Denis has already posted on this with great info, check it out, i hope it helps
growingfruit. org/t/when-to-put-bench-grafts-outside-apples-pears/60832/6?u=sandilands
You can try build a square box frame 8ft high by 8 ft wide around it and wrap with cheap lumber tarp as wall or 16mm poly wrap and leave the top open, once the first dump of snow comes fill from the top with either a snow blower collected from the house and use it as insulation, its a bit of work but then you will get more fruit buds and keep the base sealed from voles. Good idea with sweet cherries out of zone.
My orchard is a distance away from home and not very accessible once there is snow on the ground. We often get subzero temperatures before we have much snow on the ground. Some years things like sickness, out-of-state weddings or funerals or other travel can take one away from the orchard just when the trees need to be covered with snow. And itās a lot of work and expense to enclose them. I was able to shovel early snows over blueberry bushes one year, and I got great results the next summer, but the following winter we hardly had any snow, so that idea didnāt work. Iāve read about people using lights under tarps and so forth, but it isnāt very practical in the long run unless you never leave home. But thanks for the suggestion.
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I got those acions from a top contributor on the Canadian Scion and Edible Plant Exchange FB group. Sorry, I dont have permission to share his particulars but if you do some searches in the group chats you should be able to track him down. My grafts of those varieties have had slow growth and I dont yet have scionwood to share. If you are still looking in a year or two, message me. Good luck with your apricots.
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How are the scout and the westcot for fresh eating can you describe the flavor?
I have never so much as gotten a single apricot from any tree I have ever planted. My scout tree and Sugar Pearl both died. I lost a Chinese one to ag spray , I believe. My many grafts have also failed. I have a total of three apricot trees alive just now (I hope). More trees on order. Trying a different location now, but not holding my breath.
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I am really poor at describing flavour of anything,. Westcot has a lovely fruity flavour, quite sweet, but as I havenāt measured the brix, I canāt quantify that. A little bit of tart, but no astringency. Overall, a really great eating experience., probably the best tasting fruit I have been able to grow here so far. Although some of the hardy Euro plums, picked at the right time, are right up there. Scout lacks that āfruit punchā flavour that Westcot has. Scout is sweet when totally ripe but it has a bit of astringency that tails off as they get to soft-ripe. I eat lots of Scout fresh, but the best use for them I have found is apricot syrup. Very nice on pancakes on a cold winter morning. Last year Scout was about the only variety that bore for me (tough winter and spring). No doubt Westcot has better flavour for fresh eating, but I will say that both varieties, when tree ripened here, are immeasurably better than any apricots we have bought at the supermarket. I tried drying some Scout and Westcot one year. They were not very good, quite tart and the sugar somehow disappeared. I think I dried them too long, at too-high heat. I did read somewhere on-line that they are not considered good varieties for drying. I have grafts of Zard, Montrose, Mormon, Precious, Hargrand and Suphany, along with a number of Scout and Westcot seedlings. With some luck with spring weather, I may have a few new varieties to sample this year.
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What apricot varieties have you tried, other than the two you mentioned?
I have tried Scout, Westcot, many grafts of which only one, Jerseycot ?, is surviving, Sugar Pearls, Chinese, and more recently Harolayne.
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