Are you with me on Toka plum. It is very productive, medium size fruits, very fragrant, juicy with a hint of bubblegum in flavor and so so so sweet and the most reliable plum in my orchard. I need to graft more branches of this plum. To me it is a must have instead of all my hard to get fruits California pluots in my Z5 including F. King, supreme, Grenade, Queen, Geopride, Splash and the Nadia, Sweet Treat pluerry,. I may as well bark graft the Toka plum all over these trees and just leave a branch or so of these pluots. Go with the good sure thing like Toka!!!
Cool, Mine is ripening for the first time. I have a scaffold of it. Grows like a weed!
Well you can have too much of a good thing. So far are really like Dapple Dandy, Flavor Queen, Spring Satin and Weeping Santa Rosa. Looking forward to trying Hollywood, Vermont, Inca, Laroda, and Lavina. I tasted Superior but it was immature. The squirrels seem to prefer it! Plus my branch is small, I will probably let it grow more before taking a harvest.
My tree died from spraying weed killer around the bottom. I’m glad I didn’t do that on any other trees. My Toka grafts grew well but the fruit was small. They do taste good though, and yes I could get the hint of bubblegum too. It’s a heavy crop thinning is required.
The Dapple series pluots are monsters and yes, it’s a huge plus! They are good too! Some don’t like them, I can say they are terrible under ripe, Let them hang and hang folks! Or let them ripen on the counter.
Just look at those puppies!
@tonyOmahaz5,
My Toka bloomed 2 weeks after all 15-16 plum, pluots, cherry plum varieties on the same tree. It is still blooming now while everything else is past bloom. This pic was taken a few mins ago.
I wonder how much it will set fruit due to this late blooming. I did detect bubblegum flavor last year. I think the flavor is not for everyone. I like it. I also like Laroda and Lavina and Elephant Heart.
I am with you re. Flaver Supreme, Flavor Granade and Flavor King. These 3 were grafted since 2016. They have flowered but have not set fruit. Of these 3, only Flavor King has put out some growth. The other two are still a foot long. What a waste of time.
I’m glad to see that. I have grafts of those. I have Flavor king growing well from two year old grafts and on a rootstocks too about five foot tall. I should get fruit this year if the freeze didn’t kill it.
Something going on there. Flavor Supreme is one of the most vigorous growers I have ever seen. My pluot grafts put fruit out the 2nd year even if small. Some grew 3 feet in the first or 2nd season. Not like I’m warm here either. I find most pluots grow like weeds. King and Queen are slower growers for me. The rest not so much.
I have had grafts just kinda stand still. I want to move them, and try somewhere else.
Toka fruit can range from gumball size to regular plum size, depending on fruit load. Since they are freestone, I tried to get them smaller by thinning less. Then it rained all summer and they were bland.
I hate too much rain during harvest time because it ruined the sweetness of the fruits.
I only got one fruit of these last year on a young tree and it was really good. I hope I get more this year!
I am always looking out for a good plum. Is anyone growing this in the southeast? Or is it a disease magnet like methley.
“Something going on there”
That’s why we exchange experience because the same fruit variety can behave so differently.
You said Flavor King is a slow grower for you. Mine grows decently compares to the Grenade and Supreme. Things happen.
I am more interested in @thecityman’s pluot. A few grafts of it are blooming. Hope I can try the fruit this year.
Yeah that’s cool. I grafted some but the tree it was on died. So I lost it. It looks like Early Dapple to me, It may not be, but it sure looks like some type of Dapple related genetics going on there…
I believe some don’t grow because of a poor take on a graft, or other reasons. I agree location is really important too. But stunting can be caused by any number of reasons.
Not always easy to know why? As I have moved some and they did explode and take off. I myself move them before i write off the problem as environmental.
I’m going to make my own pluot, I have one now and will be germinating more seeds. I’m growing a fig from seed and chances are about 1% it will be any good? I crossed Dapple Jack with Spring Satin, but I think it didn’t take. I will grow out some mother nature crossed.
Drew51 Any tips on growing Plouts? I’m in Southeast GA and I planted 2 different 4-in1’s this winter.
It’s hard to say we all have different environments and objectives. I like my trees small so I prune to an open bowl shape and try to keep tree to no more than 7 feet tall, or close.
Direction to put what pluot where matters, but it’s already done. Many say a multi-grafted tree is hard to handle, hard to keep each cultivar in it’s place, and not let one overwhelm others. I myself found it rather easy. After 8 years of pruning fruit trees, I’m rather brutal these days. Do not let it get out of control, and prune as many times as needed to keep it in check. Careful not to remove a graft too! Been there done that! Mark them well!
Check out the Dave Wilson nursery videos for advice on how to grow pluots.
https://www.davewilson.com/community-and-resources/videos-list
Oh yeah. I’ve already watched all his backyard orchard videos. I plan on keeping it pruned up so no 1 variety dominates the combination. I have several 3 and 4 tree plantings in 1 hole in my backyard. The pluots have their own space though. I tried to plant the smallest graft to the south when I planted them. I couldn’t find much online about which varieties were the most aggressive, so I went with graft size. I hope that works out. I’m in the south, so I’ll be dealing with lots of heat and humidity. I hope it makes it.
I agree, Fruitnut seems to know everything. I asked him once, and he knows a lot about pluots. These days though he has been growing nectarines and figs more. . He is the best grower I know of whatever he feels like growing!
Yes, that may be a problem. Well anything you report will help other growers. I push the envelope all the time. It’s best to have the best fruit for your area first. Then experiment. That way you always get some harvest.
Pluots work here, but I can’t get the high brix the west coast can get. Some also ripen very late. On brix I still like my fruit as it still has a higher brix then the fruit at the store. In CA it has to be picked so early, I can beat that no problem. So the pluots are way better grown here, then imported here.
@Drew51 how many main scaffolds does your multigrafted plum have and do you have a pic you can share? I don’t think the tree I’m working on can be kept as 7ft but id like to see one and maybe get some ideas.
I have 4 multigrafted trees. I’m not home and only have a photo of one of them. The trees have 3-5 scaffolds.
The tree is loaded with fruit this year
This tree has three pluots, two nectarines and the tree is Indian Free peach. So this has six which is too many but I ran out of graft locations. All have fruit this year. I’m putting in two more trees next year. I started a fifth multigrafted tree but it’s not done. It has two grafts right now. I need to add more.
That photo is from 2020 season. I have a few photos this year as it produced so many more flowers this year then what’s in that photo. I should have taken one of the whole tree I only photographed scaffolds.
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I’ve got to come visit when you graft, friend. I’ve been trying to graft over this plum and I have a Toka success that hasn’t given me a fruit and a new Black Ice that has done ok. The root stock sends up more suckers than anything else in the yard. One sucker has gotten pretty large and I think I may graft onto that and remove the original plum (which has a 3+ inch diameter).
Maybe I should have you visit next spring and let you see how I’m grafting. I’ve had some successes (plum, apple, persimmon, pawpaw (1 of 8 here).
Scott