Nicole apricot - a slow grower?

Is Nicole apricot a weak grower? It’s my earliest good apricot and I love it but as a graft, it gets outcompeted, and even when by itself, it takes longer to get big. So I am wondering if others had the same experience? It isn’t just because of its precocity and productivity. Nicole’s growth is smaller even when I remove all fruit. Thanks for your input!

@Lizzy @californicus @Stan @scottfsmith

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I have Nicole as a separate tree, and it has a medium vigor, relative to other apricots. Definitely, not a slow grower, at least until it started to bear. Vigor of a graft can depend on many factors besides the variety.

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My Nicole graft is indeed a slow grower compared to others on my Cot-N-Candy tree (grafted just last year). However, it wasn’t the ideal location for the graft, so I’m planning to graft on upper, vigorous branches this year.

Moderate vigor makes sense for me. I grafted a branch onto Steindorf years ago and that one was vigorous. But in competition with Blenheim it is a runt. On seedling it is slower than I expected but makes incremental progress. I have had to have a lot of patience with Nicole and wish I had grafted it on its own tree earlier since it is so early, and so good for its season. Thanks.

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My only remaining Nicole graft is on a Dapple Supreme pluot, and it is very, very slow growing. I’m trying to encourage vegetative growth. Could be that it’s not in an ideal place on the tree. I have Flavorella aprium on the same tree and it’s vigorous, but not productive.

My Nicole was grafted on my Blenheim tree a year ago. Last growing season it gained 6 inches only. Seems pretty slow to me compared to my other stone fruit grafts.