I’ve been able to spray but fire blight strikes are frequent this year and I’m still getting June drop in July.
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Until stink bugs and/or coddling moth become epidemic, which they may not. I used to get beautiful Korean Giant pears without any summer protection from any pests, but now, most years, the majority of the fruit either is distorted with stink-bug hits with unappetizing hard spots or coddling moth that causes early rot in storage. What Asian pears seem to be immune to is pear psyla which can be a very difficult pear pest to manage. Bartlett and Harrow series pears seem resistant. Of the H. series, my favorite of those I’ve tried is Harrow Sweet. Both of those Euros are much less attractive to stink bugs and codling moths than Asians IME.
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People tend to think that more drying time is needed than actually so to apply sprays and you can also spray when trees are dripping with dew and recent rain- just run it a bit hot.
I do apps that set and are followed by heavy rains on scores of orchards, and only do 2 insecticide sprays for each of the many orchards I manage. Sometimes I get some serious PC damage on E.plums, but I always leave enough fruit on the tree to allow for that and if fruit sets there is a harvest. Most of the other fruit in orchards I manage tends to be clean.
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I should add that one good hour is enough to set most pesticides. Also, if it rains immediately after an app it requires about 1/2" to meaningfully remove it even it it hasn’t had time to set. A good sticker can help, as long as the pesticide isn’t a systemic product (like myclobutanil), and then it depends on the spreader-sticker. You don’t want to use a resin based sticker for systemics because it can inhibit absorption. Find something with a latex base.
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What are some plums that you all find to work for this area. I’m in the mid hudson valley zone 6b but very close to the river and my trees are up on a slope near my house so may functionally be a 7a and don’t get hit with the surprise frosts as much as some others do.
Currently I have a methley (don’t know exact rootstock) that I planted last year. I grafted a flavor king and flavor grenade pluot and also have. The two pluots separately on myro root stock that I bench grafted this year. Any other straight or hybrid plums ? I’ve seen Shiro suggested - though I recently had a yellow plum at a farmers market which I presume is Shiro and it wasn’t all that flavorful to be honest.
I also have a spring satin plumcot on myro rootstock.
Currently I’m using organic methods (spinosad and surround) but not averse to using inorganic anti fungals if needed
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Lavinia would probably be a good mid season plum. My scaffold of it is loaded. It’s my first crop, but a lot of folks praise its eating quality.
GeoPride was very productive for me in Wilmington, DE, and I really liked it. It ripens with Flavor King.
Flavor Finale and Flavor Punch are very late, first week of October for me, they are very productive and taste very good to excellent.
If I am only going to grow two plums, these would be Flavor King and F Grenade, they are the best.
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Flavor Rich is my current favorite pluot. At my site Grenade has been rather difficult but FR is coming through very well for the third consecutive year. So far, it seems less attractive to wasps then Grenade and less susceptible to bacterial spot than many of Zaiger’s creations. The hassle is that I have to net it form birds who are attracted to its 25brix+flesh. Regular J. plums never get out of the teens here.
Lavina is very good for a straight plum, but there are several others I like about as much. As far as Apricot-plum crosses, Spring Satin rules its season, being so early and so good- much higher quality than Methely to my palate and earlier. Most of all, it is highly resistant to black knot which isn’t something I can say about a single other high quality J. plum I’ve ever grown, so I plan to make it my flagship J. plum variety in my nursery, grafting other varieties to the trees. At least I won’t have huge scars on the trunks anymore. However, it doesn’t seem to crop as heavily as I like, though it seems to improve with age, needing probably about 6-8 years to become a decent producer. But my experience with it is only on my own site with a single tree and the grafts certainly fruit a whole lot sooner.
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I have never tried Flavor Rich, perhaps I should.
My Spring Satin was loaded with fruit this year, which is its fourth leaf. I didn’t thin enough, and half the fruit was bland. The fruits that stayed on the tree longer were very good.
It colors long before it’s ready to pick. I don’t like them to actually soften on the tree, then it just tastes like a Santa Rosa plum to me, which is certainly a good plum. Just before it gets there it is at its best to me.
I enjoy the experience of fruit the most when it is picked directly from the tree and eaten while warmed from the sun. Spring Satin is the only ripe plum in my orchard in its season and that is the earliest part, when fruit is most appreciated. That it achieves such high quality so early in the season is remarkable, much like Flavor May peach.
Around here at most sites, this is a very good year for plum set. Even my Flavor Supreme set a crop for the first time.
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I turns out, neither have I. Too little brain too many details. Flavor Gem is the one.
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I have not tried Flavor Gem either, does any nursery sells it nowadays?
I can give you some wood, I’m sure you have something I should try. I like the variety so much that I’m leaving a lot of vegetative wood in the tree’s center. I also have several trees in my nursery that I grafted it to in spring.
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This is my all-time best year for pluots. Not only was there a decent set, but yesterday’s rain was only the 2nd in the last 1.5+ months. Maybe there was a 3rd in there, but it didn’t feel like much. Instead of getting a couple half destroyed fruit from each tree, I got dozens. Well, maybe a dozen for some of the less productive ones (Honey Punch in particular)
Geo Pride- earliest pluot I have, in early August. The other reason my pluots have done well is that early on I got them several times with fungicide for brown rot. I’ve let up in the last month, but they already had plenty, as can be seen with the white leaves in the pic above. And a lack of rain helps a lot too 
Geo Pride might be my favorite. Great flavor, always high brix, and more consistent set than many of the others.
Honey Punch- I like this one, but always pick it too early, as it colors up way before being ripe. This year I had some which were almost there- I let them hand ~3 weeks longer than in the past, as I had so many other pluots to enjoy. They were still a bit tart, but an overall enjoyable fruit at 18+ brix and good crispness.
Crimson Royal- My least favorite pluot. It is consistantly productive, as it had a branch breaking load of mediocre fruit last year (12-14 brix). This year I did a decent job of thinning and the brix was much higher, with much larger fruit. But I still didn’t like it that much. It was OK, but there was always an off flavor to me. My daughter said it was bitter and didn’t want any. I didn’t think that was exactly right, but whatever it was, I wasn’t a fan.
Flesh comparison with Honey Punch:
Flavor Punch- Not actually a pluot but a pluerry. Close enough
I like these quote a bit. 18-20 brix and good strong flavor. An interesting overtone which could be from the cherry. The above pic is the last ones from the tree. I’ve been picking them for 3+ weeks, ever since they started coloring. The earlier ones weren’t as flavorful, but were still pretty good.
Flavor Grenade-While Flavor Punch punches you with flavor, Flavor Grenade is a bit more sedate. It’s got a cleaner, more mild sweetness which is still very good. I haven’t done a complete side-by-side with my kids, but I bet this is the one they like the most, as it always gets good comments. I’ve been picking these for weeks as well and the ones in the above pic are the last from the tree.
Conclusion: Geo Pride, Flavor Punch, and Flavor Grenade are keepers. Honey Punch is a maybe and Crimson Royal is a cull.
The only plum left to be picked is Fall Fiesta. I tried one the other day and it was pretty firm and tart, even though the brix was almost 20.
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Hi Bob,
I think you have been picking Flavor Punch and Honey Punch way too early, I picked Flavor Punch last year in October, and Honey Punch looks quite crunchy in your photos. When soft and juicy, H Punch is excellent. I just started picking F Grenade a couple of days ago, and Flavor King about 10 days ago. I actually let pluot trees drop their fruit, and I pick them from the ground.
Last year I picked F King through mid Sep, and Grenade in earlier years through Sep 25.
By the way, what is the flesh color of your GeoPride? Should be orange/yellow. From outside, the fruit in your photo looks different than GeoPride, but some times they can vary in be appearance.
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I think I may have started picking Flavor Punch too early, more than 3 weeks ago. At that point, it was 17 brix and what I consider sweet-tart. Probably too early, but I liked the fruit that way, so I don’t feel bad about it.
It is even better now, as the last couple I have sampled have been in the 22-23 brix range, like the one I just ate in the below pic.
Interestingly, the brix on the Flavor Grenade seems pretty variable. Of the last 3 I’ve had, they have been 22, 17, and 12. Maybe it is because the FG is a bigger tree than the FP (which I pruned very hard to keep it from shading a jujube too much, almost into a spindle). In bigger trees, there are shaded locations where the fruit ripened, but didn’t develop the brix.
My daughter just ate most of the large, juicy 12 brix Flavor Grenade and liked it better than the piece of 22 brix Flavor Punch I gave her (a bit tart, she said). Meanwhile, I found the FP exquisite and the FG bland and not worth eating.
I still have most of the box of FP, so while maybe I could have waited slightly longer on the early ones, they were as good or better than most of what was actually ripe at the time and I didn’t skimp myself too much on the more ripe ones I just picked. I’m pretty surprised that they were still in good shape by October last year, as some of mine were starting to see damage. But, maybe I will leave some on the tree longer in the future to see if they can get even better.
I’ve had Honey Punch from the grocery store before (one time when they were selling 5-7 kinds of pluots and labeled them). It was crisp, with 18 brix and great. Mine had similar texture and brix, but were much tarter. I wonder if it would have helped to keep them in the fridge for a week or two. I like the texture that way, better than soft and juicy, so maybe next year I’ll pick some in late August and put them in the fridge. And I can let others hang a bit longer to see if there is a time when they lose some tartness, without softening too much.
GeoPride was the first to ripen, so at this point I was going back through pics and trying to choose the right one. I think I got the right one, but I could be wrong. I did a bit more checking and I found a pic I downloaded at the time and labeled, so it has a high probability of being right. Regretable, none of them are cut.
I’m actually growing another pluot which I know I picked too early. Ebony Rose is supposed to be dark fleshed, like Honey Punch and I really jumped the gun on this one. It probably needed another month. While the early HP were tart, they were OK to eat. The ER was not palatable at this point.
Different people have different taste preferences, I prefer soft and juicy, you prefer crunchy 
; long hang time is one of the strengths of pluots, that allows people of different preferences to enjoy them.
Here is a photo of GeoPride from and older post (top is GeoPride, bottom is F King):
Another photo from Dave Wilson. Mine used to look exactly like that, outside and inside. It is an excellent pluot, I grafted it this spring (my first tree was at my old property).
https://www.wheretobuy.davewilson.com/product-information/product/geo-pride-pluot-interspecific-plum
I took a look at the ripening dates from DWN.
Fresno CA:
Ebony Rose- 6/15-6/30
Dapple Jack*- 7/10-7/25
Crimson Royale- 7/25-8/10
Honey Punch- 7/29-8/14
Flavor Grenade- 8/1-8/15
Flavor Jewel*- 8/5-8/20
Fall Fiesta- 9/25-10/10
*- planted at renal and overcome with black knot, no crop
The above dates for Fresno, CA are earlier than the dates they have for Hickman, CA (commercial vs backyard cultivars).
Hickman, CA:
Geo Pride- 7/14-7/28
Flavor Grenade- 8/30-10/2
Flavor Grenade is in both lists and 1 to 1.5 months later in the backyard list. The reason I pull this second list in is that Geo Pride isn’t in the commercial list and most of the others aren’t in the backyard list.
Date math can be a bit tough, as it isn’t linear. For example, FG here isn’t far from the Hickman list (maybe even a bit earlier, though you picked it right in range last year), but Geo Pride isn’t ready until after the Hickman range. The early ones are ready much earlier in CA, as can be seen for Ebony Rose, They have it starting in mid June, while what I picked at the end of July was probably a month early.
Yes, I think mine looked pretty close to the DWN pic. I think it might be my favorite, just because it is ready so much before the other pluots. If I have it side by side with a Flavor Punch, I’m not sure which would win. But, somehow it fell out of DWN’s commercial offerings.
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Bob, you might be interested to know that I just measured brix of an Autumn Star peach that almost reached 17. I don’t get peaches up that high here, besides maybe Indian Blood. The sad thing is that a big doe stripped the tree of most of its fruit… that has never happened here before… not at my site. I’m embarrassed that I let it happen. I have a trick I use to stop deer from foraging in small areas using high test, clear fishing line stretched between rebar used as posts- they freak out when they trip on it. I didn’t pay attention when the peaches started disappearing. Now I’m protecting my remaining stone fruit crop with this method. So far so good.
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You actually provoked me to go out and pick a crunchy F Punch and a Candy Heart Pluerry.
Both had a 20 Brix, and actually I liked them 
. FP had excellent sweet tart flavor, and CHP was more sweet. However, I prefer soft, and more sweetness to further balance the tartness. I see how this stage is perfect for others who prefer crunch and tartness.
CHP exhibits an amazing richness of flavor that changes during its long hang time, with various notes becoming more prominent at different stages. It is somewhat shy bearer though.
Nice, 17 is a very good peach. A lot of mine are in the 14-15 range, though the White Lady seedlings were higher, often 16-17. And I see occasional standouts at 22-23. I don’t take brix reading on everything, but sometimes I take a bite and am like “wow- what was the brix on that??”. Both the While Lady seedling and Carolina Gold had 22+ readings in the last week.
Hopefully the rain from last night and this morning won’t lower the brix and cause too much rot.
I was at a rental yesterday and noticed that one of the peaches that I thinned extensively (almost two 5gal buckets of thins) back in early July was getting close to branch breaking. It is a Heath Cling seedling, so it is normally ready around the end of the month and I know this branch wouldn’t last that long.
First, I thinned off a lot of peaches. It hurts to get rid of them so close to being ripe, but it is probably for the best. I tried to thin off damaged ones, but a lot of them were close to perfect.
Then I combined my (very) basic carpentry skills to create an ugly but functional support out of scrap lumber.
I used a digging bar to make a 4-5" deep pit and propped the branch up. I tied it to the top just in case, though gravity seems to have it held pretty firmly.
I got it all done just as the thunderstorm was starting yesterday. I figure that the rain would have made the branch heavier and the wind would’ve broken it, so I was lucky to notice it in time.
That is something that impressed me about Flavor Punch. I pruned it so far back that it is probably 1/3 the canopy as the other pluots, but produced more fruit. I think I need to take that as a lesson and be a bit harsher in my pruning. More sun per branch on fewer branches means more fruit, less leaves, and less rot.
My father does this with his garden. I’m sure I’d be the one to trip on it if I started stretching fishing wire around 
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