Sweet Treat Pluerry in Maritime Pacific Northwest

I bought a Sweet Treat bare root tree via mail order in winter 2013-2014. Last year it had a few fruits, not much. This year there were a few dozen, which is plenty for us. Photo shows a comparison with Hollywood plums, which are now at the end of their season, almost over-ripe now. The Sweet Treat have been edible, but now losing their tartness and tasting a little like a plum fruit cocktail. Quite delicious and sweet. Tasting at the same time, Hollywood has a richer, deeper plum flavor, while Sweet Treat is sweeter, more sparkly flavor, and has a texture more like sweet cherries. Together, they are nice in a fruit salad, and you would never mistake one for the other.

As for growing properties, my tree is very upright, which got it above deer browsing height fairly fast, although I do have it well fenced. The leaves usually look a little crinkled and a few holes in the leaves, but it has good vigor. It has some peach genetics, but has not suffered from peach leaf curl. Well, maybe slight, but very slight if at all. Apricots in my yard always die within 2 years, but the apricot genes in Sweet Treat don’t seem enough to have that effect here. It blooms very early, The only potential pollinators that were blooming at the same time, were Hollywood and Crimson Spire plums, especially Crimson Spire. Methley might overlap a little at the end of Sweet Treat’s bloom. I cut blooming sticks from Crimson Spire and, later, Hollywood, and placing them in the branches of Sweet Treat to encourage pollination. It was chilly and rainy when these were blooming, with few pollinating insects around. This year, it got minimal watering despite a historic hot dry summer, with daytime times in 90s and low 100s, and almost no rain for months. Last year it was watered more because it was younger.

I didn’t post any photos of the Crimson Spire plums, which ripened a month or more ago. They are the size of big sweet cherries, very tender, and a very rich flavor. But not much flesh per plum.

I thought I would post, because the info on Sweet Treat doesn’t seem all that available yet, and the climate here is sometimes a challenge. I created a new topic, since this was a little different from the prior posts about Sweet Treat. I hope that’s OK.

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Bear,

It is nice to hear from you again. I got a dozen Sweat Treat this year and I liked them. I had big issue with the Japanese beetles this year. They were so dense that even the farmers in my area were complaining that they damaged their soy beans. I hit so many of them while driving on the Interstate. Just have to live with them and spayed liquid Sevin and put down Milky spores in the lawn.

Tony

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Tony, Wish I had an answer for Japanese beetles. They must not be around here. But we do have a lot of other pests. Glad you got to taste Sweet Treat. For me, it fills a gap, ripening after most of my Asian plums, but before the European plums.

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Could you report your sweat treat again this year please. @Bear_with_me Mine 3 years old but no fruit yet. Last year I almost replace it with Beauty plum but now I found out Beauty plum favor is very bland so maybe have to keep sweet treat back again.
Why your sweat treat look a lot darker in color compare with Weatherman sweet treat and do you have any fruit crack problem when it has heavy rain ? Thank you Daniel.
I can’t believe today I just found out my sweet treat has 1 fruit this year.

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You can pick it like in the first picture when they are crunchy,a little tart and pretty good, or when are darker, soft and sweeter like in the second picture. I have two trees. The one in the second picture is at a cooler location so it sets fruit and ripens about a month earlier. They are both from Dave Wilson Nursery. The picture are from the trees today so the fruits hang on for quite a while.

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Thank you so much btle. Overall do you like sweet treat flavor very much? What is its pollinators? Do you have Sugar twist and candy heart as well? Again thank you for informations .
Vincent

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I only bought a Sugar Twist about three weeks ago. It came with only one fruit but it was the biggest and tasted the best of the three types. My Candy Heart are not soft yet, but they are not good when firm, they will be relative big and sweet when ripen. Sweet Treat comes early so it is good for me because there is no risk of a heat wave. It is only really good when crunchy, not in between stages. After eating some for about a week, we are waiting for them to ripen more and get soft and sweeter on the tree. For the tree that we picked first, it has been about one month and it is still firm. For pollination, I have all the trees recommended, and pluots in one section so I don’t know which one did the work.

https://www.davewilson.com/product-information/product/sweet-treat-pluerry-interspecific-plum
https://www.davewilson.com/product-information/product/candy-heart-pluerry-interspecific-plum
https://www.davewilson.com/product-information/product/sugar-twist-pluerry-interspecific-plum

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They’re like a plum, not all them can eat firm stage. I’ve heard Candy Heart is the best tasting in all but my tree was not performing well in Seattle wet weather so it’s hard for me to have a chance for tasting it . pluots, Apricots are not easy to have good crops here so I don’t have those . You should have Emerald Beaut plum down there.
Why your sweet treat in cooler area ready a month earlier? It should be in warmer or sunnier area.

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My area has warm/hot and dry climate most of the year so plants that require 300 chill hours or less have better chance of getting fruits. The trees on the hill side meet the chill hours requirement earlier because of the wind, so they flower and set fruit earlier than the ones close to the house. I am gambling quite a bit by planting on the hill side trees like Emerald Beaut plum or Arctic Rose/Queen nectarines which required 600-700 chill hours. Last year winter was hot so they didn’t have much fruits, but this year they have a lot. Last few years, we went up north during summer to taste the fruit at the farmer markets. Whatever we liked we would buy the trees in pot when they were on clearance in the Fall and plant them in bigger container. We always buy the ones that overgrown a little, so most of the time they will have some fruits the next season. That way we don’t waste time waiting to know if the trees will survive the heat, and if the fruit taste good in our area. After two seasons we would know if we want to keep the tree.

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Vincent, my Sweet Treat Pluerry contracted some sort of bark disease and died. I liked the fruits, sort of a tropical punch flavor. Unfortunately, I’m downsizing a bit, and not replacing finicky trees that take too much trouble, produce too little fruit, and die.

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Thank you so much. @Bear_with_me
I understand thank for information.
It’s surprised me I found out my sweet treat had 1 fruit. Hopefully squirrels will let me taste it. I still have 7 little pawpaw fruits left, it’s interesting look them growing slowly every day. Thank again.
Take good care Daniel.

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Delicious sweet treat pluerry.
Excellent tasting, recommended fruit tree to everyone.

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Glad to see you got some. Mind are producing like mad. I’ve had 3 branches break. My fault. I didn’t get to pruning or thinning it.

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OMG. My tree had only 5 fruits. I just bought the different trees. I really like the flavor of Sweet Treat. But I am so happy to see the picture of your tree, which proved it performs well in PCN. Thank you Jason. Do you have Candy heart and Sugar twist pluerries?

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My big and very productive one is Sugar Twist. I have Sweet Treat as well but it is small. My Fragrance Pear is doing great as well that you gave me. If you are heading this way any time soon, you can come pick some of the pluerry I have.

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Great. We will stop by. Thank you so much for offering @SnacksFromPlants, Jason.

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My SweetTreat got canker and died. I wont replace it. There might be something else for that spot. They were tasty…

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@Bear_with_me , Yes Knew you have Sweet Treat fruits really early among all of us in PCN Daniel.! So sorry to hear your tree died. I really like them because of their tasty can enjoyable unripe fruits. I am not sure the Sugar Twist or compare the fruit quality between both of them.
Candy heart wasn’t performing well with me so removed it a couple years ago.

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@vincent_8b I think Im giving up unusual hybrid fruit trees. i’m glad you are still growing some.

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We had a wonderful time together. Discussing about our fruit trees . It’s very exciting time with @SnacksFromPlants Jason.(August 11.21)

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