavor Supreme
Flavor Grenade
Flavor King
Flavor Queen
Dapple Dandy
Please comment on your experiences growing these Pluots in the PNW, especially with respect to how they perform here in our very mild climate.
Please give your assessments in regards to:
Low vigor:
Medium vigor:
High vigor:
Meager cropper:
Reliable cropper:
Heavy cropper:
Flavor on a scale of 1-10:
If you were to only able to chose one of the above varieties (or any other Pluot), which one would you chose to grow in the PNW.
Splash, Geopride, and Emerald Drop are three other older ones that may have made it up there.
I realize his isn’t an Apricot/Aprium thread, but if you don’t get late frosts those might be worth a look. They bred a bunch up there with Har- prefixes.
Unless somebody in the PNW has experience with FQ being bountiful…I wouldn’t plant it. Most people here report it being a shy bearer and that’s been my experience as well (I’m not in the PNW). FG is a heavy cropper, medium vigor. DD is high vigor, mine’s not fruiting yet, so dunno how prolific it is.
I am in Richmond BC, I am pretty new to growing fruits, I think I have my pluot tree for about 4 years.
Flavor supreme : I don’t have it, can’t comment.
Flavor Granade: acquired this year, will have to wait.
Flavor King: Low vigor out of all my plout. Tends to fruits only on the higher branch.Crop is meager, two years of fruiting, 7 fruits last year and 2 this year. Fruits are big and delicious, a very fragrant fruit. Flavour I will give it 8/10.
Dapple dandy: high vigor but is susceptible to black knot fungus. Crop is medium. Fruit is big, juicy, you can taste a little spice flavour on it. Flavour I will give a 7/10
Flavor Queen: Vigorous grow. ZERO fruit, chopped!
Emerald drop: medium grow. Grafted 3 years ago still no fruit.
Splash: vigor growth however is susceptible black knot fungus. heavy crop but susceptible to cracking when it rains. Fruit is small and it will drop when is ripe.
Nice to get some local reports on growing Pluot in SW BC. I have heard many PNW growers complain that Flavor Queen is non productive. I did have some fruit on FQ this spring, but they dropped long before maturity. With all the negative talk about its productivity, I multi-grafted Flavor King and Howard Miracle onto my only in ground FQ. Before I heard it was such a poor producer I grafted quite a few rootstock with Flavor Queen. I have since started grafting other varieties onto the scaffolds of my smaller FQ’s still in planters. On the bright side FQ seems to take and grow quite readily on Mariana 2624, and I have not experienced any black knot on FQ Pluot. Now that I think of it, I can’t recall any of my Pluot varieties getting black knot.
My original Dapple Dandy died off after grafting swapped scion wood onto that tree. Luckily I made DD backup grafts onto other rootstocks, but they are too immature to have produced yet. I no longer graft scion wood of unknown health onto trees I can’t afford to lose anymore after that loss.
I have eaten a handful of Flavor King and Flavor Supreme from my young trees, and they had very good flavor and texture. They are both very small immature trees that I’m still in the process of shaping, so it’s way too early to give a fair assessment on them.
Any other Pluot insights would be appreciated.
On another note, how was the weather on the mainland last night. It was the longest and loudest thunderstorm I can ever remember over here on the island, and the rain came down in buckets all night. We probably had more precipitation in one night than the entire last 5 summers here. We really needed the rain, but hopefully the lightening didn’t spark a bunch of new fires.
I can get you DD scions if you are out. I am in egmont bc this weekend, no thunderstorm up here. It’s just rainy. By the way, how’s flavor supreme ? Heavy producer ? I have grafted a bunch of new oldschool pluots this year like flavorosa,flavor honey punch, flavor rich, flavor heart, and a few more that I forgot the name of haha..
I’ve had Black Knot on FG. It want anywhere critical and the tree is fine, but it happened. I picked all of them earlier today. Birds have been pecking one every other day or so for a week, and did three in twenty-four hours, so off they went. Pecked ones are still edible of a bit messed up.
I need to get a brix meter so I can be a little scientific, but with them ripe enough that the flesh is translucent and texture is still crunchy they are so sweet that the sour of the skin is pretty well hidden.
Thanks for the offer, but that is not necessary. Luckily I made backup grafts of Dapple Dandy as soon as I received the tree.
I wouldn’t say any of the pluot varieties I own are heavy producers, but they are all still very small relatively immature trees. I’d have to give them a few more years before I could give an accurate assessment.
