My 2nd year old Dapple dandy are coloring up. So far it is a good tree to grow here on the east coast. If the fruit finish out decent I'll keep the tree. It is growing in a good spot.

I'm still not convinced once this was a winner in a taste test. The fruits are now available in stores so I bought some. Still a rarity similarly, their names Pluots
Not sure about their actual ID, the label says: Pluot: Brontosaurus eggs, origin: Southern Spain. They are also marketed in a rather cutesy way as Dinosaur Eggs. Probably all Dapple Dandies?
Degreening during one week I started my own personal taste test.
Juicy, very juicy, beautiful reddish flesh.
15 brix very sweet
Flavor: only a weak taste of sweet water
Smell: none
AromaÂs: none.
A very disappointed rapport, even the least tasty European plum tastes ten times better than this. What went wrong with this promising beautiful fruit? Maybe the problem with DD (and other fruit) is that itÂs fair at best unless youÂre patient with it and you wait to pick it at full maturity.

Two years ago I was lucky to got a DD graft, now it's just one branch with a dozen fruits growing in pot, they seem very nice absolutely no problems with insects and birds, very striking, other fruits, peaches, nectarines and European plums were eaten. DDÂs are not popular?. Even insects, bees, Mason bees avoided pollinating the flowers.
Now I am very curious about the taste of "my own pluots". Be patient, I say to myself, but how long?

Here is a link that might be useful: Dapple Dandy

I don't get this. I picked some plums that had some color, were still very hard and let them sit a good week. I ate one today that was nice and soft. It was delicious. Way better then anything i've bought at the store. These professional growers must be picking this crap (peaches/plums/nects) while they are green! or something.

Comments on the above:

1. One of the big fresh fruit growers markets all dappled Pluot� varieties, including Dapple Dandy, as belonging to the "Dinosaur Egg" category.

2. For shipping, varieties of peach, nectarine, plum and Pluot� must be picked firm-ripe � a.k.a. green. Therefore to enjoy these fruits fully ripe they must be grown locally, i.e. at home or by fruit stand/farmer�s market growers.

3. DWN fruit tasting results are real. Wouldn�t do us a bit of good to fudge them to promote crummy varieties.

4. I�ve been present when DD wowed the fruit tasters. I�ve also had it firm-ripe when it lacked sugar and flavor, and past-ripe when it was blah. It has a normal window for peak ripeness, not a long one. Picked right, Dapple Dandy is delicious, with a very appealing acid-sugar balance and a pleasing plummy flavor.

Craig

I have had to be patient with my Dapple Dandy tree. The fruit the first few years was awful. Astringent and/or sour. I don't think they developed properly. I have contemplated removing it every year until now.

The flavor of the fruit has become really good after about 4 years of growing. Out of the four Pluots that I have (Flavor King, Splash, Emerald Drop, Dapple Dandy) only Flavor King is better in my opinion.

It also seems like a very easy tree to grow. Vigorous and productive even in a low chill area. We average about 300 chill hours in our backyard.

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That's a beautiful tree and it's bearing nicely. Hang in there.

You have to let DD hold for a while to get over that spicy/acid state. It's tough because they look stunning and pickable way before their time. Let them get ugly, discolored, shrivelled and you will be rewarded. If you "trickle harvest" them to balance out the load on the tree as the season progresses -- you will notice the mellowing and sweetening as you go. Very underrated fruit IMHO.

I had one tonight that was worthy of writing a thank you note to Floyd Zaiger. :)
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Mrclint,

What time of the year is the peak harvest for you? I have been eating the ones the rodents and birds have been knocking off of the tree. I haven't started picking any yet.

Have you tried picking a little early and letting them sit in the house for a week or two? Between the rats and birds I don't know how much fruit I will get if I leave them on the tree much longer.

What is the texture like when they shrivel? Does it get mushy or is it still firm?

Thanks,
Tom

This post was edited by econ0003 on Tue, Jul 30, 13 at 0:22

Hi I live in Czech rep/Europe and I have been trying to get Dapple Dandy for the last 2 years but it always happened to be something else (random Japanese plum variety).
I stumbled upon a site where they are selling one which looks like the real deal but I am a bit worried about the oval shape. Judging by the photos from here the shape should be rather round. Could any grower here please tell me what they think (there are 4 pics)? Unfortunately no pulp/pits pictures
http://www.jukka.cz/dapple-dandy.htm

Thank you

Paul

Here is a link that might be useful: Dapple Dandy

Paul:

No that's not Dapple Dandy. Wrong shape, wrong exterior color. The 2nd from bottom picture above is excellent for exterior color.

I'm not a big fan of Dapple Dandy. Have eaten it over a two month period several yrs and it's average at best. Can you find the plum Emerald Beaut? It's much sweeter and has a longer harvest window. There are other pluots much better if you can find them. Flavor Supreme and Flavor King are off patent and should be available in Europe.

I second that for Emerald Beaut(y).I was in San Francisco about two weeks ago and there were a lot of them at their farmers market stands.Very sweet and good flavor.Are they a plum or pluot? Brady

Brady:

Emerald Beaut is a plum. The confusion about spelling arose from some miss printed tags sent out by DWN. They are still using those tags. All writeups I've seen say Beaut.

It's the only plum I've grown that's as sweet as the best pluot. This yr averaging 23.9 brix. Flavor Treat pluot harvested at the same time averaged 25.0 brix but was twice as big. They both tasted good. I'd need more yrs to say one or the other tastes better.

Mine were prettier than the picture linked below. Their's don't look ripe. Mine more blushed.

Here is a link that might be useful: Emerald Beaut plum

I planted an EB plum this year and its label says plum. Personally I don't think any fruit I've tasted from Zaiger's is actually a pluot. I detect absolutely no apricot influence and they seem to be J. plums bred to get high sugar while still firm- certainly not a common trait with apricots.

Of course this quality could somehow be obtained from combining plum and apricot genes, but I've never read where it has been proven that this interspecies blend has actually occurred and that there are more qualified folks than me who question whether it has.

To the original poster, I suggest you try Flavor Grenade pluot, which is no longer under patent either and is very productive in my region while most other pluots apparently are not. It is also wonderfully sweet and crisp, but can be ripened at room temperature to a softer texture for those who prefer it.

"...I detect absolutely no apricot influence and they seem to be J. plums bred to get high sugar while still firm- certainly not a common trait with apricots...."

Flavor Queen does tastes like an apricot. I didn't detect any plum flavor in any of the flavor queen pluots that I've tasted, only apricot.

"... but I've never read where it has been proven that this interspecies blend has actually occurred and that there are more qualified folks than me who question whether it has."

They do exist,
Luther Burbank crossed Apricots with plums that resulted in 50/50 hybrids. He also crossed the 50/50 hybrids back to plums.

"...I suggest you try Flavor Grenade pluot, which is no longer under patent either..."

Actually, it is still patented, it will expire on January 1st, 2020.

Uh oh, I was misinformed by the person who sent me wood- I won't mention names. I don't feel too guilty though because I grafted it on another Zaiger pluot variety that was girdled by voles the first year- or I should say the rootstock of the variety- so they got their money in a manner of speaking- also I ordered 5 trees of it from Adams now that I know how good it is.

As far as the interspecies thing, I was talking about the Zaiger creations which I should have specified. The information or controversy I referred to pertained only to Zaiger pluots, not the existence of any such varieties anywhere. I don't actually care if it's been done, unless its a useful and available variety, but I thank you for the clarification. It is an interesting fact that I should know.

I started this thread back in 2010 just to give Dapple Dandy a little bit of recognition. It is excellent in my local and rates high in the DWN taste tests. It just never gets much love on this forum and folks here can't resist steering other people away from this wonderful fruit.

craig_dwn from Dave Wilson nursery, commented in this thread above, please take a minute to read his response.

This post was edited by mrclint on Sat, Nov 1, 14 at 20:22

Sorry Mr. Clint. I don't think people are exactly trying to steer people away from Dapple Dandy and are only expressing their own personal experience with it in different conditions than yours. FN grows his in containers in a greenhouse, you grow yours where it never rains during the growing season and rarely if ever goes below freezing- and under nearly constant sun.

The pictures in your photos show us really tantalizingly beautiful fruit and I'm sure they are delicious. Not sure how it would do in my region though. Most of the pluots have a rep for very light cropping here. I was glad to discover that Flavor Grenade was an exception to this and will probably experiment with some more.

Adams claims Dapple Dandy is another that performs well here and that was the variety of mine that got girdled on its first winter. They rave about its quality so it may be the next one I try.

Mrclint:

Even Craig said: "I've also had it firm-ripe when it lacked sugar and flavor, and past-ripe when it was blah. It has a normal window for peak ripeness, not a long one." I find Craig's assessment pretty accurate and not all that favorable. I like past ripe nectarines, not so DD.

I've grown a dozen, maybe 20 better pluot varieties. To me DD is more like many of the plums I've also discarded. Maybe it's growing conditions maybe it's taste preference. You seem to like everything you ever planted so I suspect the latter.

harvest man I can only speak to how DD performs in my locale, I make no other claims as to how it would perform in other areas or under different conditions. As for steering, if the shoe doesn't fit, don't wear it. I can only assure you that when it's right it will curl your toes.

Fruitnut, every fruit has its peak harvest window. Flavor King pluot is insepid to me unless it is "fall off the tree" dead ripe. That fact doesn't diminish that FK is a great piece of fruit. Catch DD in its window and it too is excellent. Taste tests bear that out. I'm not making any comparisons of various fruit and their peak harvest windows. Note that I do selfishly chronicle peak harvest windows of most of my fruit and I'm very interested in stringing those widows together in succession.

This post was edited by mrclint on Sat, Nov 1, 14 at 22:54

econ...that is one tasty looking plum! I like how you painted the tree right up the leader...looks great man.

The masonry wall to the rear in the photo..is it to the south of the tree?

Seems like the discussion really picked up, great to see :)
Thank you for your recommendations. The situation here in Europe is a bit tricky and regarding trees it's a complete jungle for the most part. In US you just go to DWN site and choose authorized seller and that's it. Here anyone can sell "Dapple Dandy" and 2-3 years into the planting you find out it has yellow pulp :(

Fruitnut, you are right about Flavor King, it was available in UK from what I know but nurseries there don't offer it anymore so my bad (I guess the conditions weren't right). Instead you can find pluots like Purple Candy and Flavor Candy which I don't know anything about (especially when some sites advertise it as Zaiger's which is apparently not truth) and cost about 60-70$ each.
In regards to Zaiger's staff European market for home gardening is very limited...might be cause Japanese plums are not really popular here. From hybrids I was able to find Cot 'n' Candy aprium, Flavor Supreme, Flavor Queen and that's about it. My friend has FQ and FS planted so we will see next year if they are not Greengage :) I was able to get my hands on Parfait and Flavorella plumcots so really curious about those, but again, uncertain origin.
Based on your recommendations on this forum I am getting Honey Kist nectarine (honey royale not available but I guess they are going to be very similar) and Robada apricot as well.
The reason I asked about Dapple Dandy is that judging by the comments here it's easy to grow, sets well and ppl are able to grow it pretty much everywhere (East Coast as well as Nebraska, not just West). I heard the same thing about Flavor Grenade and few others.

This post was edited by Pavel_CZ on Sun, Nov 2, 14 at 6:13

Pavel, I believe the fact that J. plums are not popular in much of Europe is because they may not produce adequate sugar outside of southern areas where peaches are grown with success. J. plums seem to require more heat units than E's.

I have no idea what your summers are like, but where I am in NY a normal sunny summer day is usually between 80-92 degrees F. (sorry, I'm a product of our sorry education system- can't easily put it in C.).

My Sister lives in coastal N. California where those numbers are substantially lower and even Satsuma is pretty bland as grown there.

As far as Dapple Dandy, the areas here you are talking about are all very warm in summer, including where Adams County Nursery is based in PA. This nursery should have more reliable info about the quality of its fruit than any of us on this forum as individuals (they've been selling it to east coast growers for several years) but I'm sure the info they have is about growing it where it gets hot.

Agree with HM that pluots like Jap plums need lots of heat to ripen to high quality. Summer highs that average 30C, 86F, are just adequate. My greenhouse averages more like 34C as do better areas of California. Apricots will do better at lower temperatures. Peach and nectarine need heat like pluots.

I would think 86 would not be adequate but more like optimum. Heat here is certainly "adequate" and the summer day average high has to be well below that. You get into the 90's and trees start to shut down photosynthesis. But I'm just shooting the breeze here and am not at all sure of all my "facts" as far as precise temps.

Yup, the average summer high where I am barely hits 80 and its plenty warm enough here to grow delicious J. plums of every variety I've tried as well as Flavor Grenade- and my standards were established as a boy in S. CA far enough from the beach to get very hot consistently.

Plumhill farm is a bit cooler and they grow a range of J. plums as well. My hunch is the average high needs to be about 75 to be adequate for growing delicious J. plums.

Of course, I'm not talking about reaching brix levels in the mid 20's but my plums tend to be at least as sweet as I'd really want them to be.

Here's a list of plums that Plumhill farm grows in Charlotte Vermont. First number is production, second taste and third hardiness.

Japanese Plums/hybrids ProductionTaste Hardiness
Japanese Plums/hybrids Production Taste Hardiness
Shiro 5 2 4
Ozark Premier 3 4 2
Comet de Kumetz 5 1 5
Methley 5 3 4
Toka 4 3 4
Kaga 4 3 4
Gracious 5 3 4
Surprise (may be Kaga) 4 3 4
Alderman 4 4 3
Purple Heart 5 5 3
Early Costello 4 4 3
kahinta 5 3 4
Ptistin #5 4
Pembina 5 3 5
Pipestone 5 3 5
Red heart 1 3 2
Starks Delicious 4 3 4
Red Glow 3 2 4
Superior 4 4 5
Marisopal
Obil'naja 5 4 4
Rema 5 3 3
Au Auburn 3 3 3
Rose Marie 4 5 3
Formosa 3 5 2

1 Starks Blue 4 2 4 Shiro 5 2 4

2 Early Laxton 4 3 4 Ozark Premier 3 4 2

3 PP 6995 5 3 4 Comet de Kumetz 5 1 5

4 Mt Royal 5 2 5 Methley 5 3 4

5 Fellenburg 5 4 4 Toka 4 3 4

6 Long John 4 3 4 Kaga 4 3 4

7 Early Blue 5 2 5 Gracious 5 3 4

8 NY71 5 3 5 Surprise (may be Kaga) 4 3 4

9 Castleton 5 3 5 Alderman 4 4 3

10 General Hand Purple Heart 5 5 3

11 Early Transparent Gage Early Costello 4 4 3

12 Ersinger 5 4 5 kahinta 5 3 4

13 Pearl 2 Ptistin #5 4

14 Empress 5 5 5 Pembina 5 3 5

15 Alabaster 3 4 4 Pipestone 5 3 5

16 Cambridge Gage Red heart 1 3 2

17 Imperial Epinese (not?) Starks Delicious 4 3 4

18 Hungarian Red 3 3 4 Red Glow 3 2 4

19 Opal 5 4 4 Superior 4 4 5

20 Kirkes Blue 4 4 4 Marisopal

21 Peach Plum 3 3 4 Obil'naja 5 4 4

22 Jefferson (blue prune) 3 4 3 Rema 5 3 3

23 De Montford 4 4 4 Au Auburn 3 3 3

24 Schoolhouse 5 3 5 Rose Marie 4 5 3

25 Mirabelle De Metz 3 4 3 Formosa 3 5 2

26 Mirabelle de Nancy 2 4 2 Sumumo 4 4 4

27 American Mirabelle 4 5 5 Early Golden

28 Oullins Gage 5 4 4 Satsuma (not?)

29 Seneca 3 4 4 Wickson

30 Royal de Vilvoorde 3 5 3 Duarte

31 Queen Anne 3 2 2

32 Yakima 3 3 3

This post was edited by harvestman on Sun, Nov 2, 14 at 11:56

It looks like Purple Heart is one to try.Does anybody know where to get one? Thanks,Brady

Linked below are climatic averages for Reedley CA. That's the center of CA stone fruit production. Average July and August highs are nearly 100F. I lived there 3 summers and it hits 105-110 about twice a month for a few days in a row. So that's not too hot for stone fruit. They get concerned at 110 about fruit breakdown but it seldom actually happens. Record high is 115.

On the coast Andrew Marianni sp? has an orchard at Morgan Hill. Highs there average upper 80s. Don't know how quality would compare but his fruit is highly acclaimed.

I think mid 80s are good but I'm not buying mid 70s. At 70s temps brix is likely off by 5-10 points compared to mine.

So I'd like 85-95. That's my greenhouse. If you're getting brix of 20+ on your jap plums I'll adjust my thinking.

Here is a link that might be useful: Reedley CA climate

H-man, I can't find a website for Plum Hill Farm in Charlotte, VT. I would love to see all of their plum trees and fruit! How do I reach them? Can you help? Mrs. G Thanks!

Mrs. G, I don't know if they have a web site. I've exchanged wood with the owner who has participated with this forum in the past. He sent me some American Mirabelle last season as well as 3 other of his favorites.

FN, I just want Pavel to know a practical range to achieve his goals, not prove any other point. I go to CA regularly and have sampled nectarines, pluots and plums as recently as 2013, grown in all parts of CA and picked tree ripe. I seek out farmers markets for the purpose.

The fruit that they fetch $4 a pound for is certainly no better than what I pick from my own trees, even if it may not reach your standards. I'm sure if Pavel can grow Flavor Grenades as sweet as what I picked off my tree this season he will be a fruit celebrity there. The tree doesn't even get afternoon sun.

I think Pavel should be encouraged if his summer hi temps average above about 79 F. I don't know how quickly quality declines as temps drop below that, but on cool seasons here they are doing just fine probably somewhere around 77. I've never had a season here too cool to ripen J. plums.

I used to harvest perfect Elephant Hearts from a tree under at least 50% shade. When it died I replanted at a much sunnier spot and trained it over an airstream trailer thinking it would make the fruit even better. The fruit got twice as big, but not sweeter and now has a terrible problem with pitch pockets.

Harvestman: Thank you for all the great information. Other reason behind the small popularity of JP in Europe might also be conservativeness of many growers. I read comments like "there are plenty of good varieties here, why try something else" far too often.
My area is sometimes nicknamed apricot county and is one of the the warmest in Czech Rep. We also don't get the humidity you are used to over there (lived in Alexandria, VA and the summers were crazy haha). Now don't get me wrong, as you said most of the Eastern Coast is still warmer than here but we are still getting anywhere between 65-100 days above 25C/77F so I think the temperature for JP might be OK (not great). I also know Dapple Dandy can be grown all the way north in Netherlands which is way colder and damper They reported 17-19brix for DD which sounds good. By the way Japanese plums are getting bigger here lately and some of the plums that you mentioned are also available here. This is the link to one of the biggest nurseries here so you can take a look if interested.
http://prodejstromku.cz/katalog/asijske-svestky-ryngle-blumy/
Yeah and I forgot, last year I also planted good old Santa Rosa, although here it's a novelty, so I am curious. It might start bearing next summer :)

17-19 brix is about all you'll get out of DD. For me it's not all that sweet. Maybe I'm being overly conservative on the temperatures needed for good JP/pluot fruit. Two to three warm months may well be enough for the earlier maturing varieties.

Buy one of those Flavor Supreme on your nursery link. Keep it small and hand pollinate. Those were some of my best fruits this yr averaging around 25 brix with superb flavor. Plus it's early so will ripen during your warmest weather. FS is way better fruit than DD in my experience and gets better reviews.

Fruitnut & Pavel_CZ , thanks for bringing the topic back to a discussion of 'Dapple Dandy' pluots. :)

'Flavor Supreme' and 'Dapple Dandy' have completely different harvest windows. Why not grow both if you can? Bear in mind that FS is in a window with a lot of excellent peaches, plums, apricots, and even blueberries. A better comparison for DD would probably be things that overlap in the same window such as 'Flavor King' and 'Flavor Queen', Asian pears, and figs, etc. It's worth noting that this is how taste tests work, you compare the taste of things that are ripe at the same time.

The chart below can be used for reference of harvest windows relative to other fruit. The dates are probably a bit off for most locales.

Here is a link that might be useful: Fruit and Nut Harvest Chart

This post was edited by mrclint on Mon, Nov 3, 14 at 11:02

Everybody has different needs. I just need them to grow well. Brix is not important to me. Flavor is what is important. I don't want fresh eating fruit. If I did, yeah the high brix would be better. But I want to cook with them, so flavor after cooking is important. in my experience the more tart fruit seems to work better.
So DD might be really good for me. I hope I find out soon, I have FK,FS, DD, and FQ.
For my region the native/jap crosses seem to be the best. Like Black Ice, Toka etc. May be better for fresh eating.
What I'm looking for is a productive tree that produces healthy fruit. I can decide how to use the fruit later. I would never pull a tree because of low brix. Flavor is supreme to me. Red Currants are next to impossible to eat raw, but cooked and sugar added I think they taste better than fresh strawberries, raspberries or cherries. I really like that flavor. It's like discovering a fantastic flavor. Most obscure fruits are obscure for a reason! Not so with currants, they have a marvelous taste. If you tasted my jam, or I bet MrsG jam, you would start growing currants if you could.
I discovered that mixing high acid and low acid fruits really makes some great blends. Blackberries and blueberries, or currants and mulberries. Wow, those combos are unreal, and better than any other fruit I ever tasted.
Before I pulled a fruit I would try to find a way to maximize flavor. Especialy if it was easy to grow. Most of you guys are looking at gourmet quality fruit that really is impractcle for the average backyard grower. We don't have perfect conditions or greenhouses.
I often think outside the box. I was thinking of pickling small immature plums, they might taste like olives. You know let them get olive sized before you thin, and use those to pickle. It might just work! I'm into trying to use what you got. I hate to waste anything.

mrclint:

Pavel has 65-100 days with highs above 77F. You, I, and much of CA have ~250. Your harvest chart is 6-8 weeks early for him. That's why I recommended something earlier.

Furthermore it's DD that's competing with the best fruits of the year, not FS. Arctic Star and FS mature together, here late May to early June, and are the earliest top tier fruits. DD matures late July to early September depending on how one likes it. That's the peak of fruit quality.

For Pavel that's probably late July to August for FS and September or Oct for DD. Fruit quality usually drops as it cools off. He probably won't have the option of an over mature harvest which you seem to prefer.

This post was edited by fruitnut on Mon, Nov 3, 14 at 13:20

Pavel_CZ, best of luck with your plum and pluot trials. If you do plant out a 'Dapple Dandy', please post a follow up with your results. :)

FN, that was very useful to point out. He needs to grow varieties that ripen in Aug to early Sept I bet. Here most stonefruit needs to be harvested by mid-sept because of cooling weather. There are exceptions though.

harvestman:

The best stone fruit in most locations will probably be that which ripens no later than mid Sept. So far I haven't found any peaches or nectarines that even ripen for me after early Sept. I will point out that Emerald Beaut plum and Flavor Treat pluot that ripen in Sept here are very sweet. But they've got months and months to build up carbohydrates and my greenhouse stays in 80s thru October.

If I skipped June thru Sept, four months, I'd still have more warm days than Pavel. Rather a stark difference which has to limit something...I'd think.

My valor plums ripen well into Oct and my Heather Cling peach is quite good and doesn't ripen until the first week of Oct here. I don't see how a warmer location further south wouldn't be able to ripen even J. plums if they were bred to hold off that long, which apparently Emerald Beauty is.

Some of these pluots seem to be like prune plums that just stay on the tree and get sweeter and sweeter as they dehydrate without dropping. Here it is the rain that causes prune plums to rot before this happens but in CA this used to be the standard way to produce prunes- dry them on the tree and then pick them.

Fruitnut, Harvestman, Drew & mrclint: Thanks for this discussion
I read Gardenweb for about 2 years, its a really good source of information for me and its possible I read all the pluot threads here :)
Fruitnut you are suggesting FS might be a good bet for me but if I remember correctly its almost impossible to make it set any fruit so I am a bit worried about trying that since I am quite limited with space. Or are there any tricks like the Flavorella/Goldkist apricot pollination? I remember while reading about FS people were grateful even for couple pluots per season. The Dutch site I was mentioning had FS in their collection and they cut it down because of the miserable fruit set (they also reported taste was nothing special which might be due to the lack of sun in the summer).
Regarding the ripening period here you were right, it should be about 4-6 weeks after DWN chart. DD is ripening in Netherlands around 9/15 so Czech Rep might be about a week or a bit more ahead of that time.
I have limited options (currently only FS and FQ are available here, DD is fake) so I will try to plant FS and will see. Would love to get Flavor King if I manage to find it since it looks like its everyones favorite on this forum. I will definitely stick around and post reports although it wont have much informative value to you since West (but also East) US climate is so different. Might be of some use for folks with continental climate though. I got two more questions about DD. Isnt DD supposed to be off patent soon? I am also attaching few pictures of a (supposedly) DD tree from Poland I got like a week ago. As you know I am far from pluot expert but the wood color looks completely different to what I saw on DD pictures available online. Should I yank it out or give it a chance?

This post was edited by Pavel_CZ on Tue, Nov 4, 14 at 16:05

I couldnt figure out how to attach multiple pics at the same time so posting separately

Pic 2

PIc 3

Pavel a good one might be the new Dapple Supreme. A cross of FS and DD! It should grow well there! oh btw I'm of Czech heritage, my grandfather came over around 1910. He died in an explosion in the coal mines of Pennsylvania. I have FS and DD on one tree, and really no other pollinators. I plan to make my own DS from seed. Although not sure what will pollinate it? I need some Japanese plums!

Pavel, that's exactly the concern that kept me from trying to grow them here for years. I used to manage a site that had 4 or 5 different varieties of them amongst a lot of other things from DW nursery and we never got more than a handful of pluots a year. It is even a problem for commercial growers in CA from what I've read,even with their heat. Not that light but not enough to be profitable.

That is why I am so pleased with Flavor Grenade. It has set two straight years of crops that required thinning here in my cool climate- the first set was the second year after I grafted it. I do get some cracking, however, even when nearby J. plums have none.

Harvestman,

Sorry, a little off topic here, but I have a question about something you wrote.

You wrote, "Some of these pluots seem to be like prune plums that just stay on the tree and get sweeter and sweeter as they dehydrate without dropping. Here it is the rain that causes prune plums to rot before this happens".

I grow fruit in pots so my trees are small. I have an arrangement to set up a clear plastic roof to keep the rain off of my cherries. I leave the cherries hang and pick a bowlful at a time. Would it also be a good idea to keep the rain off of my plums too?

Thanks.

Since I've started hand pollenating, I've had no problems with getting Flavor Supreme to set fruit. In fact I had to do a bunch of thinning this year. Here is a picture I took last spring or late winter.

Drew: that one might be great but I will be very old before it gets to Europe :)
We have also family in US since about that time, they are in Cincinatti area and came even to visit us. I met them couple of years ago in DC too. Btw red currant is very popular here. In US in those 8 years I spent there I saw it only maybe once.

harvestman: To be honest if I was still in US I would never plant FS but rather choose some other pluot. FG looks like great setter so it would be on top of my list. But since I am not I will get FS and try to hand pollinate as Fruitnut suggested.

Steve357: thanks for the picture, this looks encouraging. I'll be picking FS up next week :)

Isoh, it certainly could help on years where it's so wet the plums crack, but this is much less common with plums than with sweet cherries. If you want to keep them on the tree until they are prunes than it would probably be necessary anywhere you get summer rain. It would also reduce the need to spray for brown rot.

My post follow up since : Tue, Aug 24, 10 at 16:12

Results till now: DD grows in pot, 3th leave, hand pollenating
Location: N. Europe
Climate; far from conveniently, damp and chil

Pollinators: a mix combination FQ, FS, Satsuma, June Blood Plum .
amount of fruits in 3 th leave Total: DD 14
Brix : average 15
Taste, sweet, juicy, nice eating structure
beautiful looking fruits
easy-to-grow on regular European rootstock
lack of fruit without good pollinators
deferred harvest time promotes quality
supermarket DD fruits from Spain are completely tasteless.

Conclusion: definitely worth to have one in my garden, especially since it still remains a rarity in this part of the world.

Best Regards

{{gwi:118784}}

{{gwi:118785}}

This post was edited by alcedo on Wed, Nov 5, 14 at 16:43

Hello, Great to see such a long discussion of Dapple Dandy. I have had one in my orchard since 07 and it has grown very large. It is larger and more vigorous (and has fewer diseases) than any of my other stone fruits. I believe I bought it from One Green World, a reputable nursery company. It was described as self fertile, however, I have yet to have it set more than a small handful of fruit. It is very healthy and blooms well. I have a plum, a nectarine, several Japanese plums, and a peach that all bloom in the same window. I would expect that even if it is not self fruitful that this would be enough to pollinate it. Anyone else have issues setting fruit?

I am also a fan of Dapple Dandy. Did not consider myself to be a fan of plums, until i tasted tree ripened Dapple Dandy, I was hooked. Dave Wilson rates Dapple Dandy in top 5 of fruit tests. I've since planted Dapple Dandy, Flavor King, Flavor Grenade, Splash, Emerald Drop, along with Burgundy plum, Howards Miracle, and Santa Rosa.

The only issue I've had with Dapple Dandy is it appears to be higher chill than the other pluots I have planted. Dave Wilson website also confirms it is a little bit higher chill than others. Flavor King and Flavor Grenade appear much lower. My Dapple Dandy is close to house with Southern exposure, I plan to move it to a northern part of the yard where it will receive more shade during winter time until spring. I'm amazed people can even grow pluots in zones 5 and 6