Looking at Raintree’s website where I plan to get both of the 4 in 1 pluot trees from they state their 4 in 1 is only hardy to zone 6. If you go to their individual pages of what they sell them as you see they state hardy to zone 5. You go to the pluots on the Dave Wilson Nursery website for zone 5 they claim pluots are hardy down to zone 5. I am wanting to get a fruit punch pluerry too and wanted to for a few months but they were sold out everywhere but that will change up soon. Raintree and One Green World claim that the fruit punch pluerry is hardy to zone 5. Dave Wilson Nursery claims it is only hardy to zone 6 however. Do you know which one it is? In situations like the fruit punch pluerry I wonder if it is hardiness or just ripening season
I have similar worries. Ipurchased a flavor punch pluerry and 3 types of pluot + a 3-1 pluot over the winter and I am planting in zone 6a. My issue is that I have a last frost date avg of May. So I may have trouble year after year. Either way I will share my experience with you if you still need to know next year
I have already purchased 2 4 in 1 pluot, 2 4 in 1 zee sweet pluot and 2 fruit punch pluerry and a candy heart pluerry so by next year I will see as well.
Pluots should handle zone 6a relatively well. I have Spring Satin and Honey Punch.
Cold hardy has two meanings to me. The tree’s cold hardiness. This usually not an issue for plums.
Flower buds hardiness. That depends on a variety. Some varieties are either cold hardier or open later so they tend to survive late freeze.
Rumour has it the Candy Heart pluerry blooms quite early. If that means it blooms about the same time as apricots, it would be a hit or miss in zone 6a.
I called Dave Wilson after making this thread. The receptionist did not know but connected me to the manager of the pluot department. The manager basically confirmed what you said. He said it would even survive every year in zone 5b. He claimed some pluots would just be more likely to fruit every year vs others in the colder environments. Sounds like it will be that case with the candy heart pluerry. I get fruit every year from my apricot in the back but have heard that some can be quite early. My apricot in the back is also older than me so it may just be more used to the conditions. Who knows. Back when this apricot would have been planted it would be zone 4 where I lived so clearly some apricots are more hardy than others flower wise.
Thanks for your update, it’s very helpful.
Being in 6a/5b with late avg last frost dates I may end up putting the pluots into containers so I can move them to the garage. This does sound quite cumbersome though. Either way they are coming in April and I’ll need to figure out what I want to do with them quickly!
Same where I was born in north-central KS, two types of apricot trees were everywhere, perfectly hardy and had crops every year. Blizzards were a regular occurrence and very cold winters. They bloomed late, one had clusters of smaller fruit - other had larger fruit in ones or twos. Not aromatic but good for culinary use, I think they were brought by eastern european immigrants in the 1800’s.
I don’t have flavor punch but I have candy heart. Candy Heart has no problem in Chicagoland. But it has not gone through extremely cold winter yet. In extremely cold winter year, it may perform differently.
I witnessed my pluerry and pluot flowers take 27 degrees with no problems. There was no browning on any flower except those of the peacotum tree. My dapple dandy pluot was in full flower. It’s been a few weeks and now there’re full of small green fruit.
This Tuesday I’ll be getting a couple freezes down to 28. I’ll let you know if the small green fruits survive. They are on the emerald drop, sweet treat, summer delight, dapple supreme, and maybe one more.
If the fruits can survive 28 then maybe there is hope. I’m on zone 7 and I get freezes until mid April. Last year the fruits survived a small freeze abs only some were killed.
I question how easy it will be to move pots into a garage with pluots. I plan to include them in my 100 gallon grow bags with other plants. Even on citation rootstock pluots are said to get something like 18 feet. I plan to move them once to their new location when the time comes and never again personally. A pot will dwarf it but it will get root bound without a grow bag. Root bags do not move well and will tear.