Another update on apricots. As I’ve mentioned in some other threads, I’m experimenting with seedlings of Anya apricot (check here if you are not familiar with this variety). The seeds came from a box of Anya apricots that we ate in June 2015 (that was the last year for commercial Anya production; the apricot trees in the commercial orchard in Modesto have been removed and replaced with almonds in 2016). We planted the seeds in Nov 2015 and transplanted the seedlings to their current location in February 2017.
This year some of the seedlings bore a sizeable harvest for the first time. We tasted fruit from about ten trees. There was a bit of variation in ripening time — from early to late June, with a peak of ripening in the third week of June. There was also some variation in fruit size (although most are small to below medium), shape (from round to ovoid), color (from uniform pale orange to strong red blush on the sunny side), and flavor (a bit difficult to describe, not a huge difference, but some were a bit better than others, perhaps, to some degree, due to difference in the ripening level). Overall, the flavor was very good and may also improve in the future since this was essentially the first crop for these trees. Brix levels were extremely high across the board — from 23-24 when the fruit was still crunchy (what commercial growers call “shipping ripe”) to 27-30+ when fully ripe. Also, we tried a few kernels and all were sweet.
