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mikeybob_gw

Saved Seeds: Pluots, Muscadines

mikeybob
19 years ago

I have a question regarding what seeds might be worth the bother of planting. For instance, I don't think I would plant apple seeds unless I was going to plant thousands of them. I think the odds are that I would have to grow that many to get results. But I have some seeds that I saved this year and I wonder if they are worth growing ...

My pluot tree fruited this year and I saved the pits. The pollinator was a methley plum. Would planting these be like planting apple seeds, or would a pluot/plum cross be more likely to produce something worthwhile?

Also, I have a muscadine that fruited and I saved those seeds. I forget the name ... but it's one of the most cold hardy muscadines and it was pollinated by wild muscadines. I think the seeds could produce very hardy vines, but again I don't know how likely they would be to have good fruit.

Does anybody here have a feel for this stuff?

Comments (16)

  • Walter_Pickett
    19 years ago

    First the muscadine seeds. Muscadines are only a few generations from the wild. And they are not crosses with anything but other muscadines. they should give acceptable fruit. I wish I was far enough south for muscadines.
    The pluot x plum should mostly have pretty good plums. Both apricots and Japanese plums have reputations for having generally good seedlings. Based on that, I think their hybrids should be good. A new variety worth introducing? Not likely. But pretty good.
    Odds are better than with apples.
    Walter

  • boizeau
    19 years ago

    I would love to trade for a few of that Muscadine seeds. I live in Tacoma Washington, and sounds like you are on the northern limit of its range, so It would be fun to grow them up here.
    What sort of things do you need?
    Boizeau
    Usually post in Northwest Forum.

  • Elakazal
    19 years ago

    Has anyone ever tried muscadines in the Pacific Northwest? They'd seem to be possible just in terms of winter lows, but I don't recall hearing about it, so I was wondering if other limiting factors come into play?

    While most muscadines aren't too many generations from wild, in researching pedigrees recently I've been impressed by how much breeding actually has gone on: the University of Georgia has been breeding these things for a long while, and Florida, NC, and USDA did a lot of breeding. Some of these are six plus generations from wild...

  • miketrees
    19 years ago

    From the work I have done, you will get a very high percentage of good seedlings from your plum/pluot crosses

  • mikeybob
    Original Author
    19 years ago

    That's great! My Methley plum tree has grown well here and is very productive. My pluot tree hasn't done as well, but the pluots are much larger and have excellent flavor. Maybe if I'm lucky one of the seedlings will grow well here and produce tasty fruit.

    I still have the pluot pits in the refrigerator. I reckon I'll pot them up in the spring ... do they need any special treatment before they'll sprout?

  • boizeau
    19 years ago

    I have some Muscadines growing behind the garage in some black sandy soil. It faces south and has about as much heat as possible outdoors in my area. I would guess I get about 2,100 growing degree days above 50 or about as warm as Corvallis Oregon. For Muscadines this is still very cool, but by NW standards it is quite warm. The two vines are taking hold and one already tried to bloom, but being a female, I didn't get pollen to it in time. There is a perfect flowered hybrid of muscadine x riparia nearby, but I'm not sure how good its pollen is. I'll use it in 2005 'it will likely do the job on its own since its less than 20 feet away. I do know that they like a lot of heat. My seed source was from the northern limit of Muscadine's natural range, so they ought to be tough.

  • mikeybob
    Original Author
    19 years ago

    Boizeau, I received your brambles. Thanks for trading. I hope those seeds grow well for you.

  • Rhughes
    19 years ago

    I have three pluot seedlings in my back yard. None have fruited, but my 3 year old had blossoms last spring. It is a cross of Flavor Queen (Floyd Ziaiger, hybridizer) and a red Japanese plum grafted as pollenator. The leaves show a moderate degree of red influence. This seedling set fruit but dropped it a few weeks after as did my pluot parents for the most part. The red leafed parent has small sweet plums so I think the fruit would be of good quality.

    I expect that I should get fruit next spring. The tree was awfully young to have even flowered and we had a cold wet spring. It is now over 8 feet high and the trunk is around 6 inches thick near the base. I think that is pretty impressive growth for a tree entering its third year. The others are just coming into their second year.

    Out of about ten pluot seedlings so far only three are vigorous and healthy, The rest were disease prone or lacked vigour. Still, a third isn't too bad for good healthy offspring.

    Randy Hughes, Vancouver, Wa.

  • s_harris
    17 years ago

    I have saved some seeds from muscadines that I bought. Can anyone give me some tips on how I can get these to grow into plants? What do I need to do first? Should I plant a muscadine grape or work with the seeds? I have read the posts about grapes not coming from a pure seed but I am not trying for perfection here. If I get a smaller muscadine then that is fine.

  • sonnierk42006_bellsouth_net
    17 years ago

    I have planted two arapaho muscadine plants. How long should it take for them to take over my 16ft by 4ft trelis. Also i have saved some seeds from our local fruit stand,i wander if they will take or whether they have been treated with growth inhibiter?

  • orto_jardin
    17 years ago

    May somebody send some muscadine seed to Italy ?

    thanks

    Angelo

  • boizeau
    16 years ago

    I grew out a bunch of Muscadines from seed. I think the parent vine was in Quitman Arkansas, along the northern limits of the species range. Plants look very healthy and are in 3 gal. pots. I think I have more than I can handle.
    Has anyone got viable hybrids between Muscadine and True Vitis so far? I'd love to cross them to "Ontario", a superior parent vine from back East.

  • boizeau
    15 years ago

    Since it is a hybrid, I think the seeds of Southern Home would be a great starting point for breeders. Would love to get a dozen of them to play with up here. I do have a Zehnders hybrid of Muscadine x Vitis that does OK up here, though it ripens very late.

  • rooster-1967
    13 years ago

    Hello, I have a few questions, for starters, i just started a small garden in my backyard with some strawberries peppers,tomatoes, ect. I was messing around back there and found what looked like muscadines, so i plucked a leaf and researched it, ant it is, unless there is some other type of vine that looks like them, but i would like to know how to tell if they are male or female? so i know if i need to get another one to pollinate it. any help will be greatly appreciated.

  • theloud
    12 years ago

    I know this is an old thread, but how are your muscadines doing? If you're growing them in zone 6, that gives me hope that I could maybe try them in zone 5.

  • boizeau
    12 years ago

    I pretty much gave up on them muscadines. It is just not warm enough up here. They take considerably more heat than even the Vinifera types.
    I will continue with the other species like Lincecumii and Aestevalis though.
    Have a bunch of Muscadine x true Vitis Seedlings if anyone is interested in trying them further south.

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