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.
1 Like
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 it’s 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 didn’t work. I’ve read about people using lights under tarps and so forth, but it isn’t very practical in the long run unless you never leave home. But thanks for the suggestion.
1 Like
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.
2 Likes
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.
1 Like
I am really poor at describing flavour of anything,. Westcot has a lovely fruity flavour, quite sweet, but as I haven’t measured the brix, I can’t 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 “fruit punch” 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.
5 Likes
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.
2 Likes
Above is Haroblush apricot blooming a few days ago in our low tunnel. Below a close-up of one of the low branches. The odd thing is that this tree (more like a bush actually) set good fruit buds almost along the whole length of the one-year old wood, but only those on very low branches swelled up and bloomed. The other fruit buds on either side of the leaf bud are now dried up and will pop off at the slightest touch. Has anyone got experience with Haroblush? Is it known to be very tender to spring frosts?
During our long winter (this year from mid November to mid April), our low tunnel is covered with insulation panels and the minimum winter temp inside was 14F (-10 C) vs. -31F (-35C) outside. I can’t see that being a problem when the tree is dormant since it is rated as a Z4 or Z5 tree, depending on which nursery you believe.
We have had a lot of spring, night-time frosts since we look off the insulation panels and buds started to swell. Although we are doing some heating inside, we had lows of about 26F (-3C) early on, at calyx red. Is that likely an issue?
1 Like
Contrast the Haroblush with this Westcot seedling apricot that is right next to it. Tree full of bloom, nearly to the tips. Second pic is a Montrose graft on the Westcot seedling, also very full of bloom.
3 Likes
its likely the top flowers are pollinating the lower ones. without bees you would likely have to pollinate the upper flowers yourself.
1 Like
Well back in the low tunnel today. Only it isn’t a tunnel any more as we had to take the poly cover off to avoid ridiculous heat. Apricot fruit set on Haroblush is abysmal, maybe a dozen on the whole tree. But it looks like the Mostrose graft set really well, almost as much fruit on a couple of 18 inch branches of a single graft as on the whole rest of the Westcot seedling tree. This is a portion of the Montrose graft.
This is the fruit on the Westcot seedling. Although still farly sparse, more fruit set on the Westcot seedling branches that were in proximity to the Montrose graft. My inference is that the Westcot seedling is not reliably self fertile.
4 Likes
Picked our first ripe spricots yesterday. Just 3 on a seedling tree that had little winter protection other than 4 feet of snow piled around it over winter. Frankly I was surprised to get anything with winter low of -35C and numerous sub -30C days. Shape, colour and taste very simîlar to Scout which was likely the seed parent.
Another seedling apricot (below) was grown low and completely covered in snow over the winter. Tree is quite small but managed to set a couple dozen fruits which are still a few days away from soft ripe.
7 Likes
In the part of the orchard with max winter protection, we have a Westcot seedling with a few dozen fruit that are also a few days from ripe.
⁹
The Montrose look like they are some ways from ripe, not really changing colour yet.
And the dozen or so Haroblush not ready yet either.
8 Likes
I don’t know if I will ever get fruit. Covering them with snow is not very practical for me. The orchard is a distance away, and we don’t always have enough snow to cover anything before the cold temps arrive. If we do get deep snow, the trees are not accessible. So I am not holding my breath on it all, but am curious to try. Once in a while my experiments pan out well, like with the honeyberries and Romance cherries.
2 Likes
For sure, your path to success will be different from mine based on your different climate and personal situation. In the beginning you have the thrill of discovery that keeps you putting in the work. But if the results are not there long term, it does tend to focus your priorities. For us, hascaps have been a struggle. They took a while to get established, and we have found that they hate hot, dry weather. This year we had a cool and wet spring and early summer and the hascap harvest was the best ever. But they had to be netted or the birds would have taken everything. We have only three tart cherries that are approaching maturity. And productivity has been poor so far. How many years did it take you to get to decent productivity? And how large were the bushes at that point?
romance cherries and honeyberries are a breeze to grow here. i had 4 years of fruit from the cherries then got blossom end blight that ive been fighting it for a few years now. our cold, wet springs make it a breeding ground for fungal issues. ive added indar to the fight. between indar and infuse, i should be able to control it. honeyberries are just as easy to grow as cane fruit here as nothing eats it other than some birds i have brookcot, westcot, hoyt montrose and harcot grafted on my black ice plum. got a doz. blooms on the brookcot branch which is the earliest graft but none set. maybe next year. got about 30 black ice plums on the lower part of the tree just starting to color now.
4 Likes
Our Black Ice just starting to colour up (pic taken yesterday) How large do yours get and have you had problems with the skins splitting in wet weather. Ours are cue ball size at best.
5 Likes
mine are about that size. yes they will split if theres alot of rain when ripening. i lost a large branch last year due to too much fruit. this year they set less than half of last so i think im good.