Have you tried Womack Nursery in DeLeon? They have listed in their plum section:

SPRING SATIN - Apricot - plum cross. Dark red skin, sweet red flesh. Ripens June.
Thur 3-4' (think that's supposed to be "thru")

Lin

Here is a link that might be useful: Womack Nursery

I get most of mine from Bay Laurel Nursery in CA. I grow more pluot in my greenhouse than any other fruit. My Favorites from earliest to latest are: Flavor Supreme, Splash, Emerald Drop, Geo Pride, Flavor Queen, Flavor Grenade, Flavor King, Flavor Finale, and Flavor Treat. This gives fruit from May until November. Brix runs mostly 18-25 with a few higher. Growing them in pots can add about 4 points to brix.

Spring Satin isn't a pluot and is no where near the quality of a good pluot.

Fruitnut, I was thinking that you must have a huge greenhouse and then I looked at your member page and see that you do. How neat!

I'm wondering if the Pluot trees produce fruit anywhere in Texas without the benefit of a greenhouse? What kind of conditions do they require?

By the way, what are brix?

Thank you!

Okay -- I found out it has to do with the sugar content. So it produces more sugar when grown in a pot. Interesting. Why is that?

Here is a link that might be useful: Brix

roselee:

The primary problem with pluot is they bloom too early. But if you can grow Santa Rosa and other Japanese plums you have a shot at pluot. Still they bloom before apricot.

Brix, sugar content, of pluot like most stone fruit is higher if the plants are a little short on water. The plant responds by increasing the soluable solids, like sugars, of all it's tissues. This increases the water potential of the plant and allows the plant to extract more water from dry soil. Potted plants seem to run a little shorter on water than in-ground trees on average.

The other fruit in my greenhouse includes peach, nectarine, sweet cherry, blueberry, fig, plum, mulberry, persimmon, apricot, citrus, and blackberries. My favorites are nectarine, pluot, sweet cherry, and apricot. This year I'm planting the first peach/apricot/plum cross, Bella Gold peacotum.

Fruitnut, thanks for the information.

FYI I wish I lived next door to you :-)

Incidentally, I have a Santa Rose plum. It produces a heavy crop about every three or four years. The last time it bloomed well there were NO honey bees buzzing around it as they had in past years and it dropped the few fruits it did produce very early on. Could this have been due to a lack of pollination? Do your green house fruit trees require a pollinator?

roselee:

Yes, when the fruit drops off small, it is likely a lack of pollination. But I think Santa Rosa is self fruitful so I'm not sure what your issue was there. I don't have Santa Rosa right now but I should get it just for comparison. The pluot are sweeter than most of the plums I've tried and I've tried 30-40 of each.

I use bumblebees for pollination in the greenhouse. They do a good job. In fact the only problem is keeping them from overworking the blossoms. I'll be getting them in probably next week. Things are about to start blooming.

I finished chilling with 1,000+ Utah chilling hrs during Nov and Dec. Went to spring setup on Jan 1. Am running 60s by day and 30s by night. Will be increasing that by 2F every 10 days until the sweet cherries set fruit. They need it cooler early on than the other fruit.

I'm in Alpine TX. I see you are in SW TX as well but z8 so you must be lower elevation. Are you anywhere near me? I'm always open to visitors.

Alrighty, after calling 12 more garden centers, Kingwood Garden Center has 4 varieties of Pluots. Flavor King, Dapple Dandy, and I forgot the other 2. They will be bare root. 40 dollars each though.

http://www.naturehills.com/catalog/fruit_trees/pluot_trees.aspx

I'm tempted to order from Nature Hills Nursery's website. They have Flavor Grenade and Flavor King for 30 bucks each and free shipping over 50 dollars. Save me from a drive all the way to North East Houston.

Only thing is, they don't send out til late Feb/early Mar since they are located in Nebraska and don't want to ship when its too cold up there?(that's what customer rep told me). A&M horticulture site says for us to do bare root in January.
Is it okay in central texas to plant a bare root tree so late?

Anyone recommend strongly in getting from nursery vs mail order. I mean, if the nursery is going to give it to you bare root, that means they received it from the distributors bare root, and stuck it in the ground, and then take it back out when you buy it. Seems like a lot of transplanting for a poor tree.

Oh and fruitnut,

1. You have quite a lot of Pluots. If you could pick 2(I only have room for 2 in addition to my Santa Rosa), which 2 would you pick? From what I've read, it seems like Grenade and Flavor King seem to be the favorites. Dapple Dandy seems to be quite popular also but don't know if it's cause its the first Pluot made. First one can't be the best right?!

2. Any particular reason you chose Bay Laurel over Nature Hills or any other online nurseries? For 2 Pluot trees Nature Hill comes out to ~15 dollars less total.

nguy:

Flavor Grenade and Flavor King are certainly two of the best. Grenade is large, crisp, and very productive. I thin off about 90% each year and still tie up limbs. King is one of the all time greats of any fruit anywhere. It is large, beautiful, aromatic, and highly flavorful. If you have a choice with Flavor king get the most vigorous rootstock as it lacks vigor. The only downside of these two is they mature about the same time.

Geo Pride is a little earlier and a very good pluot. Splash is also a little earlier, but is small, and while good, isn't quite as good for me as the other three. The only other worthy choice I see at Bay Laurel is Flavor Finale. It is quite a bit later and a very good pluot. I'd wonder how well it would hold up that long on the tree. Maybe no problem.

Dapple Dandy is not as good for me as any of the above. It's very productive and hangs on the tree a long time. But it's not as sweet and doesn't have the flavor. I've tried it here and in CA and it doesn't stack up.

Planting in March is OK. I've planted here in April and May with trees shipped from WA and NY. Not as good as now but better than next year. The nursery won't plant your tree and then pull it out of the ground. If they do it will just be heeled in, probably in moist sand.

Bay Laurel shipping is high especially for less than three trees. And free shipping is great.

Interesting, on a review site that I can't type in this post due to a certain company that used to spam this forum? Rhymes with ShavesGarden

Nature Hills: 137 positives 10 neutrals 69 negatives
Also BBB has 24 complaints with a C+ rating.

Bay Laurel: 29 positives 3 neutrals 4 negatives

FYI: Richmond, TX area(SW HOUSTON), there is a nursery that has an order in for Flavor Grenade and Flavorosa.

Thanks for the great information fruitnut. I think I'll be going to Kingswood to get a Flavor King next time I visit Houston. Then whenever the Richmond one gets the Grenade in stock I'll be there.

1. This is a newbie question but, how long can you leave Flavor King and Grenade ripen fruit on the tree? It looks like the Grenades say they can be left on for 6 weeks after ripening. But for other Pluots, peaches, and plums, I never see a time frame of how long they can stay on ripened.

2. For a Santa Rosa plum tree and 2 Pluots trees planted in ground in a row along fence, would spacing of 12 feet apart from each be too little?

nguy:

Flavor Grenade has never hung on the tree that long for me. And this is where it may get complicated. My experience is that if the tree is a little short on water, then the fruit hangs longer and is better quality. Also the fruit may hang longer if it's not too hot, Austin may not get much hang time. If the fruit isn't up to your expectations, it may pay to change your watering schedule, either more or less.

My trees are planted as close as 18 inches and as far as 6ft apart. Outdoors along a fence 4-8 ft apart is easily workable. These trees bear at a very young age. So they can be summer pruned hard if needed and will still bear fruit.

So this past weekend I went to Kingwood garden center and picked up 2 bare root pluots. Flavor king, and a geo pride/flavor grenade 2 in 1 pluot. Each were 40 dollars.

The only thing that almost swayed me away from the 2 in 1 is that the graft point where they put the 2 together is fairly high off the ground. I wish it were closer to knee height or lower so I could start my scaffolds at 3 feet off the ground.

You cut the water back on your fruit trees fruitnut? At approximately what size do you do this for your plums and peaches? I've done this before for my cantaloupes that I grow. Learned the hard way the first time. If you don't cut the water back for them, they literally are SUPER bland.

nguy:

The watering thing isn't a cutoff point. I've got 80 varieties that ripen over 7 months in a 1700 sq ft greenhouse. Many are several varieties per tree some early some late. So it's a season long thing. If you have shallow soil you might need to water everyday via drip. On a deep soil you might water deeply every 7-21 days. A tree watered every day can still be short water if you are applying 75% of potential use. Watering heavily every 14 days instead of every 7 days still leaves the tree short on water.

A tree can adjust very well to a 75% water level if it comes on slowly and is sustained over a long period. You won't be able to tell by looking at the tree except that growth may slow or stop. My stone fruit needs to keep growing at a slow rate or the stress is to severe. Dropping leaves is way too severe. Outdoors in Austin heat you would need to water heavily and often to avoid all water stress. So try to strike a middle ground and you will be rewarded with sweet flavorful fruit.

BTW, I am getting three new pluot straight from Dave Wilson Nursery. Flavor Royale which is earlier, more productive, and sweeter than Flavor Supreme, the later already a super fruit. Crimson Royale a mid season pluot that is supposed to be the sweetest pluot ever released and highly flavorful. Honey Punch is pretty late, after King and Grenade, big firm dark and meaty, just my kind of pluot. You can check the descriptions on DWN website.

The deal is that DWN is wholesale only. So I have to buy 10 trees of each when I only want two. But these may never be released retail. And if they are 5-10 years from now. If you be interested I'll have extra trees.

Hi fruitnut,
I wanted to have some pluots, and I would like to exchange with you some varieties.
If you like, please put in contact with me at mconde77@gmail.com

Please update
Are your pluots thriving? I'd like to try a couple of plants but my space is limited. thanks.