Having tried my first of each this summer, I really would like to plant one or two next year.
How do they fare in the humid Southeast? I’m in zone 7.
And I’m assuming these are not self pollinating?
Thanks in advance
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My multi grafted Pluot has gotten enormous and it’s only been in the ground for 2 years. Getting fruit off of it may be a challenge due to our late frosts. I will know for sure next year.
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Many pluots are hard to grow, they rot or they don’t set any fruit. Flavor Grenade is one of the easier ones but it is still susceptible to rot. I grew several but at some point realized that Japanese plums were just as tasty and a lot easier to grow - Satsuma, Lavina, Weeping Santa Rosa, etc.
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I had no idea Japanese plums could taste as good. The pluots and plums I had this year were incredible.
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My experience is that pluots in general do taste better than J plums. I started out with many of each in my greenhouse and over about 5-8 yrs all the plums were let go and a half dozen pluots survived because they are sweeter and more flavorful. But that’s under ideal conditions with a CA like climate and full water control.
It’s about like the comparison of peaches and nectarines. Nectarines like pluots are harder to grow. But as the recent thread Nectarines just better points out many people agree that nectarines are better than peaches even out East.
It takes a lot of yrs tasting a lot of fruit to say with any authority that one class of fruit is better than another. Like I say it took me 5-8 yrs to decide and that’s with a good crop every yr no rot or squirrels. Also culture has more effect than cultivar or species. A well grown plum will be better than a watered down pluot regardless of cultivar. Out East may be different than in a dry climate like mine.
That doesn’t mean pluots are a good choice for the SE. Even spraying the best materials it will be a battle with rot and more.
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I had two pluots that I cut down because of poor fruit set and replaced with plums. I planted a Spring Satin plumcot last year and it seems to be doing better than the Ca. pluots I had.
I grafted about 10 Spring Satin to plum roots. All took well and grew well but all got Black Knot. In fairness to the Spring Satin there was a Methley spewing spores. Still only Spring Satin and one other, I think Morse, got the black knot. I have about 10 varieties that didn’t get it so I consider Spring Satin highly susceptible. The Methley has been cut down.
Plums are easier to grow than pluots in the South, because they can bloom over a longer period, and although are just as susceptible to late frost as pluots, will just about always provide a crop, while pluots will be a complete loss. Pluots are also more disease prone. The only REAL success story I’ve
had with pluots has been Flavor Grenade.
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