Pluots

[aceofspades]

Flavor king pluot had first fruits this season. The FK tree set 5 pluots and the first one taste great and had a complex flavor. We had yellow jackets(wasps) so I covered the other 4 pluots with footies and they cracked but were salvaged. This season our area had a very wet season and many stone fruits cracked badly but remarkably the FK pluots colored up with out any cracking. When I put the footies on the ripe fruit to protect them the skin cracked due to the constant wetness.

Three things I am going to try next season;

I am going to spread the branches to catch more sun and maybe get it growing wider as the FK tree only grows to 12 feet.

I am going to try various methods to keep the fruit dry to prevent cracking. Bag the fruit with zip lock bags that are cut in half to work like a pancho.

Cut port holes around the top of gallon milk jugs with strip of bacon inside and fill with a quart of soap water. I caught 100 YJ a day and I need to set these up when they first come in August. The bacon attracts YJ and not beneficial bees. The soap in the water removes the waters surface tension to allow the YJ to drown. I hang these jugs in the trees to keep cats from getting the bacon and dump the YJ into the compost pile and refill the soap water every few days.

[naclh2o]

I find yellow jackets can be annoying when entertaining outside; BBQ and such, but stopped trapping efforts when I saw how effective they were in helping to control a white fly infestation on my citrus and keeping the catapiller population in check on my plums, cherries and passionflowers. Weight any good they may be doing against the bad prior to wiping them out. Surprising thing, when their natural prey aren't around, I hardly notice them. In addition to the varieties stated above, I also have Flavor King and Flavor Supreme pluots (the latter being experimental for my area). What damage have you found the YJ's to cause? I can see them attacking open or cracked fruit. Are they doing anything else?