I’ve had very few apricots from my own tree. But, they are by far the best fruit which is available at that time of year. I had a couple Early Blush around 6/20 one year and a couple year’s of Tomcot (maybe 3 one year and a half dozen another year- that 2nd year I lost 20-30 to animals in one night). Both were great. Last year, I had a handful of tiny fruit from a too young Montrose. Even though they were probably only 1/4 the size they could have been (little thinning on a new tree), they were still better than the peaches which were available at the time. That is what makes me keep trying with Apricots. The upside is very good, but I keep losing them when they are about to get productive.
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End of July. I like them really sweet for jam so i leave them on as long as possible. Have quite a few this year, finding more every day. Tomcots only! Will spray this weekend , more rain this weekend!
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I checked my apricot grafts today.
Several are showing signs of life:
Florilege
OrangeRed
Early Blush
Hoyt
Lasgerdi
Hesse
Moniqui and Robada are dead.
I would be thrilled if 6 out of 8 make it all the way through.
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Hi Bob, @mrsg47, @SMC_zone6, @alan, @scottfsmith, @ljkewlj, et al,
Now that my apricots look like they could survive to maturity. I am very excited like any of us who look forward to having your own fruit for the first time.
I’d like to ask if you know the ripening dates of the following apricots:
Robada
Orangered
Tomcot ( Mrs.G mentioned that her Tomcot ripens in late July)
Zard
Just look for the fruit turning orange won’t do. At one of the sprays last month, I accidentally added Nufilm to Surround (long story but damage was done). A month later, Surround still covers many of my fruit very well, too well, as a matter of fact. I barely could see any color but white on these apricots.
I’m not very experienced with actually harvesting apricots from my own trees because the only two that bear regularly are the ones against the house- Tomcot and Alfred. Tomcot is ripening now while Alfred is still hard and green. Tomcot is big and beautiful, but I think the best Alfreds are better tasting than Tomcot- sweeter and juicier. I do prefer the earlier ripening of Tomcot. The only cot ripening earlier that I grow (elsewhere, here it doesn’t fruit) is Early Glow, which on years with sunny, warm weather from mid to late spring is surprisingly good for a mid-June fruit. I may dedicate southern wall space to it that is now occupied by a fig tree.
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For me Orangered starts a few days ahead of Tomcot. Robada should ripen approximately with Orangered. All these are early varieties, while Zard should ripen mid-season.
The easiest way to find whether an apricot is ripe is to pull a fruit slightly. If it separates easily from the stem, it’s ripe.
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Mam, my Tomcots are very slow this year and still the size of ping pong balls! Its a very odd summer. The latest blast of heat has not helped ripening much. Every Harglow dropped. June drop in general took care of all of my thinning!
The early apricots ripen at nearly the same time, they all overlap in ripening. In a way its not so bad, the birds can do less damage since too many are ripe at once. My Nadia got shredded this year because I had only 20 or so fruits and nothing else was ripening.
According to the charts, OrangeRed should ripen a week or two before Shiro plum.
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That is interesting- apricots are a fruit I’ve never had big issues with birds with. On my own property they peck peaches but leave me plenty. The only tree species that ever need netting are plums (since I cut down my cherry trees).
However, I have 3 Illinois Everbearing mulberries on the edges of my property which may help deter birds a great deal while they are full with ripe fruit. The trees also occupy my squirrels and provide an opportunity to target them with my shotgun. You should consider planting one as a good place to trap them out early in the season.
Nadia is a plum, but the birds are also making mincemeat of my Florilege apricots now. It sounds like you might not have catbirds, they are the ones that cause the problems. I am starting to think of ways to trap them. It would not be so hard, if I leave a gap in my blueberry net I can get half a dozen stuck under the net.
Re: mulberries, they come too early to be an alternative – they are long over at this point. My guess is the catbirds may have moved from mulberries to my stone fruits. Usually the squirrels also do that, but this year I trapped them early and I never saw a single one in the mulberries.
IE mulberry holds and ripens fruit over a much longer period than most. My Tomcots are half done and my Flavor May will be completely done by about tomorrow but IE will have fruit for about another month. If you have a somewhat shady spot marginal for other species the mulberry would even hold fruit later.
I have probably dozens of catbirds on my property, fully engaged with mulberries, raspberries, uncovered blueberries (I grow for the birds) currents and gooseberries right now.
My IE I have not had for long, maybe it needs to be more mature to keep fruiting so late. Most of the mulberries are wild ones which are long over.
My cherry trees have been keeping the birds busy but the cherries are nearly gone. My raspberries are just starting to ripen so I have had minimal damage to my Apricots. I have been losing 10 to 20 a day by the fruit I find on the ground. I did not thin my fruit as much this year just for that reason. I still have several hundred apricots on my tree. Just waiting another two weeks and they should be ripening.
I caught a cat bird yesterday in my squirrel trap. It was eating the peanut butter… l agree, cat birds are the worst, they have been attacking my cots and nectarines for the past month and half; i.e. while they were still green and hard.
Clemson bags provided complete protection from the birds, on the other hand organza bags did not.
I just did a search to see who sells these Clemson fruit bags. Fruitless search. They certainly don’t have anyone helping to market their stuff on the internet.
Yep, the first time I searched for them I didn’t get any useful hits ( only Ladies hand bags 
). I had to search for “Clemson fruit bags” to find them… Sorry, I should have posted the link…
Here are my “white apricots”
Note to self, no matter how busy you are, DO NOT mix Nu Film in with Surround
!!!
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@mrsg47,
Can’t help myself. Picked a few Tomcot and a one Orangered today. One Tomcot came off easily. So they are close to ripen. Having 5 days of temp in the 90 last week probably helped. It will be in the 90 again for a couple of days next week, too.
Tomcot was about 15-17 brix but they were not fully ripe. They were a bit drier than expected. Orangered is not quite ripe, either. Brix was 15. However, both tasted way better than any apricots I have ever bought from stores.
Now, I have to watch out for squirrels and birds.