I expect a good crop this year.
How about in general? Does it yield full crops most years?
Yes.
Update on my tree I posted in 2021.
Tree is 3rd leaf now and getting noticeably big. Cross my fingers for fruit next year.
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Amongst other random garden veggies, yesterday I picked my first three summer delight apriums!
This is the first year my summer delight aprium tree is bearing, so I am very happy. Especially since some earlier disease issues had me worried that I wouldnāt get any at all. BUT, thereās still probably 50 or so apriums on the tree, so hopefully I get to eat most of them!
These first 3 arenāt totally totally ripe yet, Iāll probably leave them on the counter for a day or two to get more soft, but I wanted to pick them yesterday before the storms knocked them off, or a squirrel got them, or they decided to spontaneously get moldy or rotten.
@itheweatherman or @fruitnut (or anyone else who has successfully ripened these): How do I know when they are perfectly ripe? Usually, with regular apricots, I wait until they are very soft before I like to eat them. Will these get as soft as a regular apricot? Will they stay more firm and crunchy? Is there a press-test or a lift-test or something similar to judge their ripeness? Iām having a hard time judging how long to leave the first 3 on the counter before eating them, and when to pick the rest on the tree.
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Good question. With most apricots they need to be as you like them, soft to be at their best. Iād pick them when they begin to soften on the tree. Then ripen more inside if necessary. I donāt remember how firm they are when I like them. Itās been a while since I ate any. Itās the flavor that I remember.
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I have apriums!
These are what I picked on Saturday morning. They were not perfect. There were random splotches, and some apriums were moldy and had to get thrown out. Many were not quite ripe yet, but it was due to rain all day, so I wanted to get what I could before it stormed again. Thereās probably twice that many still on the tree. All things considered, I am very happy!
The cons:
- Earlier in the season, many of the fruit had rot, and fell off before I could harvest. There has been less rot over time though.
- They ripened much later than I had expected! I almost want to graft over one scaffold to earlier apricots or apriums, just so I donāt have to wait so long in the future!
The pros FAR outweigh the cons, though, I think.
The pros:
- I think the earlier rot was my fault. I am new to spraying and I had initially only dormant sprayed with neem + copper. Then in late May the apriums started showing rot. I sprayed 1x with Bonide Infuse after that, and 1x with the biofungicide Revitalize. I was afraid of spraying more because I was afraid of spraying too close to harvest. So, given the minimal amount of spray, and the probably awful timing of my sprays, I think I got more apriums than I probably should have?
- I hadnāt sprayed for bugs at all, but there were no bugs or worms inside (haha, I know theyāll probably show up next year),
- They taste AMAZING. To my taste, like the sweetest apricot, with just a hint of underlying zing, but a slightly crunchier texture than a regular apricot. Definitely the tastiest āapricotā Iāve ever eaten! Although, Iāve only eaten store bought apricots before, so maybe that affects my opinion.
So far, Iām happy with this tree! Fingers crossed I can get the timing of sprays down better next year so I can have an even bigger harvest!
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thanks for posting this. I remember your thread on spraying earlier this year. Glad to see you managed to get some fruits. It looks like spraying with revitalize during bloom would help control the disease.
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Nice harvest. Iām really looking forward to get a few of my own.
I have both the Summer and Flavor Delight apriums. FD was reported here not as tasty, but is stated by Dave Wilson to ripen 1.5 to 2 month earlier than SD. Quite a difference in ripening time!
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See if you can get Indar.
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Haha, Iām starting to research earlier ripening apriums and apricots so I can plan my winter scion requests 
Iāll keep the flavor delight in mind! Although, if the flavor isnāt great, maybe Iāll go for a āregularā apricot?
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When the rot showed up in May, I had posted to see if anyone would sell me some Indar, but no dice. Iāll be looking to see if I can join a group buy-in for next year, though!
There are lots of apricots better than FD. For instance Tomcot, Robada, Orangered, and Ilonia.
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Do you have any recommendation for which one would ripen earliest and work well in zone 7 midatlantic? Right now, my earliest stone fruit (saturn peach) starts ripening mid-july, and then I have various fruits through fall, so I was hoping to find something that ripens in June or early July.
Also, for anyone whoās successfully grafted apricots/apriums:
Iāve only ever successfully grafted pears before (which I know are the easiest). If I wanted to change one of the 4 main aprium scaffolds over to an earlier variety of apricot, would it be better to:
- Try to locate summer budwood, and T-bud or chip-graft now lower down on the scaffold, and then chop off the rest of the scaffold after the graft takes? or
- Wait until spring, stub-cut the scaffold, and bark-graft or cleft-graft it to a new variety? In which case, what is the best timing/temperature for that?
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Search thru Scottās recommendations for an early apricot for your area. The earliest of those above is Tomcot but I think heāll have something earlier or better.
Donāt do T budding now. That gets tricky. T budding doesnāt work into older wood.
Do the grafting early next spring. If that fails then do T budding in June into a vigorous new shoot.
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Will do. Thanks!
Thinking of what to graft to my Cot-n-Candy aprium. Flavor Delight is off patent and scion is available.
Summer Delight shows as āpatent pendingā. Iām thinking that means perhaps they decided not to go through the patent? Itās been awhile since itās been out there.
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Usually it means they didnāt finish the process or didnāt update to say it was approved. I donāt think Zaiger has released anything zero royalties?
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Summer Delight patent is not published yet, it could mean it is still going through paper work at the USPTO and/or in EPO, pretty common that it takes a while for multi continent Application reviews.
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And yet itās released for sale on the retail market. I wonder if thatās how itās normally doneā¦
Looking at the DWN Zaiger patent list just now, it has only been released commercial and not wholesale. Iām guessing they decided it wasnāt a marketable product for commercial growers and perhaps they wonāt go through the patent.
My guessā¦
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