One Hole Fruit Tree Planting

[Rosdonald]

@Trav

Nice decoration, but what is that, about $20 of fruit?

Some folks just want an occasional fruit of different varieties. Perhaps the novelty of it draws others In many respects, some of my trees produce apples that cost me essentially $20 an apple. My family often reminds me of that.

If I was all about production, I would have given up many years ago.

I have Clara frij and winter banana. I’ll give it a try next year. I accidentally grafted a Japanese golden russet onto red delicious last year. It’s not growing gangbusters but doing pretty well all the same. It actually bloomed this year.

[elivings1]

I was under the impression flavor grenade was a pluot. When I called Dave Wilson and talked to the pluot manager he claimed there was some cultivars that could get frozen out certain years but could still live in zone 5 and then there was ones you could get a reliable crop on. I forget which ones were which. I saw the 4 in 1 pluots were on citation but I thought I saw websites selling them on other rootstock.

[elivings1]

My family likes to remind me constantly that for a tree that is that costs 30-110 dollars plus shipping you can buy x amount as well. The thing is when the fruit comes in they sure as heck want some of that fruit. It is very contradictory. Clearly if the fruit is the same as the supermarket fruit you could just go to the supermarket and get it instead of asking for it when I grow it.

[Shibumi]

I’d think unless you live in a place that is near the orchard, your homegrown fruit will allways taste much better than store bought.

I may buy apples, but I no longer try buying plums in the store. They are awful. I only buy peaches a few weeks when the SE states harvest and the supply train is rather direct.

[Shibumi]

Folks who have never grown vegetables and fruit won’t understand the benefit is not trying to save a lot of money on what you eat…at least not for a backyard grower like me.

[Shibumi]

My Flavor Grenade was purchased from Groworganic (Peaceful Valley) and they list it as a plumcot… It’s on Citation.

Mine is in its second year in the grown at my place and has groen pretty vigorously. Pruned it back heavily from the first summers growth but I’ll need to summer prune again in a few months.

Bloomed beautifully this spring but we had a rather historic late March freeze that wiped out any possible fruit that maay have set.

Here is mine. To make my reply a little more on topic, you can see how I’ve planted in a congested area, so pruning is a must.

[elivings1]

If you see the list on grow Organic most of what is generally listed a pluots is listed as a plumcot Search: 9 results found for "plumcot" – Grow Organic

Dave Wilson and most nurseries lists it as a pluot Flavor Grenade Pluot® Interspecific Plum | DWN Variety Finder

[swincher]

Aren’t “pluot” and “plumcot” synonymous anyhow? Both just indicate plum x apricot?

[elivings1]

I think it has become kind of a universal terms for a bit. Pluot are supposed to be the zaiger ones though. It gets super complicated.

[don1357]

@Shibumi

I’d think unless you live in a place that is near the orchard, your homegrown fruit will allways taste much better than store bought.

Their production and distribution priorities at the lowest possible price point delivers extremely substandard produce. But in all honesty at the end of the day it is the fault of the consumer, who doesn’t care to be educated and supports the goal for cheaper and cheaper.

My elder daughter has found a bunch of fruits that she thought she didn’t like until she got a chance to try the real deal. For example store bought raspberries are insipid; she picks our ever bearing ones in the morning and I probably get about half of what she actually picks. She didn’t like soft cider with the exemption of the one I blend for her.

[Shibumi]

I thought I read that the term pluot as mentioned was a Zaiger hybrid but that term is predated by plumcot which was produced from Burbank.

Not that it matters to us growers much. I’m just looking forward to tasting one and I’m hoping next year is my first crop…no matter what size the harvest is.

I only see great taste reviews from the comparison testing. I’m also hoping the fact it doesn’t color much when ripe will keep the critters away a bit more…

[murky]

A local grocery chain calls the Zaiger pluots like Flavor Grenade “plucots”.

[Oregon_Fruit_Grow]

Can you provide some details on how you prune the trees in tight spaces, perhaps with some pictures. I have a cherry, aprium, and hybrid plum (kuban comet) planted in a hedge row it’s their first year and I can use some knowledge.

[elivings1]

King Soopers (local Kroger) sells pluots but doesn’t differentiate the types. Whatever they sell is not good when they sell it but if you let it sit on the counter for 2-4 weeks to the point it starts to wilt on the skin it tastes amazing. I am guessing they are picking them really unripe. They also charge 70 or 80 cents a pluot. That is a case I presume you would quickly be able to make your money back.

[Shibumi]

Well I would probably trust a store name last…

I guess as long as you like how something tastes the name isn’t important…unless you are trying to grow it and need to find a reputable nursery.

I’ve seen big lot stores label fruit trees by just the fruit type with no actual variety.

[Shibumi]

Well I’m hardly the right person to ask as everything I am doing I pulled from watching numerous YouTube videos from nurseries to farmers to folks like you and I.

If available buy on dwarfing or semi - dwarfing rootstock. That may or may not be possible wherever you are as the rootstock’s tolerance to your soil and climate comes first.

All the videos for stone fruit talk of open center forms. Removing all inward growing branches. This is important for me as I live in a hot and humid place so air flow is needed to help keep disease at bay. Other places like desert dry heat might want the more crowded form to shade the fruit. Next is limiting the overall height of the tree to a level you can tolerate access to, whether by reaching, a step ladder, or something larger.

When the tree is young you will get several lateral branches that will curve upwards and want to grow vertically. The first year in the ground I didn’t prune the growth as I wanted the tree to maximize the amount of energy it collected via leaves to store in the roots for the next year.

So the tree in my photo, now in it’s second year in my yard (so 4 years old), had put on 4-5 foot new branches the first summer. I cut back each of these to an outward facing bud in late winter about 2 feet up on each branch from the growth points last year . Already this second year in the ground these single branches I cut back have each produced 3-6 new shoots varying from 1 foot to 3+ feet long. For the Flavor Grenade Pluot I’m speaking of, it flowered on second year wood, so everything that is growing this year should set flower buds for next spring.

So as is obvious from my photo, I really hemmed myself in space wise, so I may need to occasionally remove whole branches to keep the tree in check. The second hardest thing a home fruit grower has to do is cut away future fruiting wood during pruning. The single hardest thing is thinning set fruit.

So I don’t have enough personal experience to get further along in the discussion of pruning than this, but search on YouTube for your fruit type and pruning, specifically backyard gardening or permiculture. After you watch a bunch you will see the similar talking points they have.

I didn’t mention wanting to encourage more horizontal scaffolding (branching) as for this one tree I don’t have much room.

Apricots naturally grow more horizontal branches so they will perhaps be a bit easier to train.

Now that I’ve found this great forum I’ll be posting on my projects over time… Hopefully they will be helpful to others as much as others posts have helped me.

Here is another photo of my side yard. In the foreground is a Katy Apricot. First year in the ground. As you can see it naturally sets more horizontal branches.

The middle tree is a Cot-n-Candy Aprium. 2nd year. Then the background is the Flavor Grenade Pluot.

[alan]

@elivings1

I was under the impression flavor grenade was a pluot.

Zaiger claims it is, but the evidence is not in the flavor or texture of the fruit.

[Shibumi]

Indeed… I’d imagine I saw some taste reviews from affiliated nurseries.

I’ve also seen some from homesteaders who liked it as well.

Me, I like sweet fruit but I also enjoy tart. By everything I’ve seen it should at least be very crisp texture wise which I also enjoy.

Not many variety choices to grow where I am. I’m already trying some that a bit of a reach. If my Pluot fruits, the comparison is to the couple of plums sold locally (and I mean a couple at best), there is no doubt it will beat the store fruit hands down.

[resonanteye]

here were my two trees. braeburn survived, I cannot remember what the other was a mac. it still scrapes green on the trunk and base of branches so I keep trying to graft onto it. I should bite the bullet and top work it to graft, maybe next spring. grafts into the rootstock of the survivor are pushing and doing ok.

these are I think 3 or 4 years ago, before that I only had fruit trees in container (fig etc) and had not planted in ground.

[Oregon_Fruit_Grow]

Thanks for the write up, from the picture it looks like you head the plants to remove the leader, is that right?