What do commercial orchards use as pollenizers for plums/pluots?

General Fruit Growing
#1

I am growing a few trees from pits that saved from store bought plums and pluots. Just curios what the big operations might plant with their main varieties for pollen sources.

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#2

I think Dave Wilson’s Nursery had a chart for cross pollinating pluots.

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#3

Do you know what state or where the produce was from. It would help you in figuring out pollenizer i feel

#4

I am just looking for a general answer. I don’t know much about where they all came from. They are plums and pluots from local grocery stores and Wal-Mart.

#5

Most of the time Walmart is selling Dinosaur eggs or Dapple Dandy. So you can look at DWN chart for pollination.

#6

They may be able to pollinate each other.bb

#7

Following are the Dave Wilson recommendations for plums and pluots. The commercial lists contain a lot of varieties that are not available for home gardeners for buying and using as pollinators. However, on the home gardener list, the same variety may use very common plums/pluots for pollinating, and may require less chilling hours.
In my experience in socal, the main factor is for the trees to be blooming at the same time. Santa Rosa plum will pollinate a lot of pluots and plums while Burgundy and Catalina will not do as well. However, Santa Rosa is not reliable in the timing, duration, and the amount of flowers each year. Last fall, I added a Beauty plum and a Weeping Santa Rosa plum. I was very happy because nearly every plum and pluot trees were full of fruits this summer, even though the Santa Rosa only had a few late flowers in June.
Please note that some of the plums and pluots will not be true to seed.

https://www.davewilson.com/product-information-commercial/product/pluot-interspecific-plums

https://www.davewilson.com/product-information/product/pluot-interspecific-plums

https://www.davewilson.com/product-information-commercial/product/plums

https://www.davewilson.com/product-information/product/plums-japanese

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#8

So I started this thinking I might get some idea of potential crosses that I’m growing out. After looking over the long list of commercial varieties and the many possible pollenizers, I now realize there is no way to know. Oh well, half the fun is not knowing​:man_shrugging:t2::melon:

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#9

I have started some seeds from various grocery store pluots. The seedlings are growing like crazy in my office right now. I e-mailed an orchard or two to find out possible pollinators. None of them ever e-mailed me back. I thought about calling them, but I figured my chances of finding someone who knew the orchard layout, knew bloom times of all their varieties, and was willing to spend a few minutes talking with someone that wasn’t going to make them any money was astronomical, so I didn’t bother to call. I’ve got the space for now, so I’ll just grow them out and see what happens.

#10

I noticed that Flavor King Pluot will pollinate Sweet Treat Pluerry on DWN. But is the reverse true as well? Or do I need something else for the Flavor King?

#11

I don’t know about any pollination incompatibilities among Asian plums and pluots. If their bloom times overlap they will cross-pollinate each other.

#12

Is a pluerry considered an Asian plum from a pollination stand-point?

#13

Yes.

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#14

Stan, would you expect apricots to be able to pollinate pluots?

#15

I have so many trees of different species and varieties, it’s difficult to say what pollinates what, hence I can only rely on what I read. I don’t remember ever seeing a mention of an apricot as a pollinator for a pluot, so I would guess the general answer is no. With regard to pollination, I would just consider pluots the same as Asian plums.

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