Hi Jude,

I am in Rancho Bernardo which is about 10 miles inland from the coast in San Diego. I get about 250-300 chill hours in my backyard on an average year.

I have tried Dapple Dandy, Splash, Emerald Drop, and Flavor King. All of them have fruited for me after one year in the ground. Splash Pluot is the most productive of the group. I just planted Geo Pride this summer. Can't wait to see how that one does.

Since you would be planting in pots, moving them to shade all winter may increase the chill the trees receive in the winter.

Tom

Hey Jude (sorry, couldn't resist that). I'm answering over here, from your request over on the Citrus Forum. Thanks to Tom, I am able to calculate my chill hours (have a weather station in my yard that communicates to a web site), and even though I'm closer to the coast than Tom (7 miles from the coast), I get more chill hours, due to being at nearly 1,000 ft above sea level. I believe last winter it was 566 ch, but that was an abnormal year, I think. I'm probably more like 450 ch on average, I'm guessing. I have Flavor KIng, Flavor Finale, Dapple Dandy, Flavorella (plumcot), Spice Zee (nectaplum) and Flavor RIch. Flavor King and Spice Zee are exceptional. I am still awaiting fruit from the rest as this was only the first or second year in the ground, but I expect all to fruit with possibly the exception of Flavor Rich, which is a higher chill hour pluot (my experiment). All varieties listed should produce fruit just fine for us here in San Diego county, as long as you get a few chills hours (and aren't right on the beach). My most productive is Spice Zee, which was loaded this year, and so incredibly good. I agree with Tom's suggestion, and would also encourage you to find the coldest spot in your yard if possible, to over winter your trees.

Patty S.

Thank you Tom and Patty!!!

Patty, if you knew how many people burst into the Beatles song..........lol!

Tom, I have a sister in RB. Beautiful part of SD.

Anyways, I'm going to go ahead and order a tree. I think I'll have to roll it into the front yard for the colder area. My back faces east and is totally open for the view so it gets a lot of sun...when we have it since we get the marine layer. As a crow flies I think I'm maybe a mile or two from the beach.

I'm not sure what the name of the pluot I had was but I'm going to see if the grower offers the Spice Zee in the semi dwarf. I think there was 3 or 4 varieties offerred.

Thank you again for your time!!! Jude

Jude:

Spice Zee is a nectarine not a pluot. The number I've seen is 500 hrs for chilling on that variety. If you want a nectarine you should consider Arctic Star 300 hrs. Of the pluots Flavor Grenade 300 hrs is the lowest I see listed. In actual practice there are probably several pluots that would work.

Arctic Star for my conditions and taste is as good as any of the pluots. But the pluots are probably easier to get really sweet if that is your kind of fruit.

Flavor Grenade works in Phoenix on myro. I get 350-400 hours. SpiceZee also produces, but I ended up pulling my tree because citation is a terrible rootstock for Arizona's clay-based, alkaline soils.

AJBB...on citation in Phoenix clay. I have both pluots, plums, and a peach on citation here and they have performed extremely well for me. Very vigorous. But im betting that it has something to do with being on flood irrigation rather than standard drip or basin watering.