I’m asking again now that July is over 
What is your latest top 5 favorite apricot varieties?
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I would say the list of top apricot varieties for me is still pretty much the same — white-fleshed apricots (Lasgerdi Mashhad, Moniqui, Afghanistan) and Anya, Moorpark, Orangered, Spark’s Mammoth among orange-fleshed ones. Routier’s Peach, Large Early, and Golden Sweet are very close to the top. Nicole improved a lot this year (it was subpar first two years); Orangered is still much better flavor-wise in my opinion, but Nicole is a much stronger producer.
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You being in Waterport NY and Stan being in the middle of the best stonefruit growing country in CA probably means his list is nothing more than a dream list for you. The favorite varieties he lists are mostly worthless here in S. NY.
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I figured as much. Is it worth planting some for that odd lucky year, if I have the room for some reliables as well? I don’t want to be maintaining a tree that will only give me leaves forever, though.
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I t looks like @scottfsmith and @BobVance may have the largest collection of apricots in the east coast.
I only have 5-6 varities from grafts. My latest bloomer is Hoyt Montrose. It ripens later, too. However, later means about 5-7 days only.
I like Orangered, Robada and Tomcot in that order.
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The larger question in my book is who is getting meaningful harvests and where is their orchard located? Bob is close to my neck of the woods, but his orcharding is a bit scattershot to provide a great deal of clarity about contrasting varieties, at least that’s the picture in my mind in imagining his trees, which see a wide range of care because of his busy life and having trees spread on multiple properties.
Waterport may actually be a superior location for NY apricot growing, winter is winter and summer is summer with the strong moderating affect of Lake Ontario. I believe there is some commercial growing of the species there and I bet they are easier to successfully grow them on the leeward side of that huge lake than at some of the locations I’m trying to.
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Woohoo, thanks for the encouragement! I currently have 18 varieties planted and was going to put in another row of 18 next spring, so I can report on those in the future. Should produce next year. About half of these are not necessarily recommended for the East coast, but I wanted them anyway because I have had good luck ignoring Cornell in the past and since it’s just a hobby I figured why not. You are correct about some commercial apricot growing here, it looks like more were recently planted as well.
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I should warn you, though, that I manage some right on the Hudson River only 45 miles north of the city or so and even there they are fragile trees, although quite productive.
We grow Orange-red, BTW, as well as all the varieties ACN carries. Hargrand grows a large apricot of good quality that seems as sturdy as they come.
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My Robada grafts are still too young to evaluate. I appreciate Tomcot for consistently producing loads of large, beautiful, clean fruit early in the season, but for my taste buds the fruit is a bit low on sugar compared to other varieties.
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