Well, our forecast has changed. We have an inch or two of snow on the ground right now. I think it only got down to 30 or 31 last night but tonight the forecasts range from 25 to 29 so we’ll see. I’m not going to lose much sleep over the Zard tree this year, I just hope I can salvage some peaches. Every tree was in full bloom to post bloom. I might be too optimistic, but based on sheer volume of blooms if I even got 5% of a crop it would probably still be somewhat of an “okay” amount. I also have a large Jerseycot that is loaded with1/4" fruitlets right now. Again, if 95% get wiped out, I’d probably still get a few dozen. We’ll see, anything can happen.
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Yes I have montrose in my orchard but it has not fruited yet. I’ll have to look at my tree tonight but if is at least in partial bloom right now, my zard tree is still in delayed dormancy. If your looking at montrose I would suggest looking at hoyt montrose it is a seedling of the original montrose supposedly just as hardy but better fruit. I’d also recommend harlayne and precious, they are both later blooming than most of the other apricots in my orchard. Precocious is a Manchurian seedling I believe hardy to zone 3, fruit mediocre
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Yes, I have Montrose and Hoyt Montrose as well, but again, neither even compare to Zard.
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Thanks. When you say the Montroses don’t compare, do you mean they bloom earlier than Zard? How much earlier? And what about fruit quality?
Thanks so much. Yes, I’d love to know if Montrose is blooming earlier than Zard. I’m not concerned about the hardiness of the tree - they should all be fine here. I’m concerned about the bloom time. You say Precocious has mediocre fruit. Did you mean “Precious”? Do you think Harlayne and Precious bloom later than Montrose? Any idea if Hoyt Montrose is available anywhere?
I’m simply talking about what I originally posted above… in terms of the staying power. Montrose and Hoyt pretty much bloom the same time with the rest of my cots. Zard blossoms come out a little later and sticks around long after every other blossom is gone. Check with Bob Purvis if he has anymore: Apricots - Purvis Nursery and Orchard.
I’ll check tonight but I’m sure montrose is blooming now and zard is at least a week out if not 10 days from bloom. I believe Bob Purvis has Hoyt montrose scions His Scion fridge was full when I visited him two weeks ago. I do not know of a commercial source of trees of that variety. Yep I meant precious, fat fingers and auto correct get the best of me sometimes. Precious is still at swollen bud stage maybe a couple days more advanced than zard. Harlayne is between red calyx and first pink I believe so later than montrose. I took notes on bud stages Monday night. I’ll post them when I get home
Boy that really shows how climate makes a difference. Zard is only a touch later than Hoyt Montrose and has much less staying power in my orchard. Probably the dry vs wet climate difference.
I recently re-added Canadian White Blenheim, another white apricot I grew years ago. It bloomed for me at a similar time as Zard. All the other white cots have a standard bloom time. It can be found at nurseries.
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I used to have both grafts of Zard and Hoyt Montrose and 5-6 other varieties. Zard was the last to bloom but only a few days later.
Both barely set fruit comparing to other varieties grafted at the same time.
Where are you finding all these white apricot trees? I cant find anyone selling them.
By the way I think maybe the blenheim just takes a little longer. Two of my three trees are loaded. We will see how many make it into the house.
Ok here’s my bloom time notes for Monday. Things have changed a bit of course precious is progressing quickly, zard is at first pink instead of calyx but still in last place in the bloom race montrose is at first bloom.
I have a fair amount of scions still no montrose, stark sweetheart or golden giant unfortunately but most of the others on my list. I have 6/8 sticks of Zard
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The Canadian White Blenheim tree I think I got from Gurneys. Sugar Pearls is available from several places. Bob Purvis has scion wood of several (Zard, Sukphany, Afghganistan, etc). If you can’t find wood you can also check with me… I think I have 6 different white cots now.
@Hal thanks for the bloom data. Your apricots look more spread out than mine. I don’t think Sugar Pearls was late for me either.
Hey Bob Purvis collected some really good data, in the 2014 AIG report he had the following:
| Apricot | Cultivars | Ranked by | Order of | Full Bloom | Date: | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| --------------------- | ----------- | ------------ | ----------- | ---------- | ----------- | --------- | |||
| Year 2014 | First | Full | Petal | Bloom | First to | Full Bloom | Julian | Calendar | |
| Apricot | Bloom | Bloom | Fall | duration | Full Bloom | to Petal Fall | Day: | Date: | |
| Cultivar: | 2014 JD: | 2014 JD: | 2014 JD: | (days) | (days) | (days) | |||
| M.604 | 78.2 | 82.0 | 96.0 | 17.8 | 3.8 | 14.0 | 63 | Mar. 4 | |
| Brookcot | 74.7 | 84.0 | 96.0 | 21.3 | 9.3 | 12.0 | 64 | 5 | |
| Westcot | 78.3 | 84.0 | 98.0 | 19.7 | 5.7 | 14.0 | 65 | 6 | |
| Debbie’s Gold | 78.4 | 84.0 | 98.0 | 19.6 | 5.6 | 14.0 | 66 | 7 | |
| Goldbar | 78.8 | 87.0 | 96.0 | 17.2 | 8.2 | 9.0 | 67 | 8 | |
| Apache | 79.5 | 87.2 | 96.0 | 16.5 | 7.7 | 8.8 | 68 | 9 | |
| Castlebrite | 80.2 | 87.4 | 100.0 | 19.8 | 7.2 | 12.6 | 69 | 10 | |
| Lorna | 81.5 | 87.8 | 101.0 | 19.5 | 6.3 | 13.2 | 70 | 11 | |
| Robada | 80.2 | 88.3 | 100.0 | 19.8 | 8.1 | 11.7 | 71 | 12 | |
| Golden Giant | 80.2 | 88.6 | 101.0 | 20.8 | 8.4 | 12.4 | 72 | 13 | |
| Harcot | 79.8 | 89.0 | 100.0 | 20.2 | 9.2 | 11.0 | 73 | 14 | |
| Harogem | 79.8 | 89.0 | 100.0 | 20.2 | 9.2 | 11.0 | 74 | 15 | |
| Hargrand | 80.6 | 89.6 | 100.0 | 19.4 | 9.0 | 10.4 | 75 | 16 | |
| Afghanistan | 80.6 | 91.0 | 100.0 | 19.4 | 10.4 | 9.0 | 76 | Mar. 17 | |
| Robada | 80.6 | 91.0 | 100.0 | 19.4 | 10.4 | 9.0 | 77 | 18 | |
| Florilege | 81.0 | 91.0 | 100.0 | 19.0 | 10.0 | 9.0 | 78 | 19 | |
| Robada | 81.0 | 91.0 | 101.0 | 20.0 | 10.0 | 10.0 | 79 | 20 | |
| Tomcot | 81.1 | 91.0 | 101.0 | 19.9 | 9.9 | 10.0 | 80 | 21 | |
| Suphany | 81.5 | 91.0 | 101.0 | 19.5 | 9.5 | 10.0 | 81 | 22 | |
| Robada | 81.5 | 91.0 | 101.0 | 19.5 | 9.5 | 10.0 | 82 | 23 | |
| Skaha | 81.7 | 91.0 | 101.0 | 19.3 | 9.3 | 10.0 | 83 | 24 | |
| Robada | 81.9 | 91.0 | 100.4 | 18.5 | 9.1 | 9.4 | 84 | 25 | |
| Robada | 81.9 | 91.0 | 100.0 | 18.1 | 9.1 | 9.0 | 85 | 26 | |
| Precious | 82.0 | 91.0 | 100.0 | 18.0 | 9.0 | 9.0 | 86 | 27 | |
| Harlayne | 82.0 | 91.0 | 100.0 | 18.0 | 9.0 | 9.0 | 87 | 28 | |
| Sugar Pearls | 82.0 | 91.0 | 100.0 | 18.0 | 9.0 | 9.0 | 88 | 29 | |
| Sugar Pearls | 82.0 | 91.0 | 100.0 | 18.0 | 9.0 | 9.0 | 89 | 30 | |
| Harglow | 82.0 | 91.0 | 100.0 | 18.0 | 9.0 | 9.0 | 90 | Mar. 31 | |
| Ultra-Orange | 82.0 | 91.0 | 100.0 | 18.0 | 9.0 | 9.0 | 91 | Apr. 1 | |
| Jerseycot | 83.4 | 91.0 | 100.0 | 16.6 | 7.6 | 9.0 | 92 | 2 | |
| Henderson | 83.4 | 91.0 | 100.0 | 16.6 | 7.6 | 9.0 | 93 | 3 | |
| Jimmy Thomas | 83.6 | 91.0 | 100.0 | 16.4 | 7.4 | 9.0 | 94 | 4 | |
| Corbett | 83.8 | 91.0 | 100.0 | 16.2 | 7.2 | 9.0 | 95 | 5 | |
| Nicole | 80.2 | 91.2 | 102.0 | 21.8 | 11.0 | 10.8 | 96 | 6 | |
| Alfred | 82.0 | 92.0 | 102.0 | 20.0 | 10.0 | 10.0 | 97 | 7 | |
| Harval | 82.5 | 93.0 | 101.0 | 18.5 | 10.5 | 8.0 | 98 | 8 | |
| Hoyt Montrose | 83.7 | 93.0 | 100.0 | 16.3 | 9.3 | 7.0 | 99 | 9 | |
| Puget Gold | 83.9 | 93.0 | 100.0 | 16.1 | 9.1 | 7.0 | 100 | 10 | |
| Zard | 84.0 | 93.0 | 102.0 | 18.0 | 9.0 | 9.0 | 101 | 11 | |
| Stark Sweetheart | 82.0 | 93.4 | 102.0 | 20.0 | 11.4 | 8.6 | 102 | 12 | |
| Sundrop | 83.8 | 93.7 | 101.0 | 17.2 | 9.9 | 7.3 | 103 | 13 | |
| Helena | 82.0 | 93.8 | 103.0 | 21.0 | 11.8 | 9.2 | 104 | 14 | |
| Orange Red | 82.0 | 94.2 | 101.0 | 19.0 | 12.2 | 6.8 | 105 | 15 | |
| DR-606 | 86.6 | 96.0 | 101.0 | 14.4 | 9.4 | 5.0 | 106 | 16 | |
| Montrose | 86.8 | 96.0 | 108.0 | 21.2 | 9.2 | 12.0 | 107 | 17 | |
| Hunza | 87.0 | 96.0 | 101.0 | 14.0 | 9.0 | 5.0 | 108 | 18 |
This is more like what I have seen in terms of Hoyt Montrose and Zard. Orangered was never late like that for me. I have a Hunza cot which is also pretty late (there are many Hunzas some late some not). Helena also was not late for me.
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As soon as I saw that spreadsheet I figured it was Bob’s lol. I used to be a member of the AIG I have been taking those notes for about 8 years now maybe sometime I’ll get around to compiling them and doing some averages we other the numbers. I know they change a little each year
Well you were right about Zard… at least this year. Nothing produced. However, my other Whites (Sugar Pearls and Afghanistans) are doing quite well! Perhaps another later pollinator would help.
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Same here for my Lasgerdi Mashaad I was optimistic about earlier this year, 90% dropped. I do still have a couple left though.
I have occasionally had good sets with various white cots, Moniqui Zard and Afghanistan all had their “on” years when they made a large crop, but none of them sets reliably. This year it looks like yet another whiffer for all the whites.
Is Hoyt Montrose the same as the one simply called “Montrose”, or is that different?
I grafted Afganistan and Lasgerdi Mashaad whites last year. Both varieties have set fruit this year, so it will be nice to compare them to my existing whites - Canadian White Blenheim and Sugar Pearls.
As for the existing trees, Canadian White Blenheim sets far fewer fruits and seems to self thin fairly well, reducing the thinning burden on me.
Sugar Pearls sets like a beast consistently as long as it has a polinator. I’m on my third tree as a polinator for Sugar Pearls having replaced one that I didn’t care for, followed by the death of the replacement tree, followed by the Canadian White Blenheim that I have now. Now that I have grafted other varieties to each tree, the loss of either of my two trees should not result in a polination problem. Sugar Pearls requires a significant amount of thinning however, I wonder if it would self thin to a significant degree if I did nothing?
My Sugar Pearls seems pretty bullet proof. It is as healthy as can be. I do have concerns about my Canadian White Blenheim. The first one died on me. This second one is oozing sap in various locations. It is still really perky and has a good crop this year, but clearly it has issues.
This year I added grafts of Turkey to each tree. It will be interesting to see if there is any quality difference that I can detect between the varieties as most people who have multiple varieties of white apricots say they are all very similar.
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Hoyt Montrose is a seedling of Montrose. I don’t remember the exact differences but I think Hoyt may be a bit bigger and Montrose a bit more frost-resistant - ?
Re: Sugar Pearls, that is one white that set well for me. But it was bland compared to the other whites so I removed it.
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My experience was the same for the first three years. I didn’t care for them too much. I’m not sure what changed. Maybe I am doing a better job of thinning? But they are excellent now and I look forward to them as much as I look forward to the peaches. Last year’s crop averaged between 20 and 23 brix - same as Canadian White, but had a richer flavor. The Canadian White is 3 or 4 now, maybe it will improve as well? - if it lives.
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