My experience with Harcot apricot has been mixed — it’s a good producer of large, beautiful fruit, but is practically useless for fresh eating. It never ripens well for me — stays low on sugar and flavor and does not get the normal soft texture of a well ripened apricot. If left long on the tree, fruits start spoiling near the pit (white mold that starts at the pit cavity and then spreads through the fruit) but still don’t develop good sugar or flavor. I started using them for jam at the ripeness stage before the mold develops, and they work well for that purpose, but not for fresh eating.
My graft is relatively low on the eastern side of a large tree, so I wonder if shading might be a problem, but other varieties grafted in the same area do fine and Harcot fruits color really well like they have enough sun. What’s your experience with this variety?
I had harcot in my previous garden and I never had a problem with ripening. I love the taste of it very much. It is on the firm side, and is not plainly sweet, it has good balance of acid and sugar, but this is what I like the best about it. In my current garden it is very small yet and didn’t produce .
I have Harcot, and it’s growing in a place where it gets more shade than I’d like, but it still fruits. It’s on the firm side but definitely ripe. I don’t care for mushy apricots, so this is fine with me, also.
Zombie topic but Harcot here in Modesto produces well. Its uniform, reliable, pretty good flavored. Haven’t seen pit burn on that one. Nothing outstanding either way, just a good all around apricot for the time slot.
I might prefer the firm side too - I prefer crisp apples and love how flavor grenade pluots are firm and crunchy, so Harcot might have been a good choice.
With our Spring frosts, I was trying to get a later blooming apricot.
We also have a short season at 4200ft elevation, so I have no idea how apricots will do. All I know is we got a Blenheim first and it died, and we have no idea why. I have heard people talk about apricots just failing for no apparent reason, so maybe they are fragile in some ways?
Our first Harcot failed to thrive too and so we got a replacement this season and it is doing well, it leafed out and all that jazz and is now going dormant.
I’m in a similar boat as you: should have a Harcot coming this spring to try for my first apricot. Hoping it is as problem resistant as I’ve read since in my 7a mid atlantic disease and rot issues are likely to be legion for stonefruit…
I’m planting it on the north side of the house betting on a cooler micro-climate maybe pursuading it to wait a day or two longer to bloom in hopes of ducking some of our late frosts. Crossing my fingers Harcot will be a good gamble.
I have also read interesting things about white apricots but like you have never tried them (and my partner and i tend to vastly prefer yellow fleshed peaches compared to white fleshed and the descriptions of “more sugar and less acid” sound similar so I’m not sure I’ll be able to justify using more of my limited space to test a white apricot here… I’d love to know what you think of a white one if you do end up trying one some day.)
In Modesto where you can grow any cot you want. The Har program is about producing particularly cold-hardy varieties, which is a pretty outstanding feature if your winter temps get into the single digits and on down. I have found Hargrand to be the most hardy of the Har series with limited experience at a few orchards I’ve grown several around Z6.
Over the years I’ve managed maybe 10 Harcots at different sites in my region, but none are alive today. Only half of the grands are still alive. I think it’s early spring dives that mostly kill them.
No, not at all. I’m merely expanding on the qualities of Harcot. We, in more northern areas, have a different calculous on what we need from fruit trees than those living in one of the best climates in the world for growing stonefruit. We also do not have the opportunity to buy apricots that are adequately ripened.
Most of the people I know have never tasted a properly tree ripened apricot because commercial growers rarely grow them in my region- so any apricot that is sweet and not mushy with decent survival traits is exceptionally good.
I was raised in S. CA where one can plant a seed, keep the soil adequately moist and then harvest perfect cots in a few short years, even without cross pollination- if coons or ground squirrels don’t get it. At least, that was how it was a half century ago.
The cot in pluots seem more a sales tactic than reality. What they are is high sugar plums that develop that while still firm. If you want a plum with some recognizable taste and texture traits of cots, try Spring Satin, it is identified as an Aprium because the Zaigers copyrighted the word Pluot while failing to create a fruit that fits the description.
We always get frosts in spring, it is hard frosts below 25F after plants have started growing that kill crops. Cots seem to get completely killed sometimes after a normal winter because of early spring deep dives. They are the most fragile of fruit trees I grow. On my property I have good luck and longevity from them by growing them against the southern wall of my house. Most of the orchards I manage are better sites than my own and you can grow cots out in the open, but those growing against my wall are the most consistent croppers I manage.