Improperly ripened pluots may have caused pest infestation

: I have a two-year-old pluot that has a lot of nice looking fruit on it. Some of the fruit drops before it is ripe and there seems to be a little bug that has crawled into the stem end of the fruit. As I have picked other fruit and opened them up, a lot of them have this little bug problem. Do they need to be sprayed early in the season? I know you have pluots in the (University of Nevada Cooperative Extension Master Gardener) orchard. Is this a problem that you have experienced?

Also, they don't seem to be as sweet as my Santa Rosa plums, which were great and bug free.

A: It is hard to identify the bug without seeing it, but from experience and relying on the most-common problems in fruit like this I am guessing it is the dried fruit beetle.

For readers that don't know what pluots are, they are fruit that result from a cross between apricots and plums, hence the name. Other fruit that have resulted from a cross between apricot and plum include apriums and plumcots.

The primary difference is that this fruit is crossed a second time with plums so the resulting fruit and tree look more like a plum than an apricot. Management of the tree in the orchard also is more like plum than apricot.

Another thing to remember about pluots is that their fully ripened fruit is firm, not soft like apricots. If you like firm ripe fruit better than soft ripe fruit, then you will like pluots.

Also, not all pluots are alike. There are many different varieties and they vary in the quality of the fruit, their taste, when to harvest and sweetness, but generally they all have firm fruit. These varieties include Flavor Supreme, Flavor King, Flavor Queen, Dapple Dandy and Flavorosa, just to name a few.

Sometimes it can be hard to tell when pluots are ripe since many of them stay firm when they are ripe and they should be harvested firm. Pluots are not like apricots; they are more like plums in their habits. Depending on which pluot you have, most will have flesh that turns red or yellow when mature.

Please remember, like plums and apricots, these fruit will continue to ripen off of the tree so you can pick them a bit early and hold them at room temperature until they finish ripening. If you harvest them a bit early, they still will retain the same flavor and sweetness they would have if they were tree harvested and you can avoid most of the bugs and birds.

There are two ways to tell if your pluot is ready to harvest besides the color change in the flesh. One is to mark your calendar for next year and pick one at that time and bite into it. Look at the flesh color and see how far it has progressed. If you see a good share of color change in the inside flesh then you can begin to harvest.

Harvest those fruit that the tree easily releases when you lift them or pull with a gentle tug. Leave the remaining fruit and harvest progressively over the next one to two weeks. This also will eliminate bugs in the fruit that you harvest in this manner.

Now regarding this bug. The dried fruit beetle is a small beetle, maybe an eighth of an inch long, that infests ripening and fully ripened fruit. It also will infest dried fruit, decaying fruit lying on the ground or hanging in the tree, and fruit intended for the compost pile that has not been fully decomposed. Once they start to multiply it is hard to control them.

The key to getting rid of this pest is to keep your garden and orchard area free of dropped fruit, fruit decomposing in the trees and fruit that has not yet been added to the compost pile. When we pick up fruit from the ground (we do this twice a week at the orchard) or decomposing on the tree, we put it in a covered barrel until it is ready to compost. This keeps pests from multiplying, infesting the fruit and flying back into the orchard in search of ripe fruit to infest.

So my guess is that you left your pluots on the tree too long. I think you may have been waiting for this fruit to get soft, which it will not do until it is past its prime for picking.

Secondly, these bugs got into your fully ripened fruit and then started a vicious cycle of infesting ripened fruit. They will spread to all your other soft fruit as well, including peaches, apricots, plums, figs and the like. They really like fresh figs.

Q: Several of my fruiting, in-ground bananas, have sprouted pups this year. What is the best way to separate them from the mother plant so I can bring them in for the winter?

A: Just a word of caution when responding to this question. I am not trying to advocate the growing of tropical fruit in Las Vegas, but questions like these demonstrate the fun you can have experimenting with plants in your yard. As I have mentioned in the past, you can grow any plant in the world in Las Vegas providing you are willing to provide the time, effort and expense to make them work.

Bananas will grow here if you have and select the right microclimate, prepare the soil properly and care for it during the rough times of the year. Bananas vary in their ability to tolerate our climate. Many handle heat well and some will even tolerate light freezing temperatures. They like some protection from late afternoon heat and intense winds. In other words, they should be planted near a warm wall for winter heat and out of the wind but protected from late afternoons in the summer. East exposures will probably be best in most cases.

Bananas are herbaceous perennials, meaning the plant never really gets woody but stays green and relatively succulent. They grow in clumps of stems from the mother plant. If left on their own, they will grow into a large, ever-expanding clump.

A new stem emerging from the ground from the mother plant is called a pup. As the pups get bigger, they may be referred to as suckers. Propagation of bananas is done with these suckers or pups. One pup produces one stem and this one stem can flower and fruit and then die. Once a pup flowers, it is cut down or dies to the ground and a new pup or pups takes its place.

Very small pups are called buttons. Large pups are preferred for planting. These are removed from vigorous clumps with a sharp spade when they are at least 3 feet tall. This is done during warm months.

Pups should not be taken from a mother plant until a clump has at least three to four large stems, demonstrating it is fully established. When the pup is taken, the cut must be close enough to the mother plant to obtain some roots or the separated pup will struggle and most likely die. Large leaves are cut off of the pup leaving only the youngest leaves.

It is best to give these new plants some shade until they produce new roots and become established. This will be obvious when you see some new strong growth from the pup.

Bob Morris is an associate professor with the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension. Direct gardening questions to the master gardener hot line at 257-5555 or contact Morris by e-mail at morrisr@unce.unr.edu.