That sounds like a lot of fun Ace. If I only had more room I would be doing the same. One other advantage of Shekar Pareh is it is later blooming by about a week.

I believe the Shekar Pareh is in fact a plumcot, it has too many plum characters; recently I noticed that Todd Kennedy also labeled it a plumcot. I had heard there was a problem with sterility of seeds from plumcot pollination but I don't remember hearing exactly how common that was or if it was with the real plumcots or the pluots (which genetically test as 100% plum).

Scott

And taste 100% plum to me.

Ace:

Your wording leaves me confused as to which parent was the female. OK, I read it again and the pluot is the female. But either way did you take any precautions to keep the female from selfing or being pollinated by bees? Flavor King probably isn't self fertile but what keeps the bees from messing with your cross?

I'd think about some controlled crosses and I guess it won't be that hard. Seems to me you need something to exclude bees. Also do you really think an apricot will pollinate a plum/pluot and give a viable seed? Is it really that easy as just applying pollen?

I'd probably just cross two pluot and see what resulted.

Scott, I do have had lower germination rates with the FK pluot seeds. One FK seedling is full red leafed on both leaf sides. I hand pollinated FK with peach last season. L. Burbank writings say red leafed plums were probably crossed with a peach. All stone fruit blooms overlap here with the way everything is planted. I'll save also the She-kar Pareh seeds as this is the most vigorous plant, it grows like a vine. Who knows maybe it crossed with FK when I collected the pollen.

Harvest, I haven't tried She-kar Pareh, I'll let you know in a few months.

Fruitnut, I am in my second season with hand pollination. I am reading L. Burbank's writings on breeding. I expect that if/when a FK flower accepts Apricot/plumcot pollen then it would discourage another pollen. I think breeders want to try one specific cross and they keep flowers isolated. Pluots, Peaches and Cots blooms overlap significantly the way I planted trees in my yard. First I want to learn what is pollinating FK.