Garden Tips: Want to grow a fruit tree? Plant a hybrid

Years ago, famous horticulturist Luther Burbank created the plumcot by crossing a plum with an apricot. However, his plumcot was not a commercial success because it was too soft for commercial shipping.

Today, pluots are found in farmers markets and grocery stores. Pluots are a cross between plums and apricots. The characteristics of the plum are dominant in the fruit. The fruit tastes like sweet juicy plums without the sharp taste of skin often associated with plums. Many of the pluots available to growers and gardeners have been developed by private fruit breeder, Floyd Zaiger. He introduced and trademarked his first pluot in 1989.

Keep in mind that pluots and other Zaiger hybrids are not genetically modified fruit. They have been bred with controlled cross pollination, not by tinkering with the genes. This involves crossing numerous generations of hybrids to come up with a suitable cultivar (cultivated variety) for commercial and home garden markets.

As with traditional stone fruit like peaches and apricots, there are many cultivars of pluots and plumcots available, such as Dapple Dandy, Flavor Grenade, Flavor King, Black Velvet, Honey Punch, Flavorosa and Zee Sweet. Many these have been developed by Zaiger's Genetics in California.

Zaiger's has also developed other stone fruit hybrids that may eventually become as popular as their trademarked pluot. This includes aprium, peacotum, nectaplum, peach-plum and pluerry. Often, the first part of the hybrid name comes from whatever fruit's characteristics are dominant in the offspring. For example, the pluerry, a hybrid of plum and cherry, have fruit that most resemble plum. Aprium, a complex hybrid of apricot and plum, have fruit that most resemble apricot.

Perhaps most intriguing of all the Zaiger's hybrids is the peacotum, introduced in 2007. It is a three-way hybrid of peach, apricot and plum. The peacotum's flavor is described by marketers as complex and unique, but reviewers indicate only being able to taste plum and apricot.

If you have been thinking of growing fruit trees in your yard, plums and these special hybrids are a good choice. They typically don't require regular spraying to control wormy fruit pests, and they are susceptible to fewer disease problems than most other types of stone fruit. Plus, many of the hybrids can be kept relatively small (under 10 feet) with proper pruning.

Dave Wilson Nursery in California is a wholesale nursery that serves as the primary U.S. propagator for cultivars developed by Zaiger's. They market these hybrids to commercial orchard and home garden markets.

If you want to try these hybrids, find some of the Zaiger cultivars through Raintree Nursery along with a variety of other fruits, nuts, berries and "unusual edibles." Raintree is retail mail-order nursery in Morton, Wash., at www.raintreenursery.com. Their catalog will indicate if you need a pollinizer to plant along with the cultivar you have selected.

There is already a nectaplum, I wonder what is next?

-- Marianne C. Ophardt is a horticulturist for Washington State University Benton County Extension.

This story was originally published September 11, 2014 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Garden Tips: Want to grow a fruit tree? Plant a hybrid ."