Ace: I had Flavor King and a couple other varieties of Pluots, and difficulty of pollination was one of the main reasons I took them out. Very vigorous trees, plenty of blossoms, but little to no fruit set. I hope yours do better. The plumcot sounds like a different animal, and might be better in this respect. The few pluots that did set in the several years I had mature trees were very attractive to the oriental fruit moth. About in the nectarine class as OFM candy. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

I just get back from the 2015 CRFG convention in San Diego and have emails of new activity in Houzz. Houston? Well I will try to answer you after I promote the local RFG. Texas branch: Houston Area Edward Self 20422 Canyon Gate Blvd. Katy, TX 77450 (281) 770-1450 Email: houston@crfg.org https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/txrarefruitgrowers/info http://thebellhouse.weebly.com/home/2013-texas-rare-fruit-growers-scion-exchange And Houston Chills and Fruit recommendations: http://yearroundgardening.me/tag/chill-hours-southeast-texas/ http://harris.agrilife.org/files/2011/05/fruitnut.pdf http://www.houstongardengirl.com/2011/01/fruit-tree-series-1.html http://harris.agrilife.org/hort/publications-links/ _Fascist-Nation, ...have u gotten fruit on Spring Satin more than 1 year? You definitely don't qualify for adequate chill hours...wondering if I could grow this in Houston and get fruit at 500 chill hours. ...Using a pollinator?_ I did get a few dozen fruits on 2nd leaf. That was also a poor chill hour winter and was the lowest in 12 years. You will undoubtedly meet the tree's actual chill hours which are <250. What that could mean for you would be flowering too early some early springs with a late freeze killing the buds/flowers. As for a pollinator, I have dozens of _Prunus_ sp. cultivars that co-bloom within 100 ft. of that tree. And lots of pollinating insects hard at work. Remember chill hour estimates are somewhat a guess in the beginning and I have never seen a release with less than 600 chills to begin with due to the area(s) of initial trial not being lower than this amount of chill AND fear of being sued by growers if they plant a few million dollars in trees and then a few years later it is proved the chill hour estimate were inadequate. That happened south of Phoenix when an Ag agent convinced a grower to plant acres of pistachio trees only to have them poorly bloomed in eight years due to lack of 800 or more chills. They are now pecan trees lining the highway between Phoenix and Tucson. The other thing to remember with chills is there is a lot of formulas, but the only two that count are accumulated chills between Nov 1 and Feb 28 of either <45F, or >32F to <45F. This is what appears on the tag by the wholesale nursery. This is what their estimate is based upon. All the other subtraction formulas out there are attempts to model bloom time better that the above formulas produce for a particular species of "fruit" tree.

DH, it’s hard to tell exactly what killed them. The warmer temps meant that predatory bark infections and insects weren’t killed off. I would see the bark break and ooze sap as die back started on the tips of the branches and spread down to the trunk. A Weeping Santa Rosa sent up suckers everywhere, then the SR and suckers all died mysteriously. Was it Armillaria root rot? The section in my picture is a little further from the house and everything is still thriving there. Perhaps I should have watered longer and deeper over the summer. Or would the moist soil set off killing fungus and root infections? It’s easier to just replace the tree than to figure out why, as important as that is to know. I’ve switched to fig trees that are more drought, fungus and disease tolerant, grow affordably from cuttings, can be cluster planted, pruned to any shape easily, have a wide variety of delicious flavors and just grow and produce better overall over time. Best of all, figs don’t set off my acid reflux the way other fruit does now.

Here's a lilst of fruits for Zone 14 (the Sunset Western Garden Book designation for the Sacramento area; we don't use USDA zones in California with accuracy): POME AND STONE FRUIT TREES Apple -- [best crops with two different trees] Arkansas Black Astrachan Beverly Hills Black Twig Fuji (bears alternately) Gala (Royal Gala) (fireblight-prone) Golden Delicious Granny Smith Gravenstein Jonathan Melrose Mutsu Newtown Pippin Northern Spy (slow) Rome Beauty (Red Rome) Spigold Winesap Winter Banana (Winter) Pearmain Apricots -- Autumn Royal (ripens late) Blenheim (Royal) Floragold Golden Amber Royalty Tilton Aprium (apricot-plum hybrid) Flavor Ann Flavor Delight Honey Rich Tasty Rich Cherry -- [need two different trees] Bing Black Tartarian English Morello (sour) Montmorency (sour) North Star (sour) Royal Ann Stella Van Cherry-Plum -- Delight Sprite Nectarine -- Desert Dawn Double Delight (ornamental, too) Fantasia Flavor Top Goldmine John Rivers Independence Silver Lode Snow Queen Southern Belle (genetic dwarf) Stanwick Sungrand Nectaplum (nectarine-plum hybrid) Spice-Zee Peach -- Bonita Babcock Bonanza II (genetic dwarf) Desertgold Donut (Saturn) Early Elberta Elberta Fay Elberta Fortyniner Gold Dust Halehaven Honey Babe (genetic dwarf) Indian Free July Elberta Redhaven Rio Oso Gem Peach-Plum  Tri-Lite Pear -- Bartlett Baldwin Comice Fan Stil Flordahome Hood Kieffer Monterrey Moonglow Seckel Sure Crop Winter Nelis Pears, Asian -- (Some are relatively self-fertile but still do best with a pollinator; others absolutely require a pollinator (because pollinators are specific in many cases, check your references before purchasing just any pollinator). Also check for fireblight resistance (a common disease among some cultivars).) Chojuro Hosui Ichiban Kikusui Kosui Mishirasu Nihon Nashi (Okusankichi) Niitaka Nijisseki (20th Century)  for coldest areas Seuri Shinko Shinseiki Shinsui Tsu Li (Tse Li) Ya li Yoinashi Yongi Plum, European -- Brooks Damson Early Laxton* French Prune Green Gage Imperial* Italian Prune Mirabelle Reine Claude Seneca* Stanley Sugar Plum, Japanese -- Burgundy Casselman Eldorado Elephant Heart Kelsey Laroda Nubiana Santa Rosa Satsuma (many others) Pluot (plum-apricot hybrid)  Black Kat Blue Gusto Crimson Heart Dapple Fire Early Dapple Flavor Fall Flavor Gem Flavor Gold Flavor Grenade Flavor Heart Flavorich Flavorite Flavor Jewel Flavor King Flavorosa Flavor Queen Flavor Supreme Flavor Treat Flavor Wynne Geo Pride Marcia's Flavor Plum Parfait Royal Treat Spring Flavor Quince -- CookeÂs Jumbo Orange Pineapple Smyrna OTHERS Fig -- (Black) ÂMission ÂBrown Turkey ÂConadria ÂKadota Jujube (Ziziphus) -- ÂJin ÂLang ÂLi ÂSherwood ÂSilverhill Loquat (Eriobotrya japonica) -- ÂBig Jim ÂAdvance ÂChampagne ÂGold Nugget ÂMacBeth Mulberry, Black (Morus nigra)  ÂPersian ÂBlack Beauty ÂKaester ÂPakistan King ÂSullivan ÂThompson Pomegranate -- ÂAmbrosia ÂBlaze ÂEarly Wonderful ÂEversweet ÂGrenada ÂPink Pearl Drops ÂRosamia ÂSweet ÂUtah Sweet ÂWhite ÂWonderful NUTS Almond (takes two for pollination with noted exceptions *) -- ÂAll-in-OneÂ* ÂCarmel ÂGarden PrinceÂ* ÂMission ÂNeplus Ultra ÂNonpareil ÂPrice Chestnut (takes two to pollinate)  ÂColossal ÂDunstan ÂEurobella Filbert, Hazelnut (takes two to pollinate)  ÂBarcelona ÂBrixnut ÂButler ÂDavianna ÂDu Chilly ÂEnnis ÂWhite Aveline Pistachio (Pistacia vera) (takes two to pollinate)  ÂJoley  female ÂKerman  female ÂPeters  male (pollinator) ÂSfax -- female Walnut -- ÂChandler ÂHartley ÂHoward ÂTehama UNCOMMON HARDY FRUITS Mulberry hybrids -- ÂCollier (Morus alba X M. rubra) ÂIllinois Everbearing (M. alba X M. rubra) ÂTehama ("Giant White") ÂWellington (ÂNew AmericanÂ) Black persimmon (Diospyros digyna) Che (Cudrania tricuspidata) Pawpaw (Asimina triloba) (some self-fertile, otherwise hand pollinated) Potential (not tested well) -- ÂMary Foos Johnson ÂMitchell ÂOverleese ÂProlific ÂRebeccaÂs Gold ÂSunflower (sf) ÂTaylor ÂTaytoo ÂWells Persimmon hybrids -- ÂKeener ÂNikitaÂs Gift ÂRossiyanka Strawberry Tree, Chinese (Myrica rubra) Joe