I forgot about Golden Amber. Didn't get a lot of fruit this year. It's a decent choice for our hot valley which ripens a little later than most of the best varieties, over a somewhat extended period. I think it has a fairly low chill requirement.

It normally doesn't get pit burn but a few fruits were affected this year during a very hot spell.

I want a Robada and a Golden Sweet.

carolync-

Are these fruits of yours all on separate trees or do you have many varieties on one rootstock?

carolyn:

Tasty Rich has been a very consistent producer of good but not great fruit. It runs about 17-19 brix. Size is very good and flavor is full if totally ripe. It's been my most consistent apricot and the earliest. For comparison Tomcot is about 2 points higher brix. Robada is even higher brix, larger, and great flavor. This year the brix ran 16-24 and they were all huge and great tasting even with too many fruit on the tree.

Honey Rich was great last year. But all other years has been soft and generally lacking in favorable attributes.

Next year I'll fruit Early Blush apricot out of NJ. It is supposed to be a week earlier than Tasty Rich, we'll see.

I'll also be fruiting other apricots for the first time next year, Orangered, Tardirouge, Blenheim, Gold Kist, and probably something else I can't remember.

My best from earliest are Tasty Rich, Tomcot, and Robada.

Nothing else has stood out so far. Among those I haven't liked: Autumn Glo, Earli Autumn, Lorna, Canadian White Blenheim, Flavor Delight, Moorpark, Patterson, and Hunza.

Cot-N-Candy can be very good or very bad and the tree has many negatives like very short lived spurs. It can be very small and very soft, green one day and on the ground the next. Properly grown, less water, it's very good.

Flavorella, half apricot half plum, is a very special fruit if you can get the brix up above 20, 22-24 even better. But it blooms very early and drops not fully ripe even in my greenhouse with no wind.

Very helpful list. Thanks. Isn't Orangered a parent of Robada? I think it has too high a chill requirement for me. It could be great for you. It seems to be popular in Europe. You might want to check the seeds to see if they are sweet pit (both Orangered and Robada).

I've only gotten a few CWB fruits and I liked them. A different flavor.

Beautiful Robadas, fruitnut. But bummer about Cot-N-Candy. If you top the tree, will that force new spurs lower, or is there no way to regenerate lower spurs? I'm a bit height-challenged, and sure don't want to chase fruit up the tree. Darn. And for us in S. California, if I don't change up my watering volume, I wonder if our hotter & dry summer weather will act as a bit of water restriction to sweeten up the stone fruit. Guess I'll find out next year.

Patty S.

Fruitnut, how accurately do you think your greenhouse evaluations would reflect performance in the great out of doors? Obviously outdoor evaluations are strongly affected by regional weather conditions and greenhouse weather conditions are like no other. My best tomatoes in the greenhouse are not my favorite outdoor varieties at all.

It's interesting, however, that Tomcot is highly rated all over the country and also in your own greenhouse.

Not only is the weather in a greenhouse completely different, but generally, so is the soil medium when you are doing pot culture. I have seen completely different results with apricots site to site in orchards I manage for reasons I haven't quite figured out, although I strongly suspect water retention levels with soils that tend to be wet in early season producing lower quality fruit. In parts of the country where rain is scarce during the growing season, soil may not be as much an issue.

Heavy pruning will lower the fruiting wood of CNC but not always as low as originally meaning the fruiting wood still gets higher. That pruning also reduces the crop but CNC is a very heavy setting fruit. It needs lots of thinning. I may go just with a couple potted trees. That's where the good fruit was this year.

The watering thing for stone fruit is very site specific. In the greenhouse I'm continually rationing water to in-ground trees. So far this year I've applied about 15 inches. In contrast outdoors my fruit has typically been too water stressed. This leads to small fruit with very high brix, often 30-35, and off flavors. Probably I don't water enough outdoors even though I think I'm applying about three times the amount in the greenhouse.

I think it's worth the effort to try to get nectarine and pluot brix into the 20s. To me that's what it takes to have really high quality fruit, not just sweeter but more flavorful. I don't always do that and upper teens can be great. But I've had some awful lower teens nectarines caused by over watering.

I think with experience most people can figure out if they are too high or too low on water.

Do you use drip for your outdoor trees?

Of course trees will lose much more water out than indoors as I'm sure you realize. If you compared humidity it would be a dramatic difference, I'm sure- and than the wind. Are you comparing outdoor potted trees or ground planted to indoor pot planted trees?

harvestman:

All my outdoor trees have been planted in-ground. The first couple years I had a drip system with 4-6 one gph emitters per tree. Even running that several hours a day wasn't enough water. Two hours would be 8-12 gal per tree per day. My greenhouse trees get 3 gal per tree per day in summer at a 6ft by 8ft spacing.

Recently I've watered outdoors by flooding about once every 7 days with about 2, maybe 3 inches per application. Sometimes that's been enough. This year, with 1.25 inches rain in 11.5 months, I've had as much extremely small fruit as adequately sized.

I'd say outdoor water needs are at least twice that in the greenhouse and three times probably won't be too much. That would be 30-45 inches so far this year compared to 15 inches in the greenhouse.

Around here and in NM the yearly water need for mature pecan trees is about 60 inches. Many pecans in Alpine are so under watered they have about 1/4 to 1/10 of the foliage that would be needed for production of a commercial crop. Many of these trees will never recover.

Since this site is pretty dead right now, I'll post a couple pictures of Alpine, TX pecan trees.

This first pecan tree probably will never recover from lack of water and foliage.

{{gwi:121889}}

This pecan had good foliage last year and the lawn was a lush green.

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This is my pecan that has about half the foliage it needs. I didn't water enough early in spring. It's loaded with pecan and I'm flooding every 3-5 days hoping to make a crop.

{{gwi:121891}}

That seems strange to me. Drip is what is often used in CA and Australia as I understand it. There must be a way to make it work in your climate that would be much more efficient than flood irrigation. I thought flooding to water was a thing of the past although I'm certainly not an expert on the subject.

Use of drip is highly crop, soil, and climate dependent. I could make drip work with enough emitters. In cases like mine micro sprayers are often used to wet more soil. My soil is droughty and doesn't do the job if only a small area is wet.

My soil doesn't hold water either. I've buried newspapers that have been soaked in water to create a clay affect.

Any ideas about mail-order nurseries that might still have Robada for 2012? I've looked and come up empty so far.

Have you tried Fowler?

Here is a link that might be useful: Fowler

Fruitnut, it doesn't appear that they ship for retail sales. Do you know otherwise?

I bought my Robada last year from Fowler, so unless they changed their policy they do. Call them up and find out.

Scott

I am thinking about planting Tomcot this Spring (and I currently have no apricots), any ideas for a good pollinator (although I did see that at least one source considered it partially self-fertile)?

lindsgarden:

Robada can be a great apricot and would be a good pollinator. But other good candidates would be a couple bred in NJ, Early Blush and Orangered. Adams County Nursery sells both. Early Blush has been recommended by harvestman in NY and is the earliest apricot I'm aware of at this time. Orangered may be a late bloomer, I've read that. Those and Tomcot would give an extended harvest.

Other good cots sold by ACN are Harcot and three later maturing introductions out of Ontario: Harogem, Hargrande, and Harlayne.

Here is a link that might be useful: ACN harvest chart

creekweb - Fowler's does ship trees between mid-Jan and April.

fruitnut - Thanks for the suggestions. Fortunately Fowlers sells both Robada and Orangered. The ACN Website says that they are out of Early Blush, have you seen any other sources selling it?

Any other opinions on good pollinators for Tomcot?

Lind, Orangered was bred in New Jersey but I have not personally heard of a single report of anyone who actually tried it in eastern conditions. Nearly all apricot varieties don't work very well where we live so I am somewhat doubtful on any variety besides Tomcot. I have Orangered but have not fruited it yet. I also have Robada and the same case applies. Some apricots that are at least worth considering are the "Har" series (I only tried Harglow and it was not super great tasting and cracked often but it did fruit) and Puget Gold. Some people like Jerseycot but it cracked and was bland for me, and it is hard to find these days. Tilton is another 'cot to consider, it is supposed to be very reliable but I have not tried it myself.

Scott

Reports are that Early Blush may produce fruit before the nasty hot humid weather sets in on the east coast...

Fwiw I planted a tomcot and Robada in feb 2011, & harvested 30-40 tomcots and a half dozen robada in the last 2 weeks. Sprayed once. Tomcot was very good, robada was much better

bhawkins:

Your Robada are ahead of mine in the greenhouse. I harvested the first Robada today but haven't eaten it yet.

Early Blush was very pretty and reasonably sweet but got mushy very quickly.

Tasty Rich was it's usual reliable firm and sweet. Even a badly overloaded tree did well. For me Tasty Rich was about a week ahead on harvest compared to Early Blush because it bloomed 2-3 weeks earlier.

Tomcot has been excellent like usual.

My Cot-N-Candy is doing well this year. I have about 25 almost golf ball size fruit.

My Katy did not. It never flowered or leafed out. It has sap leaking at the joint of most branches but no blackness. I cut a couple branches and they are green inside. It's not dead but not really alive. All my other trees are leafing out great.

Flavor Delight survived the freeze and has fruits approaching full size.

Harglow aborted them all.

For the first time in 7 years my 'Harglow' is producing what I am calling real fruit. This is the first year they have not all aborted at 1/4" long. They are going on an inch and a half long. All of the small ones have dropped. I probably have 20-25 on the tree and will guard them with my life, netting and spray! Mrs. G

Hey BHawkins,
Its funny because until I read your post I didnt think Apricots would do well in the metroplex. Then after reading your post I came across an Apricot tree in my neighborhood that had a decent crop set that looked like they were near ripe. Didnt realize Apricots could ripen quite this early up here either. Were did you order your Tomcot and Robada? I hadnt considered Apricots much but now you got me thinkin!

Thanks,
Scape

scottfsmith - You mentioned "catfacing" in an earlier posting. It appears that this is a condition common to some species of tree fruits - at least that is what I understand from reading your post. I have a seedling apricot from a Blenheim apricot that has this condition. Although it didn't appear too bad until last year. The fruit, however, was delicious. I cooked the fruit and made nice apricot nectar from it - then froze in plastic juice bottles. We enjoyed it recently - being weary of too many oranges.

I planted another nursery tree - rooted Blenheim - over two years ago, that had abundant fruit last year - which was not affected.

Is this a disease that could spread to my newer planted apricot tree or should I be concerned otherwise - perhaps it best to remove the affected tree anyway.

Your thoughts are appreciated.

Bejay

In fruit growing jargon (at least in the East), the term "catfacing" is not a disease but insect injury, specifically bug injury.

I wonder if the problem isn't scab?

Bejay:

I would be really interested to hear how the seedling Blenheim tasted compared to your grafted Blenheim?

Carla in Sac

I don't think I was using the term catfacing correctly when I wrote the above, it means the shape of the fruit is distorted (it may for example looks like a cat's head, thus the name). Stink bugs can lead to catfacing on peaches for example. One common aspect of catfacing on tomatoes is at the creases you get this stuff that is something like russeting on apples -- that is what I was referring to above. I should have probably called it russeting. I don't know what the "official" name for it is on peaches, I haven't ever seen it mentioned anywhere. Probably russet streaks is the best term.

That said, I don't know what you have Bejay. It could be peach scab, which is common, it could be stink bug damage if the shape is distorted, or if it looks like russet streaks you may have what I was mentioning above. Or maybe bacterial spot or some other disease.

Scott

The seedling Blenheim - though not very nice looking, has very sweet flavorful pulp. The juce was so good. The markings on the fruit skins look more like bird scratches, but this was not apparent on the newly planted Blenheim.

The potted apricot planted later, had nice tasting fruit, but not as rich flavored as the affected seedling. The latter tree is quite old now - and probably could benefit from drastic pruning as well.

Hi Scaper, I got the Tomcot on Citation from Bay Laurel, & the Robada from Fowlers in California. The problems with Apricots I've heard about in Dallas are that they only fruit every 3-4 years; but I now have 3 Tomcots, & they seem very reliable, at least for the past 3 years. I also have a Sugar pearl (3rd leaf) and Chinese Mormom (4th leaf--but lots of shade) that haven't fruited yet. Apricots are a nice early fruit here

My 2 apricots, grown here in the city, are actually producing a few fruits a year: the Moorcot more (perhaps 30-40) than the Chinese Mormon (looks like maybe 6-8). I think Global Warming is giving us northerners more apricots that survive, what with not so many late hard frosts.

Thanks bhawk,
I.m very temeted to give them a try. My Santa Rosa plums are ripening now and have been really good. I think the mild winter has some things ripening early

I heard the same thing here about fruit every 3-4 years, but I have gone 7 for 7. There are still parts of the country that are iffy, it depends a lot on your location, both the climate and the microclimate.

My Tomcot underset this year, it had too big a load from last year. The fruits are going to be gigantic with so few to carry.

Scott

Flavor Delight. 3 weeks early.

Earwigs got into some of them.

My Tomcot are all done. The birds ravaged them because I was too slow to get them off the tree. I had some PC damage to a few in one spot... We had almost no rain for so long and then right as they were ripening we had a downpour and then more rain...and more rain...so they swelled very fast and took up too much water, which I think made a lot of them fall right off the tree...that lead to a lot of them being chewed on by the local rabbit.

The Puget Gold look horrible with the brown spots all over them. Still green. The Hunza has about 3 apricots on it...that tree must go...

I saw these were starting to be poked at by something, thought it was birds, turned out to be earwigs. But they were ready to pick - only a couple still clinging to the tree.

And fruitnut would approve our drought.

I have four very small 'Harglow' still hanging on the tree. They are about the size of a nickel. After dropping 50 or so apricots these are all that are left. Will they ripen?

Just gotta say - Damn! Those things are good!

I had to refrigerate most of mine. Man apricots go bad fast, especially in a warm house. Almost need to pick them a little less then completely ripe or just be ready to give them all away or do something with them. Had way too many go bad on me (turn to mush). I think the rain really messed up my crop...still have PUget Gold and a few Hunza... P uget Gold are really late with them just hinting at a little yellowing.

Just finished the Tardirouge. They have a brillant red blush but aren't nearly as good as Golden Sweet. So my current best of breed apricot lineup: Tasty Rich, Tomcot, Robada, and Golden Sweet. That will give me at least 6 weeks of apricots. Some might call Flavorella an apricot but it's much more like a plum with tartness at skin and seed.

Frank - I have just enough this year for the household to eat, I think. Any more, there's jam, there's the dehydrator ...

I did end up drying a couple quarts of sweet cherries, which rendered them down to a cup. I really like dried apricots.

ltilton-

The day i started picking..i thought about how last year I was going to buy a dehydrator... i really should have one. Not a big fan of jam...i have some from last year still. I suppose I could have dried them in the oven? I think ours (convection) can be set very low...but it was so hot I really didn't feel like running it. My brother is the "jerky king" and he does all his drying out in his garage. Someday i'll get this right...at least we were able to eat a lot of apricots.

Frank,dried apricots dipped in dark chocolate is one of the best tastes I know! Buying a dehydrator is really worth it.
Buy a good one!

Thanks for the list, fruitnut. Rain during bloom wiped out most of our crop. Got a few Flavor Delight, smaller than usual for some reason, though flavor was still pretty good. The handful of Harcots I got were very good. A couple of Blenheim made it between hot spells (which turn them to mush with pitburn) and were very flavorful.

Quality on Golden Amber is variable. It is promoted as pitburn resistant, but I got some pitburn on 105 degree days. It still has lots of fruit on the trees and we have a few days of moderate temps coming up. The first fruits I picked seemed to have better flavor and texture than the ones ripening now.

I picked my ONE Canadian White Blenheim today. The tree had a few more fruit earlier, but seems to have dropped them. The one lone survivor colored up quite a bit from yesterday, when it was still quite pale. Attractive, large, light yellow-orange today, not much lighter than some common commercial varities, but with creamier color inside. Much sweeter than Golden Amber picked today, with better texture, but less "apricot" flavor.

Helped a friend move into a house locally with an existing late apricot. Don't know which variety, but it's still green. May have questions later.

I forgot about Stark Sweetheart, the sweet pit offering from Stark. It usually dosn't get enough chill here, but had a few fruit this year. Not bad, apricot-y, medium-sweet, on the soft side. They ripen with Golden Amber (and CWB) here.