Wish my Tomcot behaves like yours. My potted Tomcot had several cluster of flowers. It bloomed before other in-ground apricots. It did not suffer any late freeze. Did not set a single fruit. It could be that the tree is still young.
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I had three apricots, in RI two Tomcot and one Harglow. The Harglow always dropped their fruit. The Tomcots hung on a while longer, but maybe in a season I would get one. They too were hand pollinated. Mine were just in a bad zone.
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Hi Bob, have you had any fruit from your apricots in the last few years? Which varieties have done best for you? I am losing hope for my 2 large cot trees that bloom too early, they just take up premium space in the yard. I am looking for recommendations on what I can graft on them. Thank you!
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I can confirm, as has been said on here so where, that Hoyt Montrose is an excellent apricot compared to no apricots. In 6b this spring we had milder than normal frosts, but I still got mostly Hoyt Montrose, a few Hunza, Tomcot and and a few Canadian white Blenheim. We have preferred the Hunza of those 4, with Tomcot, then Hoyt Montrose, then Canadian white Blenheim following in that order.
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Your apricots are very impressive given your cold zone for them. Well done!
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Hi @alan,
I have researched Alfred and looked for a nursery to buy the tree and came up empty. One place was out of stock and another both sold out and local pickup only hundreds of miles away. Bob Purvis seemed to have some scion wood for sale for 2023. Do you know of any sources?
Thank you for suggesting Alfred and sharing your experience with this variety. How has it done for you since 2015?
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Here is half the crop from my 3rd leaf Early Blush. I could have easily got 5-6 times this crop, hadn’t my tree suffer from severe Blossom Blight while in bloom. Quality is good to very good, 7-8 out of ten, typical cot flavor, but not very remarkable. The tree dropped all its fruit while still crunchy (under ripe to me) from June 21-25, but after 2-3 days on the counter, they soften/ripen and are good to eat.
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Growing apricots in zone 6, I am impressed!!!
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I’m surprised how much behind you are compared to me, EB for me was done for me three weeks ago. It’s not the best cot but it’s the best cot at the time it’s ripe! Iliona was gone maybe ten days ago, and Florilege is just starting now.
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Me too, am equally surprised 
. My Ilonas, Orange Red and Tomcots are mostly solid orange now, but they are hard as rocks. I think they need another week or two. I should have moved south when l left Delaware…
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What is much more challenging than the zone per se, is Plum Curculio, Bacterial Canker, Brown Rot and all the rain… Growing fruit in New England is really tough!
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My Tomcot are solid green. I contribute it to this small tree being under a shade of a larger nectarine tree.
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Only a few more years and then you do the MrsG maneuver (move someplace with a more conducive climate for stonefruits) 
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Stonefruits do just fine in Ahmad’s area most seasons, it is apricots that are challenging. Mrs. G isn’t in the easiest place to grow fruit because it gets summer rain. The Mediterranean climate in CA is ideal for most stonefruit, or used to be, depending on the part of the state, of course. There is a point where excessive heat damages texture of peaches and nects, and summers seem to be getting hotter in CA. Apricots are often harvested before such heat arrives in the CA valleys, where stonefruit is grown commercially. The industry has moved too far inland to be ideal- land closer to the coast is very expensive now and what hasn’t been built on is mostly used to grow grapes now. Rising temps are a threat to that industry as well.
I live about 40 minutes from Ahmad and am picking excellent Flavor May peaches right now as well as Tomcots growing against the wall of my house. However the Tomcots have bacterial spot this year as do some varieties of J. plums. Now I know why growers south of me need to include copper in their earliest spray. Our weather has become like VA weather 30 years ago.
I only gave my cots a single spray this year and it worked fine for insects, as it did last year. The fruit was already well formed because the first spray I do comes at petal fall for apples. That is when most of our insect pests show up. Next year I will add copper to that single spray and see how it does.
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Next to ripen for me is White Knockout, the third leaf tree is loaded with fruit, virtue of being self fruitful and an Infuse spray during bloom. Fruit is quite big, fairly sweet (even with poor thinning and heavy rain last week), have a nice, mild apricoty flavor. Overall a very good cot.
My Tomcot tree is sick (not canker), and has dropped 90% of its leaves, it has a couple of dozen fruits, some are very sour, but some are surprisingly not bad. The black spots on the fruit affect the skin only, so the fruit can still be eaten, even though they look bad.
Ilona is just starting to ripen, the fruit in the photo was fairly big, and had a sweet mild flavor. I am hopeful the quality improves towards next week.
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Never heard of White Knockout. What is it about?
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Couldn’t agree more. Zone 5 I don’t think would phase them in a place without wild spring temp fluctuations. I’m considering getting rid of my remaining apricot tree. It has a bacterial canker that might be treatable, but I’m not sure it’s worth the effort. It refuses to push growth where I want it to, and the one apricot I was leaving to ripen (would have been the first after 4 years) was eaten by a critter about two weeks before it would have been ripe. Stone fruit are the pits.
All of your fruits look gorgeous, though!
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Thank you! It took tremendous effort though… Half my cot trees are sick and will be removed next year. I bagged ~80% of my fruits, whatever was not bagged is almost total loss to Plum Curculio! I have all sorts of critters, from voles to bears. Yesterday a bear tried breaking through my deer fence, but luckily my electric fence add on worked and it went away after creating a fist size whole in the deer fence.
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Do you grow Sugar Pearls? I tend to run with varieties bred for commercial production in my area and then experiment from there. Of course, I’m buying at a commercial price. $70 for a whip… plus shipping. Jeez!
Anyway, Sugar Pearls is true to its name in being an exceptionally sweet cot. It is also richly flavored with perfect cot texture. Somehow it failed to set fruit this year, but is less protected than varieties that did. I think of it as being a very reliable variety… relatively speaking, given the uncertainty of cots in our climate. Still, nothing beats Alfred for reliability.
My Tomcots look like yours this year and I assume that to be bacterial spot. I’ve never seen so much of it at many sites, but on plums mostly, especially Shiro. It turns out that Reema is highly susceptible as well.
Next year I will include copper in my single cot spray and will likely do the same for plums in general, at least J. plums.
Robota ripens almost the same time as Tomcot and seems less susceptible. It’s only its second year but is growing against a wall of my house right next to Tomcot and all ten fruit came out spotless, even shaded fruit. 75% of the Tomcots have at least some spots and half of the fruit is spoiled by it. It makes even a bigger mess of plums.
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