Hello,
When I bought a flavor grenade pluot tree, it was found it needed a pollinator. The nursery seller recommended me a flavor king whose main trunk and a side branch were dead while the opposite branch is alive. I bought this flavor king pluot with a $15 rebate.
Now my question is how I plant this flavor king for its only one side branch alive?
Plant it vertically as it is now in the pot;
Plant it as the above option 1, but prune it lower next winter to let new symmetrical branches grow out;
Plant it tilt to let the single alive branch vertically as a new trunk;
I would plant the tree in ground , cut the dead branch off, trim the tall alive branch short , and let the lower newly grow branches grow into strong branches and selected couple of them as new scaffolds.
I wouldnât waste the wood as long as the roots in the pot are supporting it so well. Just plant the tree with a stake and tape the branch to the stake. That happens often with peach trees and I regularly retrain a branch to be the trunk. That branch is perfect for it.
If you cut it back you may have to wait an extra season for cross pollination as well as the fruit from the Flavor King. I think you will like it better than the Grenade.
You should plant it normally and then prune it for how you want it to grow:
A. If you have deer pressure or want it to be a taller tree you can prune it to to a modified central leader
B. If you are trying to keep it flat and tall you can prune it to a fan
C. If you have the space to grow it wide and want to do fruit picking and pruning without a step ladder you prune it to an open center
Assuming you want option C, you can actually do a partial girdle to restrict sap flow to the upright growth and keep that around for this season since its already leafed out, and then after this growing season (when its dormant) just remove it entirely.
Although you might be okay just removing the whole upright growth right now, would just stress the tree a bit.
Thanks to all of you!
Iâd like to have a better pluot Flavor King, but the tree label doesnât say it can be pollinated by a Flavor Grenade tree. It says Flavor Supreme pluot, Santa Rosa plum and Late Santa Rosa plum. Iâd like to have fruit from both Flavor Grenade and Flavor King pluot, but I am afraid it is too crowded (and too many fruit if this pollinatorâs fruit added) for another Santa Rosa plum.
I believe you just need the bloom times to overlap for them to pollinate. Not sure if there is any kind of plum vs pluot incompatibility at play.
You can always look into grafting a pollinator, its not very difficult after you watch a video or two. You just need to find some scion and look up the right time to do your grafting.
I donât think you have to worry about âtoo many fruitâ, lol.
I could be wrong, but where the left branch meets the trunk, it appears there is a canker/disease ( Maybe it is just a bit of pealing bark?). If you plan to keep that existing branch / top, I would cut out the infected area (if that is what it is) from the branch.
The new branches are growing in a nice vase shape. I would leave the vertical growth until the young branches mature enough to bloom, spreading them to a slightly lower angle, and then prune for a open center.
If it has a disease, I would cut it out. But if it is a pealing park, whether can it be cured? Or, it still has a risk of dead branch in the future?
BTW, here is about the center of Texas. The summer is hot (>100 F) and long (2 months). Do I need to protect the branch by painting it?
My hunch is that it is diseased because it appears to extend into the tree rather than just thin pealing. Also, there is a small, hardly noticeable, oval patch just below your finger tip at the top which resembles anthracnose canker. My canker ridden tree has similar. Unfortunately, I have not had the trees long enough to know how it will effect its vigor. As of now, mine appears to be growing and blooming well despite a pretty severe infection that is so prevalent pruning is impossible. Though, you may want to hear others opinions, as I am relatively new to fruit trees.
