Juju,
I’m old but not that old 
Still kinda puzzled why the weatherman’s hand
pollinated Nadias (by pluots) set fruit but the other did not.
Clearly the other was set in a beautiful bouquet of possible
pollinators. Then I read at DWN “Bees are not especially
attracted to Flavor Supreme (pluot) flowers; fruit sets can be
light.” Never thought of bees not being attracted to certain
flowers. I’m sure the weatherman has lots of bees with that bouquet.
So I see 2 possibilities: (1) Bees
didn’t visit the pluots for above reasons & perhaps competition, or (2)
Nadia falls in the category of not attracting bees so much. That would be good to know.
Anyone else stumbling for an answer here?
I had lots of bumblebees visiting Nadia this spring. There were many pluots in bloom at the same time. Still my Nadia set about 1% of flowers. Some other things didn’t set well either. So maybe the tree is too young or conditions were off.
I may not answer you question directly but there were a few old threads talking about fruit flowers that are more attractive to bees and others that are not.
Cherry and pluot flowers were said to be less attractive to bees than say, apple or pear blossoms.
So I love the excitement on this forum about Nadia but like others I’m waiting for “now the rest of the story”.
Good to know Nadia attracts lots of bees. Another question: Is there something about the flower structure that makes transfer of pollen difficult? The “rest of the story” may be that it needs hand pollination to produce a lot of fruit.
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I doubt that will be needed. It’s more likely something else. I’m hoping others will report a big set and think they probably will. If not this yr then next. Our trees are all young.
Well maybe if was a plum only Asian plums are new to American bees. Asian bees love them! We have no Asian bees here, some think we should let them in our environment. But the EPA thinks not.
With cherry some species are native here, not sweet though, but they may be similar enough to natives. Colors, even ones we cannot see, and aromatic molecules may smell like cherry to the bees, and a welcome flower to American bees.
Nice to know pluots seem to work, makes sense as some pluots when analyzed seemed to actually be 100% plum.
asian bees are also not as sensitive to cold weather, while the european bees still wouldn’t want to get out of bed to smell the flowers…
asian bees will be very useful to ‘early bloomers’ in late winters/early springs.
It will be years before we can give a definitive answer. I am sure people will eagerly sample the very first fruit off their trees this year, but will that be representative? Plus we have people growing it from So Cal to the NE. A giant sweet cherry-like fruit that grew on the west coast would be a pretty cool thing, but one that grew on the east coast would be amazing. We also won’t know about disease resistance, etc.
I find that aspect to this amusing actually. I have intentionally planted some older varieties because they are proven and well understood, but it is also fun to take part in an experiment of a sort. It is awfully unlikely, but possible, Nadia will be one of those hugely successful fruits that change how people look at things.
If it is even close to its description I could see it as valuable for further breeding. It could be crossed with another sweet cherry to produce a fruit that might be still more cherry-like, but still larger and crack resistant for instance.
Can you imagine how sales will soar if the first ripe Nadia gets good reviews. Looks like from seeing all the flowers we will get some good taste feedback soon. It is on my to get list this fall assuming it mostly lives up to our expectations. Bill
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This will pressure the Zaigers to release more plum x cherry hybrids.
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I did try one when taking a tour there last September.I asked if the fruit was Candy Heart,but they said no,but an unnamed Cherry-Plum hybrid and was my favorite of about a half dozen different things,including a White Nectarine,a Peach and Plums.
That kind of tells me,they are not stopping with the two Pluerries. Brady
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They also have a fuzzzy plum x cherry hybrid, and a plum x cherry hybrid crossed back to a cherry. It looks like a giant cherry but with yellow spots like a plum, I saw it on the LA Times Article.
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Yea, but do you know Kathy? Yes, I AM that old. And, was on the same team (SCATS) as Kathy.
Patty S.
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cool info! a perfect 
Wow…they need to release some of this stuff.
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The Zaigers named their fuzzy plum x cherry hybrid: “Bella Kat.” Its parentage is, (plum x cherry) x Royal Lee Cherry (pollen parent). Patent number 24040.
Could that be possible, a fuzzy plum x cherry hybrid?
My theory is that the plum x cherry hybrid flowers got contaminated with either plumcot or with apricot pollen before or after the Zaigers pollinated them with Royal Lee cherry pollen.
itheweatherman,
Happen to know the lineage of the Emerald Drop Pluot?I couldn’t find any patent information or much history. Brady
Brady, Emerald Drop Pluot (marketed to backyard growers) and Emerald Gem Pluot (marketed to commercial growers) is the same cultivar, Patent No. 14599: http://www.google.com/patents/USPP14599.
The patent describes it as [Prunus salicina×(Prunus salicina×Prunus armeniaca)]×(Prunus salicina×Prunus armeniaca). The maternal parent (29EB323) originated from the cross of ‘Friar’ Plum with the proprietary plumcot (4G1180), which originated from a cross of ‘Red Beaut’ Plum with an apricot of unknown parentage. The paternal parent, the plumcot (4G1180) was crossed back to (29EB323).