{"id":5940,"date":"2019-09-20T18:22:43","date_gmt":"2019-09-21T01:22:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregalder.com\/yardposts\/?p=5940"},"modified":"2023-03-31T09:43:12","modified_gmt":"2023-03-31T16:43:12","slug":"growing-pluots-in-southern-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregalder.com\/yardposts\/growing-pluots-in-southern-california\/","title":{"rendered":"Growing pluots in Southern California"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I\u2019ve met people who don\u2019t like the tart skin of some plums, and I\u2019ve met people who find apricots mushy, but I\u2019m still waiting to meet the person who has eaten a homegrown pluot and doesn\u2019t ask for more. Just this week I shared some from my trees with a friend who has an abundant and diverse orchard of his own, and later that day I get this text: \u201cDid you sell all your pluots? I want to buy a few more if you will sell a box.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pluots are that good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This post is about my experience growing pluots in Southern California, sprinkled with observations of, and reports about, others\u2019 local pluot trees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What is a pluot?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plums and apricots are said<\/a> to have cross-pollinated in nature for centuries, and Luther Burbank, the famous plant breeder of Northern California, deliberately crossed plums and apricots to make what he called plumcots, which are half plum and half apricot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But pluots are plum-apricot hybrids that are more plum than apricot. This is accomplished by “backcrossing” a plumcot with a plum. Now you’ve got a fruit that is three quarters plum and one quarter apricot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are many other complex “interspecific” hybrids, such as apriums, nectaplums, peacotums, and pluerries — where will it end? Yet, all of them are created through traditional plant breeding methods where one takes pollen from the flower of one tree and puts it on the flower of another tree. There\u2019s no newfangled genetic engineering happening in labs here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pluots we have today are products of the breeding efforts of another California man, a man who is still alive and innovating, named Floyd Zaiger. (See an interview with Zaiger, his family, and watch some fruit breeding in action here.<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Update:<\/em> Floyd Zaiger passed away on June 2, 2020. See my post, “Thank you, Floyd Zaiger.”<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Pluot varieties<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Flavor King pluot tree.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Pluot trees look like plum trees, and pluot fruits look like slightly odd plums, but Floyd Zaiger has been at it so long that the array of pluot varieties now growing around the world come in every shape and color imaginable. Among only the four pluot varieties that I grow in my yard, there is one purple fruit, one red dappled with yellow, one orange, and one green. They can be shaped like balls or hearts or grenades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While I have tasted dozens of pluot varieties, the only ones that I will make brief comments on are those four that I grow in my yard. I encourage those of you who grow pluots to share your experience with other varieties in the comments section.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flavor Grenade<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Flavor Grenade pluots.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is the crunchiest pluot I\u2019ve ever had — but to top it off, the crisp texture remains even as the taste reaches extreme sweetness. Those two never coincide! Only in Flavor Grenade. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My brother, who grows many pluots, ranks Flavor Grenade as his favorite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Splash<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is my orange one, and it is the first of mine to ripen, in July. If picked on the early side, Splash has a tang that reminds me of tangerine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Splash pluots picked from my tree July 20, 2021.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Geo Pride<\/strong> and Emerald Drop<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Splash ripens, Geo Pride and then Emerald Drop start around late July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Emerald Drop and Geo Pride pluots.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Dapple Dandy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the tree, the Dapple Dandy fruit look gray as they are covered in their natural waxy \u201cbloom\u201d. They look, honestly, unappealing, which makes the flesh inside that much more surprising. It is a starburst of white and red. It is also juicy and very sweet — less sweet than Flavor Grenade, but sweeter than Flavor King.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flavor King<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There has been a day when each of my pluots has been my favorite, but lately Flavor King has owned more of those days. They\u2019re easy to eat since they\u2019re small and the flesh comes off the stone relatively cleanly. And Flavor King has a taste that I can’t put a word on, but . . . <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watch me try in this short video I made profiling the Flavor King and Dapple Dandy pluot fruits as well as trees:<\/p>\n\n\n\n