my black ice came from fedco and didnt list roostock either.
I have a small zone 4 home orchard with 3 rows. The 3 plots on the north ends of rows I can let the tree a grow a little taller than arm’s reach. For 2 plots I am putting Mulberry and Persimmon. In order to reduce spraying, I’m thinking naturally dwarfing Quince with its beautiful habit for the other plot instead of multigrafted Pear because the Pear would require more spraying than Quince. Is there any obvious problem with this approach? I get too many Pears or too many Quince either way. 
The Persimmon and Mulberry will be the tallest, should I put them in adjacent rows or have the Quince between?
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I’ve not known anyone to ever grow quince up in this neck of the woods. Are you even sure they grow here?
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Persimmons, either.
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Both will not survive long term. Its possible they make it in the heat island in the heart of the cities.
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im trialing persimmon, apricot and siberian peaches right now. so far so good but we havent had a test year in 5 yrs. either. i grow alot of bullet proof stuff so i can afford to trial things. i love peaches and apricots.
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I’ll be following your results. I’d expect even if a persimmon survives your winters long enough to fruit, the fruit won’t have a long enough season to ripen
I’d love to find out im wrong though
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the 2 trees i ordered from blue hill, that are coming in in may are supposed to ripen in sept/ oct. and are z4 hardy. we’ll see. if they do ill gladly gift you some seeds and scion wood. im going to take wood from both of them and graft to my only seedling i have right now.
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Grafted or seedling persimmons from Ryan?
grafted.
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Pictures of my land when I bought it in 2018 compared to a picture taken last summer. After this picture was taken I put down 5000 feet of fabic in that newly tilled area extending my orchard on the right side of the picture. I planted 3 rows of sour cherry, 1 row of apricot, 4 rows of juneberry, 4 rows of haskap and 3 rows of black currant in that area already, with a few rows still undetermined.
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what type of apricot does well there? you obviously must sell your fruit.
The University of Wisconsin is having a lunchtime presentation series on less common fruit: Haskap, Elderberry, Currant, Day-Neutral Strawberries.
A link to learn more or register:
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Im not sure what the best apricot to grow in my area is, Im experimenting with a few different varieties but none are very big yet. The biggest challenge in my area, from what ive been told, is late frosts killing flowers. Moorpark is supposed to work here and a friend from Fargo gave me some cuttings from his trees that ive grafted, but i dont remember what variety names those are off the top of my head. People who have apricot trees locally typically have no idea what variety they are. Im interested in trying other varities as well, Sounds like chinese and goldcot should work here also.
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Some might find this interesting/helpful:
The list of apricot cultivars that would be appropriate for USDA Zone 4a where you are would begin with the four cultivars from the Prairie Provinces, specifically Brookcot, Debbie’s Gold, Morden 604, and Westcot. These are all cold-hardy to -40 to -45F, and the last three are being grown commercially in a very windy, USDA Zone 3 location in extreme SW Minnesota. You could also grow Golden Giant, Sugar Pearls, Harlayne, Hargrand, Harogem, Zard, and Jerseycot. I don’t have much scionwood available at this late date of these apricots but should have a lot next winter. I also have Siberian C peach seedlings from a tree in Wisconsin that has large, delicious, freestone peaches. Dr. Jim Walla of ND State University is currently testing these at various sites around North Dakota. I’m sending you an apricot cultivar-description sheet as an attachment.
Bob Purvis
Horticulturist, MS
Chair, Apricot Interest Group, NAFEX, 2000-present
Purvis Nursery and Orchard
1568 Hill Rd
Homedale, ID 83628
Cell: (208) 407-6781 (mst)
APRICOT VARIETY Descriptions, 2020.docx (23.1 KB)
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There is not now and there never has been zone 3 in SW MN.
I know of a number of 20+ year old apricots (no idea of variety) in central MN. The trees survive just fine. Zero of them have produced fruit since I’ve known of them (2013ish).
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Yeah, I caught that zone thing also, im assuming he got the number wrong… No fruit on all those trees is wild, for the last 10+ years? Im 4a and I got some fruit on my trees last summer, but none of it was what Id consider great quality.
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Maybe your area warms up later preventing the bloom killing frosts?
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The new growing zone maps have my location changing from 5 to 6A. Twenty years ago the harvests from peaches, apples and pears were difficult at best because of late frosts (and other reasons man-made). The past several years the harvests have really done much better despite my lack of real care.
Here’s the kicker; we have only one apricot, it being at least 70 years old. (verified by my wife’s older sister who picked up fruit off the ground as a young girl…she would be 90) It produces fruit once every 5 or 6 years because it flowers so early the late frosts take out the blossoms. Never having been pruned it is at least forty feet tall and when it does produce, it is loaded with ping-pong ball sized apricots. They are very sweet but difficult to gather enough for anything but apricot jam.
Even with warmer climate that tree blossoms so early frost gets it most years. A newer variety would do well but at my stage of life I am not sure I will go to the effort
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