@Matt_in_Maryland, they are later cots, fruit still hanging… both had more curculio than the other cots, there is something about those varieties that makes them more curc prone. But I should still get a decent crop. Afghanistan is coming in now, its good but set few and dropped most of them at nickel sized.
@warmwxrules, my Tomcot is in decline I think. It had borers which I dug out, but this year its not growing much and all the apricots are stuck at quarter sized.
I had 2 Tomcot’s die on me and a Hunza… they flowered/leafed out a little and just stopped…nothing grew then… That was a few years ago. I had budded Tomcot over to a Puget Gold (which surprisingly has continued to do excellent and its older then those Tomcot)… Someone else mentioned that apricots just die for no reason…
I had Goldrich apricot just up and die suddenly. I thought it was gopher activity, but when we dug out the very extensive root system, that was not the case. Inexplicable sudden death after being in the ground for 3 years.
My Tomcot and Moorpark apricots got off to a very slow start this year, but now are putting out nice vigorous growth. They suffered what appeared to be extensive winter damage which I pruned out. They are on Citation. They throw out a lot of growth in towards the center which I also feel compelled to prune out. Training them into an open vase has been a lot of work. Still no fruit from either of them yet. This is their second year post-transplant…
I think @alan has mentioned the problem of apricots dying. I have not seen that until this year, and the Tomcot had some really bad borers (I now expect it is on a peach rootstock). So, I’m going to hope thats not so common in my climate, it could be more in colder areas. Or maybe not…
I was just out looking at my apricots… its interesting that none of my white apricots has much rot at all, in spite of all the rain and humid weather we have been having. I did almost no spraying on the cots this spring, just seeing with what I can get away with. Orangered I don’t think I want to grow without spray control for the rot, it gets far too much.
About a third of the apricot trees I manage on various sites died from cambium injury going into this growing season. I expect the damage occurred in early winter, but who knows. I am going to have to stop insuring them when I plant them for people, even coming out of the first winter with a fall planted tree. I love apricots, but north of NJ they are extremely fragile. I also lost a third of them in my Bedford nursery (warmer site than mine).
I have two healthy trees on my property, a 10 year old Alfred growing against the southeast wall of my house and a 4 year Orange-red. The Alfred gives me a lot of nice fruit but the Orange Red has only two this year and had about that last. Haven’t managed to taste it.
I noticed a lot of amber sap coming out of the trunk of my Puget Gold…this tree is maybe 6 or 7 years old… Could be just that its been wet…who knows…its growing like crazy…this tree puts out a ton of growth after pruning it hard earlier this spring.
I finally dug up my dead apricots. This was the Tomcot on Citation. Look at the extensive root system for just 3 years old! Apricots can be heartbreakers. I’ll never know what killed these, but I suspect April’s late freeze didn’t help.
They can be really good. More or less a typical (large) apricot flavor. This year i had bird issues and non stop rain all spring so spot did show up (had huge fruit set and had to thin a ton of them and still didn’t thin enough)…but last year they were excellent. Mine is still chugging along. Have no idea if its the rootstock it is on, location or luck…but i’ve lost plenty of apricots too.
I really enjoyed some white cots i bought at Trader Joes early in the summer, so i might try to grow more white cots.
Matt they are extremely prone to peach scab and it ruins the fruit. So in our climate either you need to be rigorous on spraying for that or pick some other variety. Besides the peach scab they are very good.
Rob, Re: white cots I am still after 10+ years waiting for a good all-around white apricot. I have yet to get a variety both setting reliably every year and tasting good.
Apricots are heartbreakers when grown in humid climates with wide temperature swings and late spring freezes, but it is hard to remove them from one’s wildest fantasies.
Here is a lucky crop of cots in Kent. Look how happy these people are.
