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Temperate Fruit Discussion / Re: Plum varieties for Zone 9?
« on: April 16, 2024, 06:36:47 PM »Figured that I would be good to report back. The Guthrie plum I purchased from Mail Order Natives in October had a few blooms this year in a 3 gal pot. And we only got 75 hours of chill. Also, Flavorella plumcot bloomed heavily. I was shocked to see how little chill it needed.@galatians522 How is your Flavorella doing these days? Has it fruited these past couple years since you posted about it? Do you find it is adequately pollinated by Scarlet Beauty, or by another tree on your property?
I'm considering giving my Scarlet Beauty a mate, and wonder if Flavorella is an option.
The Falvorella at my Dad's has continued to bloom every year in March (about 2 weeks after Scarlet Beauty) and has set no fruit. The Guthrie plum at my house had more blooms this year and would have been about the same time as Flavorella but they were not close enough in geography to cross pollinate. You'll probably need one of the gulf series plums to pollinate Scarlet Beauty. When we had Gulf Blaze and Gulf Beauty before they bloomed close enough to work well. I think it was probably Gulf Beauty that was doing the job since it is supposedly slightly lower chill. It also is reported to have better resistance to plum leaf scald--the disease that ultimately kills most plums here in Florida. Scarlet Beauty seems to be highly resistant if grafted to plum roots.