My own experience with sweet cherries and Apricots.... I absolutely LOVE apricots - but so does all of the disease and bugs here... The tree seems incredibly difficult to keep alive down here.... I have 1 apricot that went in last year.... and I am seriously re-considering a Tomcot.... but I lost all 5 other apricots to bugs literally eating the trees to the ground... Cherries... Cherries are tough because Birds love them so much... so far - the last 3 years... I have gotten 1 cherry each year in my mouth... The foliage also gets hammered by Japanese Beetles... but they seem to pull through... On Peaches - Scott has great advice.. I would also add Red Haven and Elberta.... They are older, tough, reliable cultivars... Plums wise... Same as Scott - but more so... My European plums don't do well in the summer... Too hot for them - and they go dormant in the summer - and the plums came out very bitter... I dug them up and planted them in the shade last year.. and they didn't die.. We will see this year... Japanese plums wise - so far Methley is super reliable but So-so for taste (Bland and watery when fully ripe) until the very end of it's season.. The kids absolutely love them - so the tree can stay for now... I put in a Satsuma last year - we will see how it does.... If you like making Jelly - American plums are the ticket... but they are very bitter/sour/inedible until 100% fully ripe... I LOVE home made American plum jelly! Thanks

Might be a plan, Fruitnut. I'll check around. Maybe my local nursery can order a bundle if I can sell them on a variety. They may know some farmer's market growers who might like to trial a variety. Last year they got a "stray" in a bundle of Pluots and I bought it after it leafed out and it became obvious that it was bundled with a different variety. Still had the rootstock tag. Think it's Splash, but we'll see. To me, that's gambling. Now that we're all lusting after Flavor Treat thanks to Fruitnut, I noticed that Dave Wilson has a picture of Flavor Treat at their site, but it's not in their list of either commercial or home varieties. Strange. And Patty, now is the time when you start planting in the yards of friends and neighbors. I'm considering that with a couple of plums from which I want budwood. They should pollenize my trees from across the street, too. I bought a Flavor Grenade for one friend this year, and hope to get another friend a Flavor King. You have to assess how "into" gardening they are and pick easy or more challenging varieties depending on their expected level of care. And maybe drop by for dormant spraying and painting trunks every year. I think this is also a good idea with vegetable and melon seeds. Give a gardener you know seeds of premium varieties in return for a little produce, or buy seed for a local nursery to grow out, with an agreement that they'll call you when plants are ready.

Apricots are going to be a little iffy in our area. They bloom very early. Peaches are easy though - I'm not sure what kind I have but it's probably Reliance. It tastes great and I get peaches without doing more than a dormant spray. This year I'll bag the peaches with shoe store try-on footies to try to keep the bugs off them. Last year I lost probably 70% or more of my crop to insects, but I still had plenty of good peaches without doing anything. For cherries I'm trying Danube as I couldn't decide between sweet and sour. I'd probably get Montmorency or Meteor if I was getting a second cherry tree. You'll need to net the tree if you want to eat any before the birds get them. Last year I lost all the cherries (only about 20) to birds but one which I ate. It was good and I look forward to getting a few more this year. My other fruit tree planted last year is a Honeycrisp apple. They grow best in the Midwest with our cold nights during harvest. I'm going to try bagging the fruit so I don't have to spray it. I hope it works out as the apples are so very good.

Harvestman: The high brix on Early Blush along with very high brix on other outdoor fruit over the years tells me my outdoor shelter project will be worth the effort. I should have had the shelter up to beat this years freeze. When I do get some production I'm pretty sure I can achieve high brix outdoors without root pruning. Deficit irrigation will be the answer. My greenhouse has one flaw, it's a much more mild environment than outdoors. This reduces water demand and makes it critical that I tow the line on water applications. If not I get big watery fruit. All my experience says outdoors will be much easier to grow high brix fruit. This fruit will also be smaller and firmer. The Early Blush I just harvested was half the size of greenhouse specimens, much higher brix, and much firmer. What this tells me for those in mild, humid climates is that a greenhouse like mine would be hard to manage for good fruit. But a high tunnel where it gets hotter might still work. It also leaves me wondering where you guys stand outdoors in regards to water and fruit quality. That's why some brix measurements from you guys would be interesting. It would tell us all where you stand. This post was edited by fruitnut on Mon, May 5, 14 at 9:14