Clint, if you are wanting FK scion wood contact me via gw e-mail. I prune in mid March before dormant spray. I grafted a few FQ branches in my tree last season so I might get a taste in the summer. I haven't seen Flavor Queen in any new nursery catalogs. It is probably another fussy to produce pluot. My Dapple Dandy tree seems to grow like a regular plum on steroids here on Long Island. Nurseries might sell this one after the patent expires.

Called Dave Wilson and spoke with Tom. I explained I was new to fruit growing and asked which pluot he recommended for Long Beach. Tom's first choice would be a Flavor King and then the Flavor Grenade. Both grow well in my area. He said the Flavor King and Flavor Grenade are low chill- 300 hrs. (The Dave Wilson website reads differently). He recommended a close planting of Flavor King, Flavor Grenade and a Burgandy. He said I will be rewarded with a long fruiting season. I will try the close planting. I will try the flavor king and plant so it gets the most sun (south) I was apprehensive about planting a Grenade without trying the fruit but bvbrown convinced me. Whats the growing habit of the Grenade tree? I'm not sure about the third. I visited JoeReals' awesome site and I would like to try grafting the burgandy when pluots are mature enough. Will also order the DVD. I am definitely going to look into the Flavorella. Tom Spellman will present Dave Wilson's new varieties at the Los Angeles and Orange County's California Rare Fruit Growers meeting. See 'Event Calendar' at the DW website.

Ace, my Elephant Hearts cracked like clay in drought as did Fortune. Methely not much and same with Shiro- we got a break from rain just as they ripened (I'm probably 50 miles from you). Satsuma did not crack much although likewise the YJ's are becomming big issue. Time to start trapping. Santa Rosa and Early Majic didn't crack at all and were quite good as was a numbered variety I have from Cummins that set huge purple fleshed fruit which ripened with and past Santa Rosa. I'm trying to get Cummins to propigate some more of this one-it is a wonderful plum for adverse conditions and almost immune to black-knot. All the plums mentioned here fruit heavily most years and require ample thinning. Let me know if you want any wood.

Flavor Queen and Flavor Grenade can both be very sweet and have no tartness but also not a great deal of flavor. Flavor King is sweet and high flavor but I honestly can't recall how tart. I think not much. I'd rate King best and Queen worst of those. Just how sweet any are is highly dependent on growing conditions. Too much water reduces sweetness. In Illinois don't water established trees unless your soil is really shallow. Also skip the mulch and let the grass suck up some water near the tree. The tree is not to dry until it starts losing leaves.