I am 3 weeks behind you if this year is like last year.
Your weather may not be as wacky as ours this year. I just hope for no hard frost or serious freeze in April. It still could happen.
Hopefully not!
This is the first year my apricots will bloom (2nd and 3rd leaf). I assume they will get frozen at some point, but maybe we’ll be fortunate.
@Drew51 , are your apricots any farther along? Just wondering how much the lake affect your bloom time. I’m just about 45 miles inland from you.
Sorry I never did add any apricots. My plums though look the same. I’m thinking they will bloom around April 15th. I have had them bloom from April 1st to May 1st depending on weather.
Promising!
Hoping for cots this year. Last year they were frozen out.
@TurkeyCreekTrees - beautiful! My Stark Sweetheart is still blooming, my Wilson Delicious are still in pink and not opened yet. Could you post a picture of Zard when it blooms? I ordered scion for it but it sold out before my order could be filled Really curious what bloom time for that one will be in our area. Hopefully I will be on the ball and get one ordered from you next year before they are all gone!
Thank you @Bradybb. I see you are in zone 8? I am 5b/6a. How many days would you say Zard blooms after most apricots?
Those are gorgeous!
I have Puget Gold,Sugar Pearls,Amadiocot and Orange Red and Zard starts blooming about ten days later.bb
Cool! Thank you for that information. I will be grafting Sugar Pearls and Harglow this spring, still waiting on scion and rootstock. I really wanted Zard, tree or scion, but they sold out before I got one for myself. There’s always next year! Did you have any problems grafting your cots? I am a bit nervous as they sound like they can be more temperamental. For stone fruit, I have been doing fine with peaches and plums. This will be my first year to graft sour cherry as well as apricot.
It may depend on the variety.Amadiocot and Orange Red had close to 100% takes and grew very well.Others like Hoyt Montrose, Lasgerdi Mashhad and Early Blush have languished.There could be multiple reasons.For me,Zard is on the slow side,but is producing,the second year.bb
@KSprairie,
If you can graft peaches fine, I think you will be fine wit apricots. I only grafted 10 apricot grafts, all but one took. The only that failed because of the rootstock, not established, not the graft.
I grafted about 6 varieties. All but Zard bloom about the same time. Zard is about a week later.
My Tomcot, Robada and Orangered started blooming on 3/28. Since then, it has not stopped raining/drizzing and it is also cold. This has dimmed my hope on fruit set. Too wet and cold. If I were bees, I would stay home, too.
@Bradybb and @mamuang,
Thanks to you both for sharing your experiences with apricots. I am anxious to get my order and get started grafting! I guess I am just nervous because I really want these to take and I don’t want to screw it up! I am getting impatient to get a few more cots established since I feel I made poor choices with my first two.
With me and peaches, it is hard to get the right window of opportunity weather-wise. We can be cold and rainy and then it’s like flipping and switch and we are HOT overnight. When the weather is mild and warm, I don’t seem to have too much trouble getting good number of takes. It’s probably that way everywhere!
Now that I realized you live in Kansas, I think hearing about growing apricots from @Olpea or @clarkinks can be more relevant to you.
Yes, I try to learn as much as I can from their posts! I have read that @Olpea grows and has fruited Zard, one reason why I wanted to try it. The other was that Bob Purvis recommend it to me after we were discussing possible varieties for this area.