The truth about the misterious pluots

Pluots and other hybrids list. 
Rankings and myth busters

In Memory of Zaiger

A lot of us get passionate about growing this modern fruits, pluots, pluerries, apriums, peachcotums, apriums, and other funky names that can be a bit overwelming.
Are there other interspecific fruits out there?

To know more about the history of this fruits  CLICK HERE

But what are the best ones? Share your rankings.
What are their growing zones and what are the best polinators?

There are interesting and European varieties but are they worth it compared with regular cultivars?

Lets make a list of all of them, american and europeans and try to organize them…(help me out.).

PLUOTS 70%-30% Plum-Apricot

Amigo 1_____________700 chill hrs
Amigo 2_____________800 chill hrs
Aprimira
Black kat_____________1000 chill hrs
Black Satin
Biricoccolo gigante di budrio
Biricoccolo bolognese
Biricoccolo vesuviano
Candy stripe_____________800 chill hrs
Coparose_____________600 chill hrs
Cuban
Cerny barchat
Cherrykose
Crimson heart_____________700 chill hrs
Crimson rose _____________800 chill hrs
Crimson royale _____________800 chill hrs
Cierna marhula
Dapple dandy_____________500 chill hrs            Off Ptt
Dapple fire _____________700 chill hrs
Dapple jack _____________600 chill hrs
Dapple supreme _____________300 chill hrs
Dinosaur Brand
Early Dapple _____________700 chill hrs
Ebony Rose_____________600 chill hrs
Emerald drop / Gem _______700 chill hrs            On Ptt

Fall fiesta _____________800 chill hrs
Festival red_____________600 chill hrs
Flavor Ann
Flavor Blast_____________700 chill hrs
Flavor Candy
Flavor Fall                                                               On Ptt
Flavor Finale
Flavor fusion _____________650 chill hrs
Flavor Gem
Flavor Grenade_____________650 chill hrs          On Ptt
Flavor Heart_____________800 chill hrs               On Ptt
Flavor Jewel_____________850 chill hrs               
Flavor King_____________500 chill hrs                Off Ptt
Flavor Prince
Flavor Penguin
Flavor Queen_____________400 chill hrs             Off Ptt
Flavor Rich_____________800 chill hrs                Off Ptt
Flavor Royal _____________500 chill hrs
Flavor Rouge _____________500 chill hrs
Flavor Supreme_____________700 chill hrs          Off Ptt
Flavorfall _____________800 chill hrs
Flavorite _____________700 chill hrs
Flavorosa____________500 chill hrs Zone 6-10
Flavorich____________800 chill hrs
Globus
Gypsee _____________900 chill hrs
Hesse
Holiday
Honey Rich
Honey punch _____________800 chill hrs
King kong
Leah Cot
Marcia Flavor
Marcopolo
Mesch mesch amra
Melitopol
Miracot
Purple candy
Pink candy
Plumogranate
Plum parfait
Queen Elizabeth
Raspberry Jewel
Red Ray
Ruby cat _____________800 chill hrs
Sprite
Spring flavor _____________500 chill hrs
Summer Delight
Sunset delight _____________800 chill hrs
Tasty Rich
67929

PLUMCOT - 50%-50% Plum-Apricot

Apex
Bella Sun _____________700 chill hrs
Burbank
Emerald Beauty
Flavourella _____________600 chill hrs              Off Ptt
Flavor Delight
Geo pride                                                                On Ptt
Spring Satin_____________Zone 6 300 chill hrs
Splash
Melitopol
Pirate
Plum parfait

PLUERRY
Candy heart_____________250 chill hrs
Fruit Punch
Flavor Punch_____________300 chill hrs
Purple Sprite
Sweet heart_____________250 chill hrs
Sweet treat
Sugar twist
White sprite
Brave Heart

APRIUM
Aprisali
Autumn sprite_____________800 chill hrs
Black velvet
Black Pirate
Bella Jewell
Bella Zee
Bella Sweet
Bella Rose_____________750 chill hrs
Betty Cot_____________750 chill hrs
Cot n candy_____________300 chill hrs
Coral Cot_____________600 chill hrs
Countrycot _____________350 chill hrsEscort
Escort _____________800 chill hrs
Flavor Delight_____________300 chill hrs            Off Ptt
Hermosa_____________800 chill hrs
Honey Rich_____________400 chill hrs
Huntington_____________750 chill hrs
Kylese-Cot_____________450 chill hrs
Late Brittney_____________900 chill hrs
Leah Cot_____________800 chill hrs
Macy Cot_____________150 chill hrs
Purple Rose
Ruby Velvet
Tasty Rich_____________700 chill hrs
Trinidad_____________300 chill hrs
Summer delight
Wescot_____________650 chill hrs
Weston_____________900 chill hrs

PLEACHCOT
Honeysun
Honeymoon
Pfirsicose

PEACHPLUM
Tri lite_____________300 chill hrs Zone 6    Off Ptt

CHERRYPLUM

Nadia

CHERUMS

CHERRYCOT
Aprikira

NECTACOT

Honeypearl

NECTAPLUM
Spice zee_____________300 chill hrs Zone 6

NECTACOTUM
Dapple Fire
Nectarcot

PEACOTUM
Bella Royale
Bella Gold____________500 chill hrs Zone 5-9
Bella Cerise

PEACHCOT

PEACHARINE
Snow

POLINATORS
Burgundy, Santa Rosa, Satsuma, amigo1, flavorosa, toka, Flavor grenade

Help me add the ones that are missing on the list
Share your thoughts what is the top 10 of the ones you tried?

Are interspecific hybrids a big marketing plan or are they the real deal?Pluots and other hybrids list. Rankings and myth busters

To know more about the history of this fruits click HERE 

Rest In Polem Floyd Zaiger and thank you for your genes.

Rest In Polem

 Floyd Zaiger

One of my heros just went to fruit paradise

"Fruit breeders, who make crosses, plant experimental seedlings and evaluate them, generally labor in obscurity, but Floyd Zaiger, the most prolific and arguably the world’s greatest fruit breeder, was a high-profile exception.

Over six decades he and his family developed 420 fruit and nut varieties patented in the United States — by far the greatest number of any fruit breeder — and introduced Pluots, firm but sweet white-fleshed peaches and nectarines, and fruit crosses such as Peacotums previously thought to be impossible.

Zaiger died June 2 at his home in Modesto. He was 94. The cause was unclear, but he had been having trouble breathing and was under hospice care when he likely had a heart attack or stroke, and died five days later, said his daughter, Leith Gardner.

Chris Floyd Zaiger was born April 26, 1926, in Kennard, Neb., to Christian Fredrick Zaiger and Anna Marie Zaiger, the middle child of nine. His mother called him “Floyd” to distinguish him from his father, who was known as “Chris.” His family, which farmed in Iowa and later Oregon, was poor, and he left school after eighth grade. During World War II he served as a paratrooper with the U.S. Army 11th Airborne Division.

After the war he got his general equivalency diploma, attended UC Davis with support from the G.I. Bill, and graduated with a degree in plant pathology. He married Betty Jean Taylor in 1950, and taught high school in Modesto, where he started breeding azaleas and rhododendrons as a hobby.

Fred Anderson, a fruit breeder known as the inventor of the modern nectarine, took him on as an apprentice in 1956 and Zaiger learned quickly. He soon struck out on his own, running an ornamental nursery by day as he pursued his dream at home by moonlight.

“I’d caught the dreaded disease of fruit breeding,” he recalled in a 2000 interview.

He focused on improving stone fruit — peaches, nectarines, apricots, plums and cherries — and introduced his first variety, Royal Gold peach, in 1965. But he dreamed of combining plums and apricots, his two favorite fruits, like his hero, Luther Burbank, the great turn-of-the-century fruit breeder. Burbank had managed to partially overcome interspecies sterility and hybridize plumcots (half plum, half apricot), but most were small and sour, or unproductive, and they never caught on.

By making thousands of crosses, Zaiger discovered plumcots with good flavor, size and productivity.

He released a few, such as Plum Parfait and Flavorella, but the real breakthrough came when he backcrossed plumcots to plums, creating interspecific plums that he trademarked as Pluots.

The Flavor King Pluot.

(David Karp)

These new varieties — starting with Flavor Supreme, Flavor Queen and Flavor King — were sweet, juicy and rich, and along with later varieties, revolutionized the plum category.

Today interspecific plums from the Zaigers and other breeders account for three-quarters of plum production in California, his daughter estimated.

In the 19^th century, exquisitely aromatic white-fleshed peaches and nectarines were common, but so easily bruised they couldn’t be shipped, and by the mid-20^th century more durable yellow-fleshed varieties predominated.

Zaiger crossed tender low-acid white peaches with firmer yellow types to create low-acid white-fleshed peaches and nectarines that were sweet when firm enough to ship, like the almost preternaturally sugary Arctic Rose. Low-acid yellow varieties followed, and today peaches and nectarines with low and intermediate acidity abound.

Zaiger and his family invented many other fruit types, including interspecific apricots, sold as Apriums; cherries with winter chilling requirements so low they can be grown in Los Angeles; crosses of cherry and plum; crosses of peach, apricot and plum sold as Peacotums or Colorcots; and even some crosses so complex that no common name for them exists.

But the family’s greatest success has been the Independence almond, which does not require pollination by bees, and is now grown on nearly 50,000 acres in California, mostly in the Central Valley.

Floyd Zaiger offers a taste of a Pluot at his experimental orchard in Modesto.

(David Karp)

Source

In addition to his daughter, Zaiger is survived by his two sons, Gary and Grant, who also work in the family business, Zaiger’s Inc. Genetics; six grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren. His wife and siblings predeceased him.

His fruit varieties live on at farms and markets around the world.

“It gives me great satisfaction,” he said of his work, “far greater than any return on investment, to create something new that gives so many people so much pleasure.”