I was given scionwood of this pluot from someone. At the time, I did not hear much about it. After 3 years, it finally sets fruit this year. I want to find out:
If what I have is the real Honey Punch
What the fruit, unripe and ripe, look like?
I don’t have a Honey Punch pluot, but I have tasted them. They are one of the best tasting pluots. They are very juicy and with a mango after-taste. And they look similar to Flavor King pluots.
I picked it within a week of coloring, as I figured that if I didn’t, something else would. Fruitnut was correct that it was far from ripe (he said 4-6 weeks more…). I have more on the tree this year to experiment with. I won’t wait 4-6 weeks before I try the first, but I will wait at least another week.
Long ago, I had some from the store which were very good- close to 20 brix and a dense crisp/crunchy texture.
Bob,
Can you take a pic of an unripe fruit, please? Mine are still in a pale green stage. A few start to turn color. Like I said, I am not sure if my is true to label. The fruit are larger than an average plum.
Dave Wilson lists its ripening date as early August. That means some time in Sept for me. I have the same concern about squirrels and other pests getting to them before me.
They have now turned from pale green to this reddish. The variety is quite productive. I don’t know what cross pollinated it. I have Flavor Delight on the same small tree, Beauty and Spring Satin on another small tree near it.
I grow it. It looks right. Pluots do turn early and take forever to ripen. But have great hang time. Mine ripen about six weeks later than the ones in California. Like Geo Pride ripens at the end of June. Mine need at least two more weeks. Here is my Honey Punch right now.
I’ve eaten lots of Honey Punch over several yrs. But not in the past few yrs. It’s a very good pluot. The reddish ones aren’t nearly ripe. It’s black for many weeks before fully ripe. I’ll see if I can find some pictures but those may be gone as well.
All the dark pluots turn dark well before being ripe, sometimes 2-3 months maybe even longer for Flavor Treat. They are ripe when they start to soften. But you can also go by taste. I tried eating a Flavor Treat that fell off recently, 6-8 weeks before fully ripe. It was already very sweet but acidic enough to remove the enamel off your teeth. When fully ripe it’s not acidic.
I agree they take a long time to ripen. It’s tough protecting them, but I have it down now after so many years. I tasted a few this year that fell, and they were hard but sweet. I’m having a good year, 2 inches under normal rains, the trees are really stressed, has nutrient issues, but that happens here, I have to fertilize more. The soil lacks a few nutrients. As far as I’m concerned pluots rock. They produce fairly reliably here year after year. At least most do, not all. My Japanese plums are much more iffy except a few that work well. No contest though compared to pluots,
I must have looked at another by mistake! Mine is still not ripe, about 2 weeks. Not as far off as I thought!
The chart Brady posted helps. I like Dapple Supreme and Geo Pride for early types, Geo pride will be ripe soon, maybe 2 weeks. I bet though I could leave it hang another 4 weeks. Like the ripening date covers 2 weeks, depends if you like them firm or soft, interesting how slowly they ripen. Great shelf life too. If you pick early, let them ripen on the counter.
I also have Ebony Rose and it’s about firm ripe right now, I’m leaving them on another week. Still tastes under ripe to me. It’s not easy determining when to harvest these things!
I think that may apply to plums beyond pluots. Here’s a pic from 2.5 weeks ago of one of my cherry plums (Sprite or Delight, not sure which offhand). Even now, they aren’t really ripe.
Bob,
Per my record, the ripening time of your Valor was
9/16/19
9/12/20
My guess is your Valor will ripen at the beginning of Sept. I hope you will like it as much as I do.
Re. Honey Punch, per the chart @Bradybb linked, it is possible that my Honey Punch won’t ripen until the end of Sept or early Oct. By then, there will not be heat for it. I need to look for pluots that ripen earlier.