In searching old posts, I find mention of members attempting to plant marginal varieties, but find very little proof of harvests. Do any of you in z4a have any shining success stories of growing to harvest apricots, nectarines, or peaches? If so, give your location. My attempts have all met with failure thus far.
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I’ll be following this as well.
I’m in 3b and was told, locally, it’s basically apples or bust as things like nectarines and peaches being a no go.
I’m going to try a Meteor cherry this year so we shall see.
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The bush cherries from Saskatchewan have been a smashing success if I keep them sprayed for insects. Honeyberries also produce well. Everything else has its ups and downs.
Would cornelian cherry, cranberry, or lingonberry grow in z3/4?
I have some random peach trees that are surviving and producing in 4a. I get winter kill some years. I find my seasons length of time might be an issue now. It’s only 90 days frost free. And it’s not incredibly hot in the summer. So the peaches I’ve gotten the last few years are subpar in flavor.
I wouldnt cross any off your list to try. If you an afford it. Try all the fruit.
I plant stuff that says zone 5 hardy. And I even plant some zone 6 stuff. I’ve had worthwhile success most years. More good than bad.
I do plan to buy some siberian peach seeds and try those. See if the fruit is better. I’ve heard it is and they are hardier?
My peach trees were big box store bought. One is a version of an elberta, and one had the word princess in it. Sorry I can’t remember more.
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Out of curiosity, what part of the world are you located?
Do you mean real apricots (prunus armeniaca) or do you include Manchurian apricot (prunus mandshurica) because Im pretty sure the latter does have realistic success even down to z3. I think I’ve seen posts from Scandinavia of them.
I would love to see some testimonials as well though
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Zone 4a - 3b is definitely the northern limit for apricots. There are a half dozen-ish varieties that can withstand -45* F under peak dormancy and health; however, mid-winter cold hardiness is not the greatest challenge for apricots. Late winter thaw-freeze can kill them, and in humid or wet conditions they are prone to disease (although this can be managed somewhat with frequent spraying). The biggest challenge is spring frost. All of these ultra-cold hardy varieties are early blooming, even for apricots, so it’s rare for the flowers to survive to fruit. In addition, animals love to eat every part of the plant, so you need to protect the base from voles and rabbits, the branches from deer, the fruit from squirrels and raccoons, and the leafs for Japanese beetles. Overall, it can be done, but you’ll be lucky to get a good harvest once every four years or so, maybe a few good harvests over the life of the tree. So for most people it’s not nearly worth it.
Bob Purvis has lots of experience and connections around growing cold hardy apricots. He also has scion wood. If you want to try them out without investing too much effort, I’d suggest grafting Westcot apricot to a few branches of an established cold-hardy Japanese-American hybrid plum. That way if they die you won’t loose the tree, and in non-fruiting years the branches will still provide energy for other fruit on the tree.
As far a nectarines, there’s no chance. For peaches, you might be able to get a few years out of Driftless Sacred Grove’s improved strain of Siberian C peach, but don’t expect anything too tasty. None of the good peach varieties can handle temperatures below -32* F.
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I have been growing apricot in Winnipeg (220 miles north of Fargo ND) for about 15 years. For the first few years, I didn’t know one of my trees was an apricot. Then one spring it flowered and set little, fuzzy balls that turned into delicious little apricots. Since then, I’ve been trying to figure out how to enhance productivity.
Fast forward to the present, I am growing Scout and Westcot apricots on my lot in the city and get some kind of crop more years than not. Never a huge crop, but I get enough to eat fresh, and make a batch of apricot syrup every couple of years. These are very hardy varieties, although I am topworking with some less hardy varieties (Zard, Precious, Mormon, Montrose, Sweetheart) to see how they do. Not saying that that it is easy to grow apricots here but we do actually have some advantages. Our winters are long and cold. But I would characterize our cold as consistent rather than extreme. We haven’t gone below -22F in a couple of years. And the cold keeps the snow light and fluffy and it can be used as an insulating blanket to cover lower branches. In really cold years, it is only the branches under the snow that have viable blooms and go on to set fruit. Of course, this strategy would not work well in a climate with a lot of winter freeze thaw cycles as you would break off a ton of branches.
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Another advantage of our cold climate is that it takes a fair bit of heat to melt the snow and warm up the frozen ground to the point that the trees wake up. And so this climatic “inertia” makes the problem with premature bloom slightly less likely than for midwest locations to the south.
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Thanks for the replies. I do have 4 apricot trees at present, so maybe some year they will surprise me with a crop. I also have a Siberian-c peach in a cylinder of hardware cloth that remains 18 inches tall year after year.
I did try to graft several of Bob Purvis’ scions several years back, but none took. Grafting has not proven to be one of my strong points.
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Are these the ones in the photo? It seems that Scout is a prunus mandshurica and Westcot is a cross of Scout with something else. They look fantastic, I have never eaten one so I cant compare. But it looks like basically identical to normal apricots, I think at this point theyre closer to apricot than 50:50 armeniaca:mandshurica hybrid.
I think I will add some based on your photos and post. I think they were bred up in Canada too. Thanks for sharing.
Evans - Bali sour cherry growing well in 3B.
The photo above is Westcot from a few years ago. It was a hot, sunny summer and they coloured up nice. Scout has a flattened shape, with a pointy tip on the blossom end, yellow with no red blush. Westcot is more rounded. Both are usually an inch or a bit more in diameter. But I have gotten Westcot up to 1.5 inch in diameter with heavy thinning.
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This is Scout apricot from this past summer. Not as pretty as usual due to a wet spring and summer that caused some fungal issues thatI I’ve never sprayed for.
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I’ve had a fair bit of trouble grafting apricots too. I put it down to the fact that I have been trying to graft too early, before it is really consistently warm enough. I tried grafting dormant apricot scions to new, green wood in late June and early July last year. Take was much better than normal on apricots for me. But it remains to be seen if they were mature enough by fall to make it through the winter. I have had no trouble grafting apple plum or pear earlier (when it is still cooler). Did you wait for warm weather before you grafted?
It was warm weather. I am just a poor grafter. Also farm herbicide drift got some. I have tried two or three different years in two different locations several miles apart. I have no plans to buy any more scions.
I believe I’m experiencing this with peaches in the Southern Adirondacks (newly revised Z4b).
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Peaches in Mercer Wisconsin (Contender from Fedco). I suck at bench grafting apricots but pretty sure if i could get them through the summer the winter wouldnt be a problem. Bob’s got a nice list of cold hardy stuff https://purvisnurseryandorchard.weebly.com/
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