When Is spice zee best grafted? Same as plum or later and warmer like peach grafting?
Dennis
Kent wa
It’s a nectarine. Nothing about it suggests plum. So it treat like a peach.
I have never grown a Nectar plum but I have read that it’s self-pollinating. Most Nectarines are also self-fertile. Or do you want to create hybrids between the two?
As far of Spice Nectaplum’s parentage, it’s only 12.50% plum.
I think the only Plum trait in SpiceZee is the color of the leaf.
If you read the name SpiceZee nectarplum, something jumps out to me that says there must be a plum part of the hybrid, which is why I am hoping some member with grafting experience with this variety can give me an informed answer! So if there is a member here who has grafted this nectarplum, please advise.
Dennis
I have had Mericrest nectarine grafted and flowering for two seasons so far. But never a fruit sets, so I’m trying to decide if Spice Zee would possibly cross pollinate it or if I should just scrap that variety. Since I have only one nectarine it occurred to me that perhaps it needs something to cross pollinate it. The same situation with my five year old Frost peach, nary a fruit set after all those blossoms!
Dennis
That being the case I will wait on more optimal callousing weather Nectarines/Peaches – 18-26 deg C. ( 64.4 to 78.8F).
Thanks
Dennis
Hi Dennis. I have had great success grafting onto both almond and peach volunteer rootstock.
This is a second year graft of Nectaplum on an almond.
These three trees were grafted in January and are currently leafing out in my greenhouse.
They seem to heal much more quickly with a whip n tongue graft but i have a couple that are cleft. On peach and almond I’m 7 for 7 grafting it. But onto apricot I’m 0 for 2. But that was field grafted and we had 20º weather then next week.
Temperature seems to matter. And its hard to control outside weather 
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It’s got a small amount of plum but effectively it’s a nectarine. It looks like a nectarine and acts like one. It’s also self fertile.
It’s just like apriums. They have a bit of plum but are really apricots.
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Do you know if it can cross pollinate other apriums like Cot N Candy or other nectarines? I am also looking for best pollinator for Ozark Premiere
Dennis
I think SZ would pollinate other nectarines and peaches but not plums, apricots, pluots, or apriums.
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I will probably graft it onto one of my nectarine and one of my peach trees to hopefully get some fruit setting, thanks
Dennis
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Has anyone here grown these from seed? I have 4 seedlings from nectaplums that I bought last year. I loved them, so I saved and germinated a few. 3 are green, one is red. I can’t find anything online about people trying this, or what the outcome might be. I’m fully aware that I might get weird fruit.
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How do you like Spicezee compared to Arctic Star? If Arctic Star is a10/10, what is Spicezee?
Basic Punnet square 4x4 would predict recessive traits from a self fertile hybrid backcrossed to itself would be 1 in 16 for any given trait. Sounds like the red leaves might be recessive. The green dominant? But many scientists now think Mendel fudged his pea numbers. Many traits are actually controlled across multiple alleles so its difficult to predict outcomes. That said peaches and apricots, and i assume nectarines, tend to breed out fairly close to parent characteristics.
A peach would be the best candidate to pollinate your nectarine.
Thanks Ulises for your feedback, my closest peach tree, a Frost on dwarf rootstock is about 15’ away, so maybe I will add a peach graft on the top leader of the nectarine to see if that helps
Dennis
My guess Sam us that your red ones are following traits of the cherry plum p cerasifera since most other plums I know if are green leafed. The green ones following the nectarine heritage. I would grow all out enough to get scions you can graft onto mature trees to see the actual results! Treat them as your test case and you might be surprised! I have three Sweet Treat pluery seedlings and several Obilnaya seedlings that I am growing out to see what they produced. So far these two are out most favored plums
Dennis
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