"Best" apricot for New England (6b)?

I thinned of a bunch after I took the pic. Als9, hand-squished a bunch of leaf rollers.

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How much do you space the cots @mamuang? 4”?

I have only a few branches of apricots on a nectarine tree. So, I am greedier. I don’t use the same rule I use to thin peaches.

My apricots do not set fruit evenly along each branch. Sometimes, there is a foot or more of branch with no fruit at all. Then, the next one foot section has too many fruit.

So, I just use my judgment to take some off those that are damaged or too close to one another.

I don’t take as many off as I do with peaches. However, I do make sure I won’t leave too many. Otherwise, fruit will not size up

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Do the cots still taste good with such high density? I got greedy like you (well, may be a little bit less greedy :blush:) this year and spaced my cots 2-4” apart. My trees did the same like your branches, some stretches of the branches have a lot of cots and other long stretches are bare.

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If I do 4” apart, I would have about a dozen cots left!!! I keep them closer because I don’t have a whole tree (cot trees die too often).

Only Robada thinned itself. Others I need to help them. If you have a whole tree, go to town with thinning. I do not have that luxury!!

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Does anyone have experience growing apricots in 6A?

I believe, @alan, @BobVance, @SMC_zone6 are in zone 6 and have apricot trees. In fact, some varieties of apricot trees can grow in colder zone.

However, a growing condition seems to play a role in its survival. In our area where it is cold and wet, apricots seem to be killed by diseases or sudden death (abrupt change in temp?).

Some people grow peach on an apricot root because an apricot root is usually not bothered by borers. I do the opposite because my peach tree roots have not died from what killed aprocot trees around here. I will have to deal with borers.

Yeah. And like @mamuang said, it doesn’t always go so well. Quite a few have just died on me for reasons I haven’t figured out. Lasgerdi Mashad has been a survivor, so has Hoyt Montrose. I also have six seedlings that are three years old now and are doing fine here. I feel like it’s worth it to keep trying since fresh apricots are so good.

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Good looking apricots. I have a scattering on my trees, no great fruit set. I am happy if I get 20! When will you start to spray?

I will spray myclobutanil and BT mix as soon as it is not as windy as today and no rain in the forecast so probably this Sat.

When will you spray surround?

Has anyone ever grown or had any experience with harostar?

Thank You

Apricots are the last of the fruits on my list that I haven’t planted yet. From what I had been reading it seemed like they might be a problem because they blossom early and get hit by frost damage after blossoming. I am wondering if some of the unexplained deaths are a result of them starting to come out of dormancy too early and then getting hit by freezing temps. Are Lasgerdi Mashad and Hoyt Montrose later coming out of dormancy and blossoming than other varieties?

Right now, it’s leaf rollers and tent caterpillars that need to be dealt with first. I’ll spray Surround right after. I choose not to add Surround in that mix because I want to use sticker in myclo+BT.

In our colder zone, the difference of “late” blooming is only a few days apart but a few days could be meaningful, sometimes.

Hoyt Montrose is supposed to be quite cold hardy. @BobVance has that variety. I am not sure about Lasgerdi Mashhad.

Some of the death of apricot trees could be a wild swing of temp but some could be from diseases.

Probably, but it’s quite complicated as far as what conditions will kill them. I have already seen dead apricots this season and there was no issue with late frosts. They may have been killed by a sudden drop way back in late fall, but it’s not like they go dormant late.

There are so many variables, such as how wet the soil is as they go into dormancy. Clearly, if cots survive almost like natives in the high deserts of New Mexico, it is much more than sudden drops in temps when they are coming out of dormancy. They are much less tough in the humid regions.

I read on European forums opinions that if an apricot tree has been weakened by Monilinia infection (Brown Rot Blossom and Twig Blight), it is much more likely to get killed by frosts next winter/spring. And Monilinia is much more likely in wet/humid climates.

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I can’t add to that much except anecdotally, and a weak anecdotal at that. I’ve tried apricots at two different rounds. The first one about (I don’t know - a decade ago) I had about 6 different apricots. I had raised them for several years. None died, but because of our weather, none produced either. One year they produced, but the fruit was substandard because of all the early rain we got that year. I ended up removing them all for lack of production consistency.

After a some years I planted a couple more trees of Zard. That’s all I have of apricots now. They have produced foliage and good growth every year. Last year was the first year I got to taste. They were good. This year they look to have fruit again.

My anecdotal observation is that no apricots have died randomly here. But… My spray program is commercial. I spray insecticide/fungicide early and hard (max frequency and rates) early in the season when we typically get heavy rains and max humidity.

I’ve not seen any dying apricots. Like I say, a very weak anecdotal experience, but I thought I’d offer it nonetheless.

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Stan, like you, I am becoming more and more suspicious of this mode of death in apricots - especially in moist and humid areas which often experience a lot of rain during bloom.