I see a lot of hate for the Citation rootstock online, but it’s done quite well for me. I have many Dave Wilson trees on this rootstock (apricots, plums, and various interspecific plum/apricot/nectarines). This tree was recently a 3-year old Harcot apricot that withered shortly after it leafed out, it looked to be bacterial canker after a particularly wet winter. But I can’t be sure since I never let it progress past the weeping sap stage so there were no real cankers. I haven’t had any issues with canker on my other Citation trees. Instead of removing it entirely I cut it down at the base, after which a rootstock sucker formed. In the ~4 months since, it’s grown to be about 7 feet tall. I’m planning on grafting another Harcot next spring, plus maybe a few other apricots since it developed 4 main leaders that I can use for grafting.
I already have:
Royal Rosa Apricot
Katy Apricot
Tomcot Apricot
Blenheim Apricot
Flavor Delight Aprium
Harcot Apricot
Cot-N-Candy Aprium
Anyone got other recommendations for great apricots for northern California? I generally get 800-1000 chill hours and plenty of dry summer heat. My main problem with getting apricots to fruit reliably has been late frosts that kill the flowers.
There’s good evidence that the Citation rootstock used by Dave Wilson Nursery (wholesale grower) in the past is infected with Crown Rot. I don’t know what the current status is. However, I’m very glad it’s working well for you.
If I had those options, I might graft one to Apache that would bloom with Katy. And you are missing Robada & OrangeRed,- both of those bloom a bit later than average and may assist with defeating late frosts. Goshen Gold also blooms on the late side and would provide you some late-season apricot fruit.
My choices to graft would include Summer Delight which is a late maturing aprium of very high quality. And I second the recommendation of Orangered and/or ilona.
I ended up picking three apricots to graft to this re-grown citation root stock:
Harcot apricot
La Segerdi Masshad apricot
Moorpark apricot
I purchased scions of the first two from Fruitwood, and Moorpark from Slate Hill, @krichberg on this forum. All looked to be in great shape, despite the Fruitwood ones taking an extra 5 days to travel the scenic route from Klamath, CA through Salt Lake City and back to California, courtesy of USPS.
The citation grew back as a low branching tree, almost like a bush. I grafted beginning of April when leaves were already several inches large. I grafted each variety onto 3 branches, dedicating a section to each. Once I see which ones take I’ll prune off the less ideally situated grafts.
In the end 8 of 9 grafts took, leaving me with a lot of choices of which to keep. The citation pushed out a lot of really vigorous growth while I was waiting for temps to rise into the 60s/70s. For now I pruned about 50% of the remaining rootstock side branches, and anything within about 12 inches of the graft unions. I wanted to strike a balance between removing anything that would compete, while also not completely defoliating the plant. I figured I’d go back for the rest in about a month. Not sure what anyone more experienced with grafting would recommend doing. Do you remove everything root stock as soon as the grafts have taken, even if it has a lot of new growth from the current season already that’s down lower on the trunk? Or leave it be and prune the next winter?
