I have heard varieties dying can be an issue with multi grafted trees. Some are for it because it gives you a longer season (pretty sure you can get pluots all summer with the 4 in 1 pluots for example) and it is good for pollination. Others are against it because you can often buy 2-3 trees for the price of one multi grafted tree, you need to know how to prune the tree correctly and it is more likely to have failed grafts later on. I have heard a lot of stories with trees dying from Stark Bros though. I have had mixed results with Stark Bros. Their Super Red Fuji apple came dormant and never came out of dormancy, I got a asian plum that I forget the variety and the roots had white stuff on it and while it got leaves on it they turned brown and wrinkled, I got a bubblegum plum and it lost all leaves but two this year so we will see if it survives the winter, with my cranberry plants some have done well while some died which is strange because all my huckleberry have lived I got on another site, I got their dwarf golden donut peaches and they looked good but were so small and I was new so they got eaten to the ground in a week, My sweetheart apricot I got from them was super small/skinny and got brown on the leaves as well as lost most of itās leaves, I am pretty sure their Early Fuji came with fire blight. The success stories are my Stark white Donut peaches on standard have survived 2 years now, the Aztec Fuji on semi dwarf I bought this year did decent through the fall, my asparagus came up and survived the summer, my Prok persimmon has done well and lived from them all year long, my Zestar! apples on standard I got from them came out of dormancy and put out a lot of growth, my Seckle pear on standard put out some growth then my strawberries from them have done well. So what have I learned about Stark Bros you may ask. If you are buying something cheap like asparagus I would wait for a sale for one because that is why I bought that from them and I would know you are safe when buying asparagus from them. The second thing I have learned about them is buy either semi dwarf rootstock or standard from Starks since all my dwarf has been a failure and they charge more for it anyway. The last thing I learned about Starks is expect to pay a lot for a small plant like I said above. Most of my trees are not above or much above 2 feet when I get them and most trees are super skinny from them and will need support and heavy protection. They do not seem to thicken up quickly too unless it is something like a peach. My got a Mountain Rose apple and my Zestar! around the same time (the Mountain Rose apple may be less time even) and both were around the same size. In one year my mountain rose apple is a diameter I donāt need to worry about animals as much diameter wise but my Zestar! are still skinny.
Between Burnt Ridge and Isonāsā¦which is more likely to have bigger trees? Iām looking at two pluots. Might as well get them before they go up even more.
Cheapest?
Andā¦cultivar youāre looking at.ā
And shipping?
Have you looked at One Green World for pluots? They are all likely to come from Dave Wilson so are likely to be similar in size. I believe Zaiger is the family who created the pluot and they work for Dave Wilson. I was surprised at how much pluot costs rose within a few months. I 2 4 in 1 pluot both the regular and zee sweet for 60 dollars at Raintree while it was on sale. Raintree had them listed for something like 90 or 110 depending on the one by September and Bay Laurel was selling them for 65 then. I think pluot demand is rising because they realize they are sweeter than asian plums and will pollinate things like the Nadia cherry, other pluots and other asian plums.
āBigger treesā is irrelevant for pluots, as they are very vigorous and will grow very well in the first two years to give you a good crop in the third year regardless of the tree size that you start with, provided you get a 2-year old tree and fertilize and water it well. Of course some pluots are known to be shy producers whether you start with a big or small tree.
Which hybrid cultivars have a bad reputation for setting fruit? From reading things here and a few other places it looks like Flavor Supreme and Bella Gold Peacotum (not a pluot, but a Zaiger hybrid). Maybe Flavor Queen, but I think people just didnāt like it because it was mostly just sweet with little else going on?
Would 5ā tall ~3-4ā diameter welded wire fencing held in place with landscaping staples be enough to keep deer at bay from young trees? Or is there a better DIY sort of solution?
edit: Iām thinking either Spring Satin plumcot and Candy Heart pluerry from one nursery or Nadia Cherryplum and Candy Heart from the other. Iām doing the two trees in a hole thing. Theyāll have a Shiro nearby for early plum pollen.
Anyone considering putting together a group order for somewhere like Vaughns that has fair wholesale prices? Thatās a way we can ācroudsourceā cheaper treesā¦
We currently have one started with Hartmanns but they sell mostly shrubs and vines rather than trees.
The two I can recommend are Flavor King and Flavor Grenade. Still trialing other varieties. Narrow spacing didnāt work well for me, Iād say 6ā is the minimum spacing that gave good results, and even then I would train trees to either V or modified central leader, not to open center.
I talked to the manager of the department over the phone because I was concerned that the 4 in 1 pluot was rated to zone 6 while all single pluots were rated to zone 5 where I am. He said all would live in zone 5 just fine but others would be less likely to produce consistently every year due to late or unexpected frosts in zone 5. That would be more of my concern. In my experience ripeness really matters with pluots from the grocery store. The ones that looked so ripe they were almost looked bad tasted the best. I like the red ones more than the green ones but that is personal preference.
That welded wire will keep out deer here, but not rabbits if its the 2"x4" mesh. I prefer a U-post or T-Post to hold the wire in place.
I have a mix of welded wire and cattle panel for individual trees. Welded wire is easier to set up and less expensive. Cattle panel is easier to manage.
I agree about ripeness mattering for the store bought pluots, but unfortunately I think its ripeness when picked, not just softening with age on the shelf.
I have not had one of my own pluot yet but have some on order. I had to wait until next year to even order them because the 4 in 1 sell out so fast in the spring and I wanted a constant harvest. Given how sweet pluots can get when let ripened on the shelf I canāt imagine how sweet they get on the tree. Clearly pluot are popular for a reason. Those trees get quite big though. They seem to only sell the 4 in 1 on citation which supposedly get 18 feet. That is as big as Emla 111 for apples which is 90% of standard apple size. The big size is likely a reason I would think you get so many pluot off of one tree.
Do you have a photo of your cattle panel welded wire combination? I need to figure out what to use on some of my trees. I thought about the cattle panels.
Its not a combination, its one or the other.
Hereās the cattle panel:
And hereās a welded wire.
This one wasnāt very secured and the deer did push it around to browse some of the leaves through the holes. I get sloppy as I have many. Many of the cattle panel enclosures have no anchor at all, but generally stay in place and are easier to lift off and/or reach through.
For smaller things I need some protection from rabbits for the first foot or so of trunk.
Thank you for the photos. Nicely done. I have some young trees that the small deer are eating the leaves off of last year. Great job!
Yes, deer will push them around or flatten them (welded wire cages) if you have less than 3 posts on them. I use 25ā of wire and 4 posts for each cage and overlap at first, expanding as the tree grows.
I use cement wire to make cages. Itās cheaper than welded wire or cattle panels. Itās much heavier than welded wire, not as heavy as cattle panels. I use one t-post to hold them in place. Rarely have any issues with deer messing with them.
Formerly, as a family business, Raintree may have been higher than Burnt Ridge, but not higher than Stark or Gurney, or several nurseries that handle more rare cultivars.
They may be leading the industry in pricing this 2022-2023 season.
For some reason several fruit trees I ordered from Gurneys didnāt turn out well. But the ones I ordered from Raintree in the past are at least fruiting.
I think the only times Iāve ordered from Gurney in the last 25+ years is for a 65% off sale, or for some seeds they have that are exclusive. Some 50 years ago they got more of my business than anyone.