Need to replace gold kist apricot

11 years ago

When I first planted apricots, I followed the usual wisdom of sticking with low chill varieties, but as it turns out, this is a mistake in my climate. Every year, gold kist blooms right about now, towards the end of January, and inevitably the rains come along and the thing explodes with brown rot. Only agressive spraying has ensured that I get a good crop. This year, it will bloom all at once because we had a super cold December and early January, followed by a whole week of 80F weather. Cady is the other low chill cultivar I started out with, and it's a poor producer thanks to the rain sensitivity of the blossoms, although it's much less prone to brown rot than gold kist. Gold kist is a disease pit and it's a vector for the rest of the garden.

I am tired of spraying, and I need a replacement. I am considering tomcot, harcot, harglow, and Canadian white blenheim. The first three are brown rot resistant, and the last one is delicious, all are late bloomers. I have had great success with blenheim/royal, moorpark, mormon, and puget gold, the latter are higher chill late bloomers.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. (For Santa Cruz mountain thermal belts, no frost issues here, but high chill, and very high rainfall ~50 inches between Nov-March).

Comments (8)

Tony
11 years ago
Axel,

What do you think about Sugar pearls or Hunza? They both had good reviews.

Tony
Axel
Original Author
11 years ago
I need varieties that do better in cooler Summer weather, so most of the European varieties do better for us here. Hunza is claimed to require a lot of heat. It's an interesting variety, but I have the mormon/chinese one already, and at least for that one you don't have to cook the kernels to eat them.

Where do you get sugar pearls?
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milehighgirl
11 years ago
Henry Field's has them for only $8.25. Hurry and order now.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sugar Pearls Apricot
steve_in_los_osos
11 years ago
Alas, not available to CA--typical for out of state suppliers.
sautesmom Sacramento
11 years ago
Axel:

My Harcot has its first fruit right now, I will let you know how it tastes (assuming the squirrels don't get it.) Ditto with my Nicole, which this year bloomed about the same time with Blenheim.

I might also suggest Autumn Royal, which is a late bloomer, but since mine got wiped out by the brown ooze this year, I can't tell you how it tastes.

Both Robada and its parent Orangered are also late bloomers--is the reason you aren't considering them too much chill required? I would be happy to send you some Orangered if you want to try, it's not patented.

Carla in Sac
Axel
Original Author
10 years ago
Thanks for the tips. I ended up ripping out both katy and gold kist plus a couple of others. I ended up planting the following:

Harglow apricot on Lovell
Tomcot Apricot on Lovell
Monique Apricot on Marianna
Harcot Apricot on Myrobalan
Hemskirke on lovell

We'll see how these do long term.
sautesmom Sacramento
10 years ago
Hemskirke? Where did you get THAT??

Carla in Sac
fireduck
10 years ago
That-a-boy A...rip 'em out if they do not produce. We are not getting any younger! haha (Ed of Somis)