Flavor Delight may be self fertile. It has always set a lot of fruit for me. And it does bloom very early. Cot-N-Candy will probably fertilize it if they bloom together. I just planted Cot-N-Candy this yr. My favorite early aprium is Tasty Rich. It is listed at 300 hrs. It is my earliest tree fruit, has good size, and a very good full apricot flavor. I think it is a much superior eating fruit than Flavor Deight and about two wks earlier. But I think you will have a hard time finding it.

The Fruitnut

Thanks for your response. Adams County Nursery sells Tasty Rich, but doesn't ship to CA. Not fair, since the variety originated here.
A local nursery is having a big sale this weekend, with a nice selection of fruit trees.

Fruitnut, you're right. Flavor Delight seems to be setting a nice crop this year, in spite of no pollinators. Last year there was only one fruit.
I bought both Kathy and Royal Royal at the local nursery sale. There are a number of Gardenweb posts on how well Royal Rosa grows, how disease resistant it is, but not much on how it tastes.

I have a Royal Rosa and have not been impressed with the fruit so far. Small and on the bland side. Flavor Delight is better, thought not as good as my Harcot, which comes on a little later. There's a space for Flavorella plumcot next to Royal Rosa so that it could serve as a pollenizer, if I find a tree on a suitable rootstock. Katy is supposed to taste better near the coast than in the Central Valley where I am, so the same could be true of Royal Rosa.

Tasty Rich sounds great. Wonder if it's self-pollinating? My Flavor Delight doesn't seem to need a pollinatior.

Early Golden is listed at 450 chill hours vs. 500 for Royal Rosa. Flora Gold (500 hours) is also early. It is on the small side and is bland until fully ripe, at least in my yard. I guess this means it is low in acid.

In my opinion, the only true "low-chill" apricot that is around is Joe's Italian. I posted on this variety last year (or was it two years ago?); anyway, it is no longer available apparently in the GW archive.

Joe's Italian is available from Exotica Nursery in Vista, CA. It originally came from Palermo, Sicily. It is extremely precocious (quickly starts fruiting) and needs little chilling. It flowers with Flavor Delight. It has a truer apricot flavor than FD, but is less juicy. I wouldn't call it a fantastic apricot, but for me it is far more reliable than Katy (which I discarded after 7 years of no fruit) or Goldkist.

Brian

@altadenamara curious if you ever found a decent replacement to your apricot tree. Deciding on an apricot here in san gabriel.

No, Diyfreddy. I get a few apricots from Royal Rosa but none from the other trees for years. The spring flowers are pretty though, so I haven't chopped them down.

@Mara Schaeffer thanks! maybe ill try an aprium, or plumcot instead. If all I get are pretty flowering trees then that’s not too bad either.

@Diyfreddy -Pluots/plumcots Emerald Drop, Splash, and Geo Pride are doing great as separate trees and fruit every year. I had them first grafted on one tree and only Geo Pride survived and grew to a full tree. Flavor Grenade tastes wonderful but struggles with disease. Minnie Royal and Royal Lee cherry trees also have lovely blossems and fruit that the birds love. You would have to net the trees to get any cherries but they're good. I'm elderly and don't prune my fruit trees anymore so that might influence their production. Citrus do so well without fuss, spraying or pruning that I'm enjoying them so much more than the stone fruits. Some varieties of bananas do well here now with the climate change.

@Mara Schaeffer funny, all my stone fruit do well. spizee nectaplum is my favorite all 3 of my cherries also do great. my citrus however are all stunted. My citrus almost seem to be shrinking. Let’s see what all this rain does for the trees this yr

@Mara Schaeffer btw what type of bananas do you grow? i have youngs kids and they’d love a banana plant

@ Diyfreddy My Dwarf Namwah fruited last year at around 5’. The fruit were only a few inches long and disappeared while still green. The Tall Namwa and Pisang Ceylon are hanging in there. I have another that I think is SH 3640 but I’ve lost the tag. My third Patupi after two fails is still in a five gallon pot and I need to find a good place for it. There are some tall banana trees at my grandson’s PreK that fruit regularly. They claim that they are the ice cream banana but the fruit look much more yellow than what I’ve seen in pictures. A house 3 blocks away has around six, very tall, fruiting banana trees.

@Mara Schaeffer definetly motivated to grow bananas now. Thanks!