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["William C. Garthright" <billg@inebraska.com>]

Hello, all. I've been so busy I got behind on my emails (like about a thousand emails behind!), so I haven't been commenting lately. Maybe that's a good thing. Anyway, this is just my annual report on the three varieties of pluots I'm growing here in Nebraska, for whoever might be interested (and if not, now's the time to hit the delete key).

Note that I have only one tree of each variety. All three trees are very vigorous and healthy, and late freezes don't seem to bother the blossoms. They're far more like plums than apricots in that respect. (As most of you know, I'm sure, pluots are a cross between apricots and - mostly - plums.)

Flavor Supreme - This was, as usual, a very shy bearer. (But this year, I was actually glad for that.) I had maybe a dozen fruit on the whole tree (compared to three last year). But it ripens FAR earlier than the others - in early to mid-July here - and it doesn't seem to be bothered by brown rot (maybe that's because it ripens so early?). It's a red-fleshed fruit, and quite good. But the best thing about it is that it ripens before I have any other tree fruit. (Well, this year I had apricots, but that's unusual, because my apricot blossoms almost always freeze.)

My other two varieties set on an unbelievable amount of fruit. They were just solid with fruit. I'm not kidding. It took me days to thin them. By the time I'd finished, I was wishing they'd be shy bearers, too! They're also far later to ripen - late August or early September - at which time I'm awash with fruit. So that might influence my opinion of them.

Dapple Dandy - This is another red-fleshed variety. As I say, it was just solid with fruit, which surprised me, because I had very few last year (I planted all three trees in April, 2007). It's late to ripen, and the fruit seems to be "almost ripe" for more than a month. Meanwhile, the brown rot just destroyed one fruit after another. I did spray, but it didn't seem to do any good. Almost every day, I picked a grocery bag full of fruit that had started to rot.

Finally, I was down to 8-10 fruit that were still "almost ripe" - out of a tree that had set on just an incredible amount of fruit. I picked them and tried to ripen them inside, but I don't think I ever got one completely ripe. I kept sampling them throughout this period. Whenever one started to rot, I'd cut off the good part of the fruit and try it. But, oddly for pluots, these seem to be sour before they're COMPLETELY ripe. Towards the end, I could eat them, if I forced myself, but I never actually liked them. But as I say, I'm not sure I ever got a completely ripe Dapple Dandy.

Flavor Grenade - This is a yellow-fleshed variety, which tastes much more like a plum than the others. Like the previous tree, it was just solid with fruit (but unlike the previous, it was the same way last year, too - this tree REALLY produces the fruit). It's also very late to ripen and seems to be "almost ripe" for a long, long time. But although it was right alongside the previous tree, brown rot didn't affect it much. Oh, yes, I had to pick off some rotting fruit, but surprisingly little. It just seems to be much more resistant.

At any rate, I got a ton of fruit from the tree,... and I gave almost all of it away. I don't know, maybe I was just sick of fruit by then. But I wasn't crazy about the taste (the same thing happened last year, too). At that time of year, I have a lot of other fruit to eat, and I never wanted to eat this one, instead. It's like a very firm plum, but... kind of generic-tasting, I guess. Maybe I should thin the tree more next time. I thinned fruit for days, but there was still a LOT of fruit on the tree, this year and last. I don't know.

As you can see, these haven't been unqualified successes (to say the least). The trees themselves are very healthy and very vigorous, already with thick trunks. I've kept them reasonably short, but they're well-branched, with strong limbs reaching out horizontally. I couldn't ask for better looking trees (they're right on the street, so everyone comments on them, especially since two of them are loaded with fruit all summer). As I mentioned, they shrug off weather in the mid- to upper-20's when they're blooming, too. Like everything else in my yard, they are crowded (on three sides, since the grapevines to the east try to grow into them), but the trees themselves are great.

But for one reason or another, I wouldn't plant them again. Well, maybe the Flavor Supreme. Yes, it's a shy bearer (although maybe that will improve as it gets older?), but it ripens earlier than any of my other tree fruit, except for apricots (which I very rarely get) and probably cherries (I don't know, since my cherry trees have been too young to bear). It's been an interesting experiment, but I'll probably cut down the middle tree, the Dapple Dandy, if brown rot destroys everything again next year.

Bill
Lincoln, NE (zone 5)

http://garthright.blogspot.com/

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'Reason' is just one letter away from 'treason.' - Stephen Colbert