My Dapple Supreme Tree is starting to bloom. I’ve only had this tree for 3 winters and it is always the very, very first of my plum / plum hybrid trees to bloom. The issue is it blooms well before anything else. The bloom order for the rest of my trees in this family are Flavor Grenade Pluot then Sweat Treat then Flavor King and Beauty Plum and Burgundy Plum somewhat together. I also have Sweat Treat and Candy Heart Pluerries but not for long enough to figure where they are in the blooming sequence.
The Dapple Supreme has bloomed every year, but there has been less than 5 fruit sets each year given nothing else blooms with it. The fruits I get are from those very few buds on the tree to bloom last.
What low chill pollinators can I put in to pollinate the Dapple Supreme flowers? I’m looking for something that blooms extremely early. I heard Flavorosa pluot was a good choice. Anything else?
Splash Pluot and Flavorosa Pluot tend to be early blooming for me in San Diego. Flavorosa Pluot being the earlier of the two. If you are interested in grafting Flavorosa Pluot I can send you some cuttings.
I got some scionwood from ThomasEconomous, so I’m going to graft some likely pollenators. That should help in a year or two plus give me some other varieties to try.
Nil’s suggestion got me to look into forcing blooms indoors. Really neat stuff.
For the current blooms, I put about a dozen Burgundy plum branches in the fridge at 38 degrees. Not sure how much chill the Burgundy plum already has. I’m thinking it needs another 25-50 hours or so before it’ll bloom. After 3 days in the fridge, I’ll take some out here and there and stick them in a vase at room temperature. I’ll post back here with how that works out.
Dapple Supreme is a tough one. Very good fruit too. I usually save some of my winter pruning wood and then put it out next to the tree in a jar of water. Not great but it helps.
I heard from someone that grows splash that it bloomed in San Diego a few weeks ago so that sounds like a safe bet in a cultivar with a reputation for flavor.
Stan, what dates do you get for Howard miracle? I know you are more north but that sounds promising. My candy heart is blooming alone right now. I just planted Howard miracle, do you think they might overlap next year? I am inland San Diego. Thanks.
Here’s an update. My sweet treat has shot out 3 blooms since my original post 17 days ago. I used two of those blooms to pollenate the Dapple Supreme. The flowers appear to have set fruit given the inner part is swelling up. Not terribly large, but bigger than before. I’ll find out soon if a Sweet Treat x Dapple Supreme cross produces viable fruit and not something that will drop. I been working on forcing my Burgundy wood to flower and today, the first flower is about to come out. I’ll use this to pollenate the rest of the Dapple Supreme blooms later tonight.
I had to aggressively thin my Flavor Grenade tree last year. It would be ironic if I have to thin the Dapple Supreme tree this year.
On a side note, I find it is extremely hard to pollenate the pluot flowers. They are very small and the stigma and anthers are very, very similar looking. The stigma is a slightly lighter and less orange more light yellow color. The style has the lightest green tinge on it and may be a hair thicker than the anther’s filament.
Were you sucessful with the dapple supreme X sweet treat cross pollination? I tried this last year as well as X candy heart, since that is my second earliest bloomer behind dapple supreme, and got nothing. My dapple supreme is just starting to bloom now.
I’m not 100% sure, because I pollenated with the Sweet Treat and then re-pollinated with Burgundy plum pollen. Given I saw some early fruit sets, I suspect the Sweet Treat pollen is compatible with the Dapple Supreme.
I have a Candy Heart tree also, but it is one my youngest trees. Last year, it didn’t bloom until 3/14 for me though I imagine that will change a lot over the next couple years. Did your Dapple Supreme with Candy Heart pollen produce viable fruit?
FWIW, my Dapple Supreme started blooming on 1/14 this winter. That’s about a month earlier than last year. I have a number of early blooming varieties grafted last winter, but none of them has bloomed yet. None of my other plum interspecific even have green tipped bud swelling yet.
My Candy Heart pluerry is blooming right now. Nothing else is blooming yet. It sounds from this thread the things to try that taste good are Dapple Supreme, Emerald Drop, maybe Splash.
Laroda will be my next plum to bloom, probably starting to emerge next week. Just curious what other people are seeing blooming right now.
It has been an interesting bloom year. For the pluots and pluerries, much earlier for than usual. Here is what bloomed so far:
Dapple Supreme Pluot 1/14
Spice Zee Nectaplum 2/8
Long Beach Peach 2/3
Candy Heart Pluerry 2/10
Sweet Treat Pluerry 2/11
August Pride Peach 2/11
Flavor King Pluot 2/13
