Now I have a little patch of land, and I'd like to plant an apricot tree or two. So: what do you folks think are the tastiest apricot varieties? I don't care about size and color. I want strong apricot flavor and a nice texture. I'm in zone 9, warm part of Northern California.

Any suggestions? Thanks!
-Kim

My favorites are Tasty Rich, Tomcot, and Robada from earliest to latest. Tasty Rich is very early, good size, and has a full apricot flavor. Tomcot is one of the most consistent producers in CA, medium size, and very good flavor. Robada has a bit of acid but when combined with enough sweetness can be spectacular. The best apricot I've ever eaten was a Robada.

There are some new apricots on the market. I haven't tasted them yet but they are said to be much sweeter than standard cots. They go by names such as CandyCots and Anglecots. Wish I knew where we could get a tree. The breeders are small operations. Dave Wilson Nursery is now offering Cot-N-Candy which may be similiar. I hope to have fruit of it this year.

Just trying to lead you to good eaters, not those typical CA cots that last 6 wks in the frig but have no taste.

The Fruitnut

Carla in Sac

Scott

The Fruitnut

Blenheim gets my vote.

Just my 2 c's.

Bejay

Scott

I am in the same climate zone as you are. I agree with the people who say Blenheim is by far the best tasting apricot there is. It used to be the number 1 apricot grown in the Santa Clara Valley a long time ago when it used to be called the Valley of Heart's Desire. Nowadays, you cannot find it sold anywhere because it has a short shelf life. Also, shoppers unwisely pass it over because it often has a greenish tint on one side, but the flavor is the best. It was also the apricot of my youth. You are lucky enough to live in a climate where Blenheim will thrive under ideal conditions.

With all due respect to the others who posted here, I think you should ignore their suggestions and go with Blenheim. Notice how people in your climate zone recommended it. All of the other recommendations came from people in other climates. Listen to the locals.

If you want to go for variety on the apricot theme, try Flavorella plumcot or Flavor Delight aprium.

Brian

Now it's possible that the Blenheim I purchased in CA and brought back to TX was mislabeled or a bad clone. But mine have generally been soft, mushy, and prone to pit burn. The poster asked for a cot with good texture. That's decidedly not a Blenheim in my experience. So all you Blenheim lovers, am I just getting a bad Blenheim or do your's tend to the soft mushy side as well?

The Fruitnut

Maybe I should add a Tomcot to my apricot collection? ('cause I 'm sure I could squeeze one more tree into my army of fruit trees in pots LOL)

I now have Orangered, Cot-N-Candy and a multigraft Katy, Blenheim,and Royal Rosa; and new this year are Robada, Autumn Glo, Early Autumn, and Moorpark. Plus in the fridge are some scions to graft :) Oh, and the Goldensweet I'm wanting to acquire.

My neighbors keep asking me if I'm starting a nursery...

Carla in Sac

I won't say Tomcot is better than Robada. It depends on the year, my taste buds, and the fruit gods. One thing I like about Tasty Rich, an aprium, is that it is so early. By far my earliest tree fruit, about two weeks before Tomcot. Three weeks before Flavor Delight and way better fruit quality. If fully ripened on the tree it is just about as good as any cot and way better than any early peach or nectarine I've tried. I saw it listed for sale once out of one of the Eastern nurseries. But cann't give you a source now.

I spent about an hr today thinning Tasty Rich. Should have ripe fruit in early April. It does bloom pretty early but should be fine where you are.

The Fruitnut

Adams County Nursery sells Tasty Rich, but they are sold out until 2010. They also sell Honey Blaze and Honey Royale low-acid, yellow-fleshed nectarines. These two nectarines are the best fruit I grow. They are sweet as honey but what makes them stand out from all the other sweet fruit I grow is the flavor; it just blows my socks off!!! Your mileage may vary.

I don't know why I cann't seem to find these in CA. Strange that they are avaliable but only a nursery in the NE would see their value.

Cheers,
Kim

As far as the eating qualities besides taste are concerned, Andy's Blenheims were very juicy; people would bite into them and then jump back to avoid juice on their shoes! I liked them a lot.

Thanks for that response. The Blenheims I've had have all been grown in hot climates where it is bothered by pit burn. These are soft, runny, and often with discolored flesh. The taste has never been good IMO. I prefer a firmer apricot. Andy, in Morgan Hill, is in a cooler climate.

One thing I will say is that Blenheim is better than Patterson, the long time standard shipping apricot grown in hotter areas of CA. Patterson never gets soft or sweet. Patterson is responsible for those awful tart CA dried apricots I've suckered on time after time, but no more. Fortunately, there are few Pattersons still grown. Commercial growers are switching to newer varieties and striving for eating quality. Unfortunately many of the newer varieties are not avaliable to home growers.

The Fruitnut

I don't mean to highjack this thread, but have any of you experienced apricot growers got a suggestion for a late blooming apricot that will fruit with some regularity in my unpredictable spring, intermountain west zone 5-6? I'm not interested in the generically named Mongolian/Chinese apricot as I want something with a bit more flavor.

Carla in Sac

The best website I know of for info on late blooming apricots is given below. But as far as I can tell they don't sell the trees.

The intermountain west in general will never produce apricots on a regular basis. Where I'm at you'd need 6-8 weeks delay in bloom. The late bloomers are a week or two at most delay. But a little help is better than none. Maybe you have a good site. And your temperatures may be cool enough to grow a good Blenheim.

The Fruitnut

I've got a Flavor Delight Aprium entering it's 6th leaf that almost produced a crop once but was zapped by a very late frost. Other than that, it has never produced fruit at any stage of development. I had another apricot, Harko, I believe, that died three years ago. It was planted at the same time as the Flavor Delight. I do like apricots and I've seen them fruit here, though sporadically, so I'll likely give it a go one more time with one of varieties mentioned in your link.

Scott

Posturedoc: Golden Amber blooms over a long period and could be an option in the intermountain west. It needs to be sprayed with copper repeatedly in fall and winter like a peach (though maybe not where you are), to prevent bud drop. It is somewhat resistant to pitburn.

We had a Chinese (NOT Mongolian) in Utah growing up and I thought it was flavorful, though it was soft. Didn't get fruit every year, but we liked it when we did. Montrose is another late bloomer, developed in Colorado. Both have edible sweet pits. Canadian White Blenheim blooms very late here - don't know how it would do in the North. It needs a pollenizer. It's also a sweet pit variety. So you could try Chinese, Montrose and Canadian White Blenheim for a trio of sweet pit apricots. For even hardier apricots, you could look into the "Prairie" series developed in Canada.
Sugar Pearls is a new US variety being marketed by Gurney and Henry Fields, and seems to be a legit variety. It is touted as blooming later than all other varieties, but two trees are recommended for best yield. Doesn't quite make sense, unless it is grown from seed.

As for late-bloomers, OrangeRed and Early Golden are supposed to bloom later than most California varieties. But that doesn't mean they would do well in the Intermountain West.

Now I did grow up in Europe as a kid, and both moorpark and blennheim apricts come the closest to European apricots in flavor intensity. They also happen to be the least good looking apricots you can grow, moorpark stays mostly green, with yellow blush but intensely flavored. Blennheim is a little pale in color, but super tasty and sweet.

Do listen to the locals, there is a big discrepancy in what does well in different climate zones.

Carla in Sac

Carla in Sac

Hope you have a bigger crop next year.

The Fruitnut

Raintree also has Puget Gold apricot, which according to them, "It sets and sizes fruit in cool frosty spring weather where all other varieties fail". does it mean Puget Gold will surive the late frost?

Thanks

Scott