I think I want to plant one more tree this year and was thinking about ordering a Spice Zee nectaplum. I do not currently have any plum or nectarine trees. Raintree lists the Spice Zee as self fruitful. How true is this? Like most self fruitful trees I’m sure it would benefit from having another plum nearby.
I know it’s late in the season for ordering bare root but raintree still lists them in stock. Pretty expensive having it shipped to east coast but if I don’t pony up now I’ll be a full year behind on a stone fruit tree.
It is, but I never seem to get a good fruit set on it for some reason, the last two seasons. Despite having plenty of cross pollinating options . I will say, the fruit is absolutely delicious, one of my most favorites, up there with Flavor King.
I would expect Spice Zee to be self fruitful. It’s a nectarine not a plum based on size, appearance, and taste. So a peach or nectarine would probably be more compatible. Mine has not been a heavy setting fruit. Usually sets enough to 2x what’s needed but man that’s perfect compared to the stuff needing endless thinning. The tree is vigorous and beautiful. Fruit rates about an 8 out of 10. An average nectarine, maybe a little above average, to my taste.
I think you’d probably be OK with just this one tree.
My Spice Zee looks good. It was pretty much winter killed to just above the rootstock in the 2013-14 winter. It grew 7 feet last summer, and this winter it was even colder, but the trunk and scaffolds are a lot thicker. It looks fine. Although no chance of fruit due to the cold temps. We have had 2 super cold winters in a row, it should be over for a decade. Last summer was amazing though. Perfect 75-80F temps all summer. Eveything grew like crazy. My blueberry plants are huge. The blackberries and raspberries grew crazy good. I covered the blackberries and it looks like it worked. Buds are swelling like crazy. I should get around 500 blackberries. I should get 4000 raspberries., Maybe 6K.
Spring is almost here and I can work and prep garden now. Today I’m planting radishes, lettuce, and sunflowers.
Well I ordered one without incident. I’m sure raintree will review the order and send me an email in a few days letting me know if they will send it. Now that I think about it I should have called and ordered over the phone but too late now.
Anyone know how they handle mid Atlantic orders considering they already sent their main shipment on March 20th?
I’m pitiful. This hobby is going to be addicting. I just called raintree and had them add a 4x1 Pluot (Flavor King, Flavor Queen, Flavor Supreme, Dapple Dandy) to my Spice Zee order. I need to stop reading so many great threads or else I’m going to go broke! I was sure I only wanted to devote enough room in my yard for 6 trees but it looks like it’s going to be eight now. They said they will ship out mid april. I assume as long as the buds haven’t broke they will be fine to plant bare root.
I knew if I didn’t get them in the ground this year then I might not see fruit until 2018. If I can get them in the ground this spring maybe I can at least get a coutlet of fruits next year.
Isn’t it pretty much the only variety of “Nectaplum”? Would nectarine, peach, and plum all pollinate it? I’ll see how it goes. At least it’s one of the prettiest bloomers.
As far as I know, Dave, it’s the only “nectaplum” by DWN (or anyone else). And, it is self-fruitful, but I would imagine any nectarine would pollinate it. Maybe a peach or plum, but less genetics from the latter two, so those would be less likely.
Dapple fire pluot is also a nectarine x peach x plum cross, or [((plum x((plum x nectarine))] x[((peach x ( peach x plum))], or 50% plum, 37.50% peach and 12.50% nectarine.
The Zaigers recently patented another plum x peach x nectarine hybrid named, “*Sunset Delight.” This one does looks like a true plum x peach/nectarine hybrid. It’s parentage is, [(dapple fire pluot x nectarine)] x [plum x nectarine]—pollen parent.
@speedster1 I received one of those 4-in-1 pluots the same day you got your last Raintree order in. It was thick calipered and the Dapple Dandy portion is much larger than any of the twiggy grafts. It’s too late to wander out to the field to lo0k, even if the moon is full, but IIRC, it appeared that the others had been grafted to the Dapple Dandy part and the King and Queen were very thin and supple. The 4th element was somewhat thicker and marked with green paint, but had no identifying hang tag. Until I talk to them I’ll assume it’s the Supreme that was listed. I don’t know if they all have that much variability in graft sizes, but thought you might like an idea of what you could expect.
Thanks for the heads up Muddy. 2 of my combo trees were like that. Especially the cherry. I’m still not sure how to decipher the graft on that thing.
You can only hope the mystery graft is the flavor supreme. On my apple one of the grafts wasn’t marked and according to what I ordered it should be either a Beni Shogun Fuji or a Jonagold. But that same apple also has a variety called summer red which wasn’t even listed on the website.
I don’t really understand their combos but I still keep buying them. My asian pear shouldve had Chojuro on it but instead had a European Anjou pear grafted on. Maybe it was for Polination. Who knows.
I was browsing GW earlier today after placing my order and noticed someone posted about a 4x1 Pluot tree that had a lot of issues and ultimately died after the first year. He didn’t mention where he got it but it had Dapple Dandy so it was likely from raintree.
What are the other colors? I have one of these too, it’s going on third leaf. It has not fruited due to cold winters, and I doubt it will fruit this year too. I don’t know for sure yet? Friday night was still below freezing, we are just getting above freezing now, all trees are still dormant. I expect bud swell any second now.
My DD was the biggest too, all were grafted unto the citation rootstock. As time goes on I have been able to balance the grafts better. It turned out not to be that hard. The first year growth was quite uneven, the 2nd year grow was more balanced. I like this tree. And mine is very healthy.
I just marked the grafts as to what is what from my records, as the paint is almost gone on all grafts. I want to confirm I marked them right.