I’m in St. Louis. I’m second guessing myself again. Please help me pick one. This will be my third time ordering an apricot tree. First from Cummins on Krymsk 1 did not survive. Second from Raintree on Lovell. They had entire crop failure this year of their apricot trees. ( I read here it happened in 2017 also.) So now I’m scared it could happen again.
I’d like to get a Tomcot & a late blooming variety like Hoyd Montrose, Moorpark Canadian White Blenheim as a second tree. My other choices both say shallow roots are Myrobalan & Marianna. The popular dwarfing Citation rootstock won’t survive here. So that’s out.
I get extreme temps. I get snow & temps that can be just around zero in winter. I get temps around 100 ° in summer. My soil has a bit of slope so it drains. It also has 3’ of top soil over clay. I like a tree under 15’ but if I have to I’ll summer prune. I worry I’ll have to stake the tree. My dwarf apple is staked & it’s a pain. I have only found Raintree with Tomcot on Lovell. I know I can get Tomcot from Bay Laurel on Myrobalan from Dave Wilson.
I appreciate your help. Thank you.
St. louis/ Cincinnati, Oh Apricots don’t grow here or there. It would be easier to grow a tangerine tree there. try a peach. pear, sour cherry Paw paw. Paw paw bread is very good.
Thank you for taking the time to reply. I’m still looking for rootstock suggestions.
I think you might need to graft yourself, but you could also consider Manchurian apricot for your rootstocks. They make nice strong roots and are very hardy. I have a Tomcot and another variety grafted to a twin trunk tree. I grafted to a fairly mature rootstock last year and had very nice growth, although I have to give it a major summer prune now due to pretty massive cicada damage.
I’d be happy to provide Tomcot scion if you went this route.
I second the Manchurian rootstock. They’re nice roots and supposedly resistant to peach tree borer. I wouldn’t hesitate to try apricots in St Lois. When I lived in Kansas, there were lots of apricots just around. Some fruited infrequently, one was pretty much every year. Eastern Kansas is (theoretically) even more inhospitable to apricots than St. Lois or Cincinnati. Check out Bob Purvis’ scionwood listings and take note of varieties that he notes have worked in the Northeast or Midwest, such as “Hardy Iowa”. Tomcot seems like a pretty good bet from what I’ve read (I have one in ground).
Myro 29C should be pretty hardy for you, they are winter hardy up to zone 4 IIRC. In my experience, apricots on Myro make very nice shaped, vigorous trees.
I’m not sure why you think Citation won’t survive where you are. It survives here, where the low temps are more extreme. I got my nectarines on Citation because of the clay soil, which you say you have there. Trees haven’t needed staking.
I wish I knew what rootstock my cots are on, cause they don’t do so well.
I do think that a lot of apricot issues are going to be independent of rootstocks. They seem to be almost as finicky as sweet cherries, and varieties that work are going to be very region-specific. So I think what variety is up top probably matters more than the rootstock below. I chose Manchurian seedling rootstock because I “feel” that the high vigor will be helpful in mitigating issues and that it’s supposed to be unaffected by peach tree borer.
Can Peaches be grafted to Manchurian. I have an extensive peach borer problem here in Cincinnasti, Oh
I have managed to kill several apricots here in Pennsylvania. I am currently using Machurian after multiple failures with other rootstocks. I did have a Tomcot on Manchurian die after blooming this year. It seemed like there was just not enough energy to push out the leaves (which is similar to how my other cots died). The rootstock is regrowing from the base and I plan to graft to it next year if it survives.
I am very impressed with 'Ilona" on Manchurian rootstock (vigor and flavor). After a couple failures with Tomcot, I may try another Rutgers apricot such as Orangered.
My understanding is that peach on apricot doesn’t work, even though the reverse is true. I haven’t tried to disprove it, though. I’ve also read American plum makes a borer resistant rootstock for peach, but it does sucker.
Orangered is growing much more vigorously for me than Tomcot so far, but they’re both still alive and only on second leaf. Let me know if you want orangered scion next year. I think I got Tomcot from you, so thanks!
I have a few peach trees I bench grafted into Manchurian apricot last year that I got from Bob Purvis. They survived the winter and are growing well so far. He said they were compatible. So far so good.
Nice! Happy to be proven wrong.
Thank you for your offer. I may down the line learn to graft. I’ll leave that to the professionals for which I am not.
I looked & I did not see any nurseries have trees on Manchurian. My aunt had two trees I think were on Manchurian. I know it’s really good rootstock but really tall. I’m not sure why the industry prefers other rootstocks. Thank you again.
Grafting isn’t as hard as you think! I’m no professional, and I managed to pull it off. It might also be the only way to get some varieties. I found it pretty intimidating before I tried, but it ended up being pretty easy if you take time to pay attention to a few key factors. It’s kind of addictive once you get the hang of it, though.
I had no idea Bob had more info since I thought i was not grafting ir not yet. I passed over most of his website. I had browsed Dave Wilson website for as much info this spring after my Raintree order was cancelled due to crop failure. My aunt’s trees gave her some fruit every 3 years. That was in Monroe Co IL. People keep posting their apricot pics on other Missouri FB groups. So I know they grow here. But maybe not fruit every year. At least it will be a pretty tree in spring before the frost crushes my dream.
Thank you all the info. I love reading this stuff.
The one piece of description of Citation said it tolerated wet soil but not so much drought. That go into dormancy thing scares me. We get a lot of summer heat that dries every thing out. As it is now, I spend a great deal of time watering everything I have now at my house & at my sister’s down the street.
The size of a Citation tree would make a more manageable tree.
So at 15-25 feet, that’s the only down side to Myro for a home gardener? Summer pruning to keep shorter height may be a must for me. It might be better fit than using Lovell if I have to guard insect damage every year as I’m reading it now.
On trees that are heavy producers I don’t have to do much, the vigor goes down significantly when they produce a lot of fruits. On trees that have not come into full production yet, I do summer pruning to keep them manageable.