Yes, someone suggested that to me in the past on a different thread (I think it was @Barkslip who mentioned it again above) and I agree…it seems like a good match to what I’ve experienced.
Can you, or you Dax, tell me what the prospects are for planting another tree in that same spot? In other words, is it now in the soil and likely to overcome another tree planted there? Dax mentioned that perhaps apples and pears could be replanted there if I read his post correctly but I’m not certain that is what he meant? Can apples and pears not get V wilt? How far away would I need to go to plant another apricot or peach? Just outside the root line of the old one?
thanks
It’s in the soil, Kevin. You certainly can replant with pears and apples, however.
Verticillium Wilt can lay dormant for up to 15-years. Once susceptible plant roots come in contact with the fungus it’s game over. I read also it can be gone in as short as four years. And any plants that got it can carry the fungus further away from where it is making contact with roots of anything else.
What I didn’t read is if non-susceptible plants move the fungus in the soil, as-well. That wasn’t stated. Like always it’s recommended you burn the tree to kill the pathogen so it does not come into contact with soil again in any way.
Dax
Kevin,
Here is some reading. Verticillium Wilt Disease of Cherry | Chelan & Douglas Counties | Washington State University
Thanks again to everyone who replied about my problems with the Adirondack Gold apricot. I sprayed with copper fungicide a couple of times this spring and put masking tape covered with sticky stuff around the bottom of the trunk to keep leaf-munching bugs from crawling up.
But the leaves are still getting chunks seemingly nibbled out of them and although there is much less brown gum with withered leaves, there is still some of it; a picture is below. Any help identifying the problem and/or suggestions for treating it would be great!
I do have two little apricots on one of the trees, first time ever!
I agree with Stan, looks like brown rot shoot blight. That is extremely common and is the first thing to consider when you see damage like that. You should look into brown rot sprays. If its not too pronounced though you can just let it go, I often have a couple shoots of it and just ignore. When its on many shoots you need to spray.
You probably know, but the tree in the picture is a plum.
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I was just going to say.
Adirondack Gold is a Manchurian Apricot and those can have elongated “plum–like” leaves (most Manchurian Apricot varieties originated as chance seedlings so there is a lot of variation in tree characteristics between them). For example, check the first photo on this page: https://ttseeds.com/product/manchurian-apricot (interestingly, the second photo shows typical apricot leaves). I don’t have any Manchurian Apricots in my collection so my knowledge on them is purely theoretical.
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Thank you, I didn’t know that. Without your note my money would have been on a bad photoshop-job looking at that catalog-photo. So, maybe I was wrong. I am now interested to hear back from MikeInMass.
Perhaps somebody else who also grows Adirondack Gold (or other Manchurian Apricot varieties) can chime in?
I grew Manchurian apricots at a site years ago, but they just looked like normal apricots, with no variation in leaves at all. It was about 10 seedling trees. They were reasonably winter hardy, but flowers were as vulnerable to frosts as other cots. They flowered just as early.
Those leaves are different from cots by more than just shape. They are thicker and greener than cots I’m familiar with. Apricots I’ve known have leaves with red stems that start off red and gradually turn to green…
I cannot believe that photo is a cot species- it’s just too different.
I could be convinced but I’d need another photo from a reliable source.
Not that you need to convince me, but from just the photo, I would wager a greater chance you got a mislabeled tree.
However, I always LOVE being proven wrong- one of my favorite things. I’m lucky- it happens all the time.
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Thanks to everyone who replied about the brown rot shoot blight. I’ll keep spraying with the copper fungicide.
About the tree, it’s one of two “Adirondack Gold” apricot trees I got from St. Lawrence Nurseries. They both look the same, so I don’t think one was mislabeled.The leaves do have a faint reddish tinge when they are very young.
But there is some discussion about whether that variety might actually be a plum, or part plum, here, from 2012.:
>> Adirondack gold is a plum, not an apricot, according to Bob Purvis.
>>
> Yeah, I’ve heard that story, about it being a plum, before. I don’t buy it.
> The original tree is across town from me, here in Tupper Lake.
> Actually, I’m not sure if it’s still there, now. The yard where it grew
> is about a 10 minute walk from here.
>
> I’m not sure if it was just before or just after Bill MacKentley
> discovered the tree (for sure it was before it appeared in his catalog),
> a friend of mine, who knew the tree owner, gave to me a basket of the
> fruit. I remember them being thin skinned and kind of oblong. They
> looked a lot like a plum. I saved the seeds from that small basket of
> fruit and grew them. I planted six or seven seedlings on my property,
> gave two to my next door neighbor, and I think 3 to someone a few miles away.
>
> I still have 4 of the best seedlings and I have tasted the fruit next
> door. All, every tree, produces small round Manchurian apricots. They
> bloom way before any of my 8 or 9 plum trees. The fruit size and taste
> varies a bit but all are little round apricots.
>
I think Bill told me it was a cross - maybe part apricot, part plum.
Watch out for copper spray during an active growing season. Read the label and be careful about dosage. Copper can burn leaves.
I spray copper atvfull strength during a dormant season as a preventative measure?
Since you are in zone 6a. If you’d like, you could try real apricot varieties like Orangered or Tomcot. They taste really good even though you may not get fruit every year.
Copper soap formulas are fine, but you are right, Kocide can burn. I use Cueva, with copper octanoate and it doesn’t even burn tomato leaves. That’s what I mostly use if for. It retards the blight that eventually usually wipes out my tomato plants, probably doubling my crops. I stop spraying a couple weeks before first fruit starts to ripen.
The consultant provided by my ag chemical company told me that commercial growers use it to control bacterial spot in cots, apparently a common affliction in our area. However, that usage is not on the label.
MikeinMass- call it whatever you want, if the fruit tastes like apricots, for all practical purposes, that’s what it is, although it is not out of the question for one species creating similar fruit to another- at least as common for two having such similar leaves.
Just don’t try to sell the leaves as apricot leaves- you might get sued. 
Someone probably mentioned that you may be able to grow much better tasting varieties in your zone 6. I’d start with Hargrand and Alfred. In our climate, apricots need cross pollination most seasons.