Honeybee?

Which cultivar? Looks like your winter temp. is a little warmer..how cold did it get?

No honeybee, looks like a Andrenid bee.

I see a large apricot growing in a front yard in zone 2 in Northern Alberta. Since I noticed it a few years ago it has many hundreds of fruits every year and no dieback. Mind you, the last few winters have been relatively mild. I might have to liberate a dozen or two to plant this fall.

I’m envious; I only ended up with three blossoms on my ‘Westcott’ this year. Three! This is the reason why I focus largely on my pears and plums...

Konrad, I don't know the cultivar since it was already a mature tree when we bought the house 8 1/2 years ago. I wish that there was a way to identify it after the fact as I would like to find a complementary pollenizer to see if it would improve the fruit set. I am guessing my tree is at least 20 years old. Definitely hardy for the location and it blooms heavily most years. However the fruit set has never been heavy, and most years it is nil. 2 moderate crops in 8 seasons, with a couple of years where there was just a handful. From reading this forum and others, I am coming to the conclusion that the problem is probably low winter temperatures, and some years (like this one), heavy frosts during the bloom period. For those with cold-zone apricot experience:

1. In a year where you are free of winter or spring damage to the fruiting buds/blossoms, how much of an improvement would cross-pollenization from another apricot variety make?

2. Based on the fact that it blooms every year, clearly every bloom is not a viable bloom (fruit-wise). Is there an easy way to identify a damaged blossom at the time (i.e. other than waiting 2 weeks to see if a fruitlet forms)?

3. Thanks to this forum, I know that plum families (Euro, Japanese, N Am - P nigra and americana) have different bloom periods that do not overlap. Is that also a factor for hardy-ish apricot varieties?

Konrad, in answer to your other question, I think that we had winter lows of -32 or -33 C in our yard. What do you consider to be the lowest survivable frost for the apricot fruit buds?

Because the tree is growing at a rather acute angle to the ground, it is possible for me to pile snow over some of the lower branches which I hoped would preserve some crop this year. Until the late (May 7) frost.

Actually that isn't late for frost in Winnipeg where I am told the average frost-free date is around the Victoria Day long weekend. Anecdotally, the previous few years we had very few frosts in May.

Thanks for reporting back, Nichols.

I find flower buds are starting to die off at around -32 and colder, plus prolonged conditions add to the problem...which we had. That being said, I'm surprised how these buds have survived. Now to get fruit set... it is up to pollination, it would help to graft another one or two into the tree. After this it's up to mother nature that when in bloom...or after fruit set, the biggest hurdle is to escape a night frost. A light frost they can take after fruit have formed, one can tell soon, about 2 days, when the tiny fruit shrivels up.

I cross-pollinate mine with Nanking cherries. They’re great, as they’re reliable bloomers and bloom at the same time as my apricot.

David not many apricots in Calgary have flowers it’s because how cold the winter was and prolonged. There are some grafts I have that easily withstand minus 30 that have fruits already but not good quality like westcot. This is a bonus year for apricots the trees will grow insane without fruits .

as for question about pollination of apricots . They definitely will benefit from any other apricot pollen. My trees are loaded with fruit every year as each of my apricots have many grafts and last three years were loaded. Hot days they set just fine with own pollen but way better with another variety. I’ve hand pollinated lots of times and when I use other apricot pollen I get like 95% of the flowers turning into fruit. Two years ago I had an incredible amount of fruit on two trees so much that I could not keep up with the picking or eating. I still have a bit of apricots this year maybe enough for a good taste .

im not sold that nankings pollinate apricots that well it’s probably just your apricot pollinating itself as they usually don’t both bloom at exact same time. Nankings are blooming now in Calgary my apricots blooms are turning into fruits already. But every location is different.

>>I cross-pollinate mine with Nanking cherries. They’re great, as they’re reliable bloomers and bloom at the same time as my apricot.<<

Nankings doesn't pollinate Apricot

I was able to pick up a Westcot apricot at a garden centre in Winnipeg. It had the "Prestige Select" brand on it which Aubin Nurseries in Carman MB uses. Anyway, I had to pay way more than I should have for it but the other nurseries that I checked had none and weren't sure they would be getting more in this year. So as long as my existing mature apricot is something other than Westcot, I should have a better crop (every 4 years or so).

So from all the bloom at the top of this frame, I ended up with about 10 mature apricots. Ripe enough to fall off the tree today July 20th. I am starting to think that this tree may not be an improved cultivars but something wild and hardy, possibly a seedling. Can anyone identify it for me? The fully ripe fruit is "wet" but not "juicy", fairly sweet but with a slight trace of astringence. Free stone. Ripens yellow sometimes with small red spots. The fruit from last year was a little better tasting. Maybe it had more sun last year.

I now also have Scout and Westcot but they are probably years away from producing (if they survive the cold Winnipeg winters at all).

- Darrell

There are lots of good questions posted on pollination which is a story governed by luck and a science still to be unraveled in the future. So I am pretty sure we will never see people with PHD degrees risk any information that might be false.

I use typical self unfruitful sweet cherry as an example of flower of a large bing tree incapable of selfing in normal conditions by example of a corn farm I lived at while working construction in George WA. The owner had never seen a single fruit for all the years since the other cherry got removed and the summer I was there no fruit formed.

In other cases PHD experts say there are now new sweet cherry such as lapins fully capable of selfing like commercial apricots are. The lapins cherry flowers can have pollen from the same flower travel all the distance of the pistil, but slower than pollen of any other compatible cultivar. Therefore if a van pollinates a lapins at the same day a self occurs on the same flower the van is always the paternal parent. -This rate of travel most likely applies to all prunus.

The story above concerning nankings pollination of apricots are probably different. Other species of plums can help (probably in many cases) make other apricots self when mixed or applied the same day as a result of compounds and trace changes of the pistil make-over. It is also possible to have the graft of another kind of species or cultivar influence changes in the receptive state of a flower to selfing as Ivan Michurin reported that an amur cherry scion can be grafted to produce fruit from a sour cherry pollen only when the sweet cherry is the rootstock. (may be the other way around -sweet pollen -sour cherry stock).

Any time you see points on the ends of apricot per above, there is siberian apricot as one parent as non selfing tendancy.

Nanking cherries will pollinate Manchurian apricots. They are cousins from the same chilly regions of Asia. https://www.bronandsons.com/info/pollination-chart.html

That's a real interesting link there with good information and excellent points. Is this your site? I am going to be testing the pin cherry to see if it's accurate about being able to be crossed with a Couts plum. In Alaska pin cherries are about to bloom today.

I’ve seen that chart online.

The thing that catches my eye is that it’s all hardy zone 2/3 plums but it was made in grand forks bc which is a zone 7/8 ?

You really think somebody has all the lower quality fruits growing in a region you can grow the highest Quality. Just an observation not by any means the truth there maybe somebody. But there are other factors also like temperature. It’s plus 25 degrees there this week and 1-2 degrees here and trees are blooming

now in Kelowna and Calgary at same time. The temperature factor is often overlooked. Some fruits I’ve read will pollinate with its own pollen if it’s warm enough .

So the apricot bloom this year here in Winnipeg was unspectacular. Some good bloom low down in the tree where it was buried in snow (to about 5 ft high) and then high up in the tree. Little bloom in the middle of the tree. Lots of dead looking small branches and blind wood on larger branches. We had a long cold winter but other than some -30 to -32 C in January, nothing spectacular. First blooms on my large (Manchurian?) apricot May 12th, full bloom May 14. In the 2 weeks before bloom we had a lot of frost at night, one night -8C according to my wireless thermometer.

A little bloom on my young Westcot tree as well.

I was not expecting any apricots at all, but it looks like I may be in luck.

On Manchurian...

If the majority of them don't drop, it could be my best crop ever.

There are even a few on the Westcot. Should I leave them on, or pick them off so the tree focusses on growth?

Yes. I'm just a few miles north of Winnipeg. Winter sun and winds were a problem here. All of my Nanking Cherries were killed off. The Manchurian Apricots were mauled. No deaths but lots of branches pruned at the tips. No flowers. I think the problem started last fall. We had lots of rain so these tough guys did not go properly dormant. Then, in winter, we had several mild spells. So, even though the lowest temperature was like zone 4, we had serious damage. In January, one of our coldest months, we even had days above freezing with high winds. That kills buds and bark. My windbreak still is not effective.

Jan 1 Max -18.3°C

Jan 2 Max -4.5°C

Jan 3 Max +3.8°C

Jan 4 Max +1.5°C

Jan 5 Max -2.1°C

Jan 6 Max -2.7°C Wind up to 57km/h

Jan 7 Max +0.6°C Wind up to 61km/h

Jan 8 Max -8.3°C Wind up to 57km/h

Jan 9 Max -15.5°C Wind up to 49km/h

Sorry to hear that Robert. What do you have for a wind break? And where north of Winnipeg are you ?

Darrell

I tried arborvitae but they all died twice. They can't stand winter sun and wind. Manitoba maple and Green Ash seem to thrive but it will take a few years for them and chokecherries to protect my garden/orchard. I also tried caragana but the first attempt died off. They can't stand ponding. We've had wild changes of weather/climate in the last decade. No amount of research or planning seems to keep ahead of the game. I'm in RM of St. Andrews near the Red River south of Lockport.

Robert, I guess every site has its challenges. Mine are not enough space and lack of sunshine due to city lot size and large trees around. On the positive side, I have the warming influence of my urban location and shelter from winter winds. Your challenges are wind, cold and drainage (from the sound of it). My brother has a couple of acres in East St Paul and he has a hard time keeping trees alive due to soil salinity which I believe is caused by the heavy clay soil and poor drainage. It is extremely flat out there. Also he gets the heavy winds. Maybe the perfect spot is out there somewhere, but I haven't seen it yet.

My idea is to make this place perfect... A good windbreak and recycling lawn clippings and prunings and dead trees and table scraps into compost with some addition of sand will turn this muck into some kind of reasonable soil. It takes time. I've done it before. Nature knows how to make soil. I'm going to give it the opportunity. A good sign is that earthworms are now found everywhere in my acreage. That was not the case three years ago. It would also help if I had a proper greenhouse to start things in pots. I made a frame but have not finished it and it's too small. We've gone from no trees to lots of trees in a decade. Before I die I hope to have mature trees covering much of the property.

...Proximity to other objects means some too. Trees, homes, cloud cover, anything that can block radiation leaving straight out into outerspace is heatloss prevention on clear nights.

In the other Far_North thread Konrad stated last night "Of course...at these temperatures, all Apricot flower buds will be dead! Had zero flowers in town on the Sunrise Apricot at minus 35C."

Konrad: Was there any tip damage on the Sunrise apricot?

I had 1-3 inches tip damage above the snow in Gabe-C which from remembering my visit to your place mine were probably experiencing as much winter lows and exposure yours had. I am trying to find out any accuracy or truth to the matter as Sunrise is reputed (in the old days prior to Westcots existence) supposed to been the most hady of all apricots that I am believing started out of Minnesota.

A little late posting this, but apricots were pretty productive this year considering the winter and spring weather. I picked about 6 litres on my larger tree, and even had about 20 ripe fruit on the Westcot planted last year. They ripened at the same time, over about a week and a half span, and was about a week and a half later than last year. Both varieties were sweet, Westcot a bit juicier and with a better, fruity flavour.

Most of the fruit on the older tree was lower down where I had snow piled up on top of it. But there was some scattered fruit even at the top of the tree were it was completely exposed to -30 C temps (minimum this year was -34.8 C). So these things are hardier than I feared. In some places I had 8 - 12 fruit all clustered together. Maybe I should have thinned some but I figured the tree could handle it since some branches had no fruit at all. I've seen suggestions of leaving at no more than 1 fruit for 20 leaves.

Westcot on top.

Largest day's picking - Aug 7th.

Behind every silver lining there is a cloud. A number of the apricots (of both varieties) had some maggot damage around the pit. Generally not enough to damage much of the fruit, but enough to create a "yuck" factor, especially for the squeamish (which I am not). This was one of the worst ones.

I did see what looked like apple maggot (AM) flies around the trees about the time they were ripening, but did not see the characteristic "stings" on the exterior of the fruit that AM usually create when laying their dastardly eggs. And the maggots did not seem to tunnel through the fruit like AM do in apples. Perhaps they got in where the stem attached to the fruit?

And we do have plum curculio (PC) but I fixed them with 2 sprays of permethrin early in June and I believe we have only 1 generation. So August would have been too late for them I think. In any case, none of the affected fruit showed the crescent-shaped PC oviposition scars.

Does anyone else have these in apricot, or know what they are? Cherry fruit maggot fly perhaps?

Robert from May, 16th, 2019:

Last spring I tried a cross between pin cherry flowers with wild plum pollen. I suspected a cherry would never get pollinated by a plum tree. So when I tested many flowers on a branch of a young pin cherry that had fruit the prior year the test proved what I had suspected. That time it never worked. I think everything else on the chart looks pretty good!