I have a low opinion on store-bought apricots because after many trials, they were all tasteless. That has changed after I tasted my own fully ripened, home grown apricots last year. They were delicious and full of flavor.
Apricot, in my yard (zone 6), is the first fruit to flower. So, they are the most susceptible to late freeze/frost. But it is worth it to grow them.
I’d like your input regarding which varieties are late bloomers.
I have 6 varieties grafted to my nectarine tree. Here are this year’s blooming dates:
4/14 Tomcot
4/15 OrangeRed and Robada
4/17 Moniqui and Hoyt Montrose
4/18 Zard
Royal Blenheim: March 30 (2016 tree)
Flavor Delight: March 30 (2017 tree)
Orangered: April 1 (2018 graft)
Tomcot: April 3 (2018 tree)
Sugar Pearls: April 6 (2018 graft)
Zard: April 7 (2018 graft)
I only had it for one year, so don’t have much experience yet. In this year I saw no problems with it, but I spray every 3 weeks through out the season. @Olpea has one in Missouri and he is a pro, so you can take his word to the bank.
I do a have a couple Zards. They start blooming with the very earliest peaches, possibly a day or two earlier. But the bloom period overlaps with peaches.
My two Zard trees were only planted in 2014. Last year they fruited for the first time. I didn’t have any problems with disease, but like Ahmad I sprayed them along with my other trees.
It is interesting that @scottfsmith had written that Zard and Canadian White Blenheim seemed so similar that he thought they might actually be the same variety. I tried to find a late bloomer for Sugar Pearls and settled on CWB. First Sugar Pearls bloom to open was on 4/17, I expect it to be in full bloom tomorrow. CWB is one day later.
I will not list blooming dates for all 100+ apricot varieties that I grow, only for some of the late bloomers. The number of days is the start of the bloom in 2019 relative to that of the Redhaven peach (which was March 14 in 2019). YMMV (typically, all bloom times are much more condensed up north compared to what we have here in California, zone 9b; your Zard blooms just 4 days after Tomcot, for me it’s 30 days).
Afghanistan +4
Alfred +2
Canadian White Blenheim +11
Florilege +11
Ilona +11
Jerseycot +4
Lasgerdi Mashhad +1
Le Crème +4
Orangered -1
Paviot 0
Routier’s Peach +5
Roxburgh Red +5
Spark’s Mammoth +1
Supkhani 0
Zard +14
White-fleshed and orange-fleshed apricots have very different flavor profiles, I would count them separately. I like white-fleshed ones very much but they all taste quite similar to me and only differ by bloom time, ripening time, productivity, etc., not much by flavor.
Among orange-fleshed apricots, my favorites are Anya, Moorpark, Orangered, Routier’s Peach, Spark’s Mammoth. Still many more to taste test… ask me again in late July.
I would say now its more like they are very similar, as in CWB may be a seedling of Zard. @stan since you have grown both of them at the same time I would be interested in your opinion on this. I noticed the bloom dates are similar for you at least, that was also the case in my orchard when I had both (they never fruited the same year though).
@mamuang I would not go too much by Stan’s data too much, for example Florilege is only a few days later for me. Well, its good qualitative data in that it correlates. Also for apricots you not only need late blooming you need blooms that can take the cold and also staggered bloom is a big help because with a few late ones you can still get a good crop. I never found Zard to do all that much better for me for this kind of reason.
I would agree with this. The texture is also different, some of them are stringy and some not at all. Size also differs a lot. And in the east some are very prone to cracking or damage to the tops.
Oh here are a few on Stans late list which you don’t have that I think would be good in the east based on my experience.
I don’t know about several of them. Many California cots don’t work well in the east, most them that I tried rotted or split or some combination thereof.
I should let me Sukphany grow out, I topworked it when it was being so slow to produce but I probably didn’t wait long enough. Afghanistan is the only white I really gave a long trial but it never produced. This was something like over 10 years. The tops also were highly prone to rotting so that sealed the deal… its now my main Hoyt Montrose tree.
It never ripened well for me, it didn’t get sweet enough. Which is too bad as otherwise it was excellent – the fruits looked perfect. It is a plumcot, for a long time it was not labeled as such but more recently I have seen that label on it by nurseries. My Sweet Satin, another plumcot, had a similar ripening problem. Occasionally I would get a perfectly ripened one and it was awesome, but usually if I let them hang the time needed they would start going bad instead of getting any sweeter.
The number of days is the start of the bloom in 2019 relative to that of the Redhaven peach (which was March 14 in 2019). YMMV (typically, all bloom times are much more condensed up north compared to what we have here in California, zone 9b; your Zard blooms just 4 days after Tomcot, for me it’s 30 days).