Which of these Pluot® varieties would you recommend?

General Fruit Growing
#1

Hey there!

For my planned Orchard i would like to have some plums.

I read that the Pluot® Hybrids are very sweet and good tasting.

There is a german and also slovakian nursery which are selling these ones:

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=de&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=de&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fpflanzenspezl.de%2Fpflanzen%2Fpluot%C2%AE--31%2Fsorten.html&edit-text=

Flavour Supreme®
Flavour Candy®
Purple Candy ®

I also found a variety which is available in the UK:

Flavour King®

What are the best in terms of sweetness and flavour?

I would like two that are very sweet and have a minimum level of tartness.

What are the best of those four that i mentioned?

Iam also looking at Gages / Mirabelles from this site which i might add:

Large Green Gage, Count Althans Gage, Nancy Mirabelle and Blue Kriecherl

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#2

I’ve only tried two Flavor Supreme and King. Haven’t heard of the other two.

F Supreme has some tartness at skin and pit. But it’s widely recognized as one of the very best plum/pluot. Properly grown it’s nothing short of sensational IMO.

If any pluot is better it’s F King. This one has less to no tartness.

There are sweeter pluots but none better for flavor. And both are very sweet or at least can be in the right climate and culture. They need heat and not over watered to be at their best. You need summer heat in the 30C range.

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#3

The summer heat might be a problem.

Its pretty inconsistent.

Reaching from 20°C to around 30°C

Though, our climate is more arid than humid and it doesnt rain much. (despite it says it rains much on wiki but it isnt true where we have our house)

Maybe it works, maybe not.

I might try them in the next few years.

Ill probably get the Flavour King and the Pruple Candy by then.

Thanks.

#4

Fruitnut: a related question, will regular plums (methley, laroda etc) pollinate pluots?
Thanks

#5

At those summer temperatures I think you’d do much better with European plums. There’s a reason for that name. They can get very sweet.

#6

Yes they will as long as they bloom together. Most of the people who frequent this site have enough varieties that pollination isn’t an issue.

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#7

Couldnt resist and put in Flavor Supreme and Flavor King myself, knowing about the risk. Our summer are even less consistent in the 30°C - range. But the heck, descriptions of the fruit qualities of those 2 varieties sound so promising to me…

I planted them into an espalier hoping for the best.

@Austro_PawPaw: Stay away of those “Blue Mirabelle”. They actually are not a mirabelle but a simple myrobalane. I am not happy reading their product description. They seem to mix them up with true mirabelles on purpose, just hinting on the fact its not a mirabelle.

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#8

@carot

Could you upload a photo of your FK espalier. I find Plum, and apricots to be very challenging to espalier. Peaches too.

Thanx

Mike

#9

Hi Mike, planted them 3 weeks ago, so nothing to show right now.

I am trying to do a lepage espalier. I did put in only stonefruit. This might end disastrous but I am willing to try.

#10

Hmm…

Do you know any round European Plum with red - dark flesh that is very to extremely sweet?

We have a few Italian Plums (elongated) that are not that good. (Too sour imo)

They are better for baking than for fresh eating.

There is a Plum tree not far away from us that has big round fruits with a sweet taste … the skin was tart though.

What i heard is that the Gages are really sweet and are good in our climate.

Ill have to ask the nursery about them.

Hey, it seems like i made a mistake there.

Its a Prunus domestica subsp. insititia.

Its close related to the Mirabelle.

We call them “Kriecherl”.

I was just curious about this because many in the wild are sour.

#11

Its their fault cause they put those Kriecherl and Mirabelle de Nancy into the same basket.

Of course it is close related to other plums but their quality is way of compared to mirabelles. Plus mirabelles are always freestone and Myrobalane are not.

There is no dark fleshed extremely sweet europ. plum. Green Gage and Mirabelle de Nancy are very sweet and might fit you.

There are very sweet europ. plums too but not dark fleshed. Valor can get very sweet. Toptaste is very sweet but has other disadvantages (not free stone) and many more.

If a yellow fruit is ok for you, you might try to get Aprimira. But be careful about your source since there is a wrong labeled Aprimira that doesnt taste as well as the true stuff. Its an offspring of Mirabelle von Herrenhausen. I will put Aprimira in as soon as I get it (scion swap).

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#12

Flavor Grenade pluot do well in cooler climate.

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#13

Yeah they should have separted them.

They seem to be inferior, though still would like to taste this selection.

Well, colour is not the most important thing for me.

What i really want is a different type of plum compared to our elongated ones.

The ones we have: Flesh is dense, dry and sour

I would seek ones that have a soft, juicy and very sweet flesh.

But i guess that you are right with the Gages.

They would be a welcome addition to our place, we have nothing similar here.

I havent found that one yet.

Most european sources have the ones that i mentioned.

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#14

Flavor Grenade pluot is excellent pluot very sweet and crisp hand well on the tree for long time and the only one I know do well in the cooler areas without changing its flavor. Hopefully the nurseries there will be available for it some day. Or some one in US ship bare root or its seeds to you, but some they say seedling come out not true variety. I am living in Pacific Northwest very cool place, planted one last year, not fruiting yet but a lot of flower now.

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#15

My Green gage tastes very good, juicy brix 21+ for first year, but fruit is too small in size. Now I am waiting my Golden transparent and Bavay gage coming soon.

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#16

If that is correct I was wrong and it actually is a plum we call Haferpflaume. They are quite similar to Myrobalane and still the fruit would be far inferior to mirabelles for fresh eating purposes.

If I could get it Flavor Grenade would be an interesting adition. But those other zaiger pluots are not available over here. At least I didnt find a source.

#17

I find that they grow like weeds. Constantly have to prune upright (watershoots?) the whole season. If left alone some have put on 5-6 feet in vertical growth.

I tried fan as well as traditional horizontal branches but the growth is hard to control for me.

Mike

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#18

Thanks for the heads up. Will do 3-4 layer of scaffolds, 50 cm in between scaffolds. For that I do need some vigor. After that some fruiting would be nice to calm down the tree.
My trees are on st. julien a rootstock. Its moderate vigor combined with my sandy soil (on the dry side) might be enough to keep em in check. St julien a is known to have low vigor on light and dry soils, sometimes too low. Will see

#19

Flavor King is not that vigorous and may do well as an espalier.
I grow both, going on 5th leaf and Flavor Supreme has never produced so far. They bloom early, Flavor King produced a few and man it’s good. Tastes nothing like any plum I ever had, in a good way! Still I would probably not have put them in, although even getting half a dozen seems worth it. Mine are all on one tree. This year looks good, they are just loaded with buds, but I’m a month away from last possible frost. Which is fine, but heavy freezes can happen too. My cacti and figs are outside now. My cacti can take frost no problem.

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#20

I’ve got FQ, FS, FK, and DD. I enjoy all of them minus FQ, but FK was the best. I may have picked FQ too early.