How cold does it get in winter and do you have late spring frosts? Those are the critical factors. Otherwise apricot are well adapted to sunny dry climates.

The Chinese apricots will produce about 1 year out of 10 here in SW Nebraska (McCook and North Platte). The rest of the time they will frost out early. I planted some in the winter shade of my building, hoping it will delay blooming. It will be full sun in summer.

What zone are you in?
Spring frost would probably be a issue,..and south facing not a good idea,..making them push too early.

We can grow them in zone 3 but not fruits every year.

Here is a link that might be useful: Apricots in Flower

Apricots are native to Afghanistan, up against the Himalyans.

I'm not picturing NE Colorado up against the mountains. In Denver I have 5 apricot trees. Yesterday I saw that my Goldcot had begun opening. Zard, Hoyt Montrose, Chinese, and Tilton had not opened yet.

Childhood memories are that here we would get a crop every 7 years. I don't know what cultivar they were.

Planting the apricots on the north side of a house will supposedly delay bloom if the trees are planted close enough to the house so the trunks are shaded for a longer time. I don't have experience with this yet. I have my apricots wrapped with white tree tape and it doesn't seem to make much of a difference. Maybe painting the trunk would help more than the tape. Planting facing south, while it sounds good in theory, actually prompts earlier blooming.

For late blooming apricots you can contact Robert Purvis . He provided me with my Zard and Hoyt Montrose.

Here is a link that might be useful: Purvis Nursery & Orchard

I'm believing less and less in the usefulness of so-called late blooming varieties... Microclimate seems to be more important (both for escaping late freezes by being on a hilltop for example, and for delaying bloom), but even that might only buy you a week or two at the most.

Painting the trunk white, watering a bunch before a freeze, and things like that seem to be pretty much useless.

Where I am we can get lucky about every other year or so, but not on individual trees (in other words, one out of every two year or so there are apricots somewhere nearby, but not necessarily on every tree).

I am still perfecting the covering of my fruit trees to protect them from late freezes, but I am beginning to think this is the best way to go. A frame system hung with plastic and fitted inside with some heat source underneath the tree can be very successful. But this takes some time, energy, money, and ingenuity to have ready for this time of year. It also takes a relatively small tree to be practical

fabaceae_native,

I agree totally with your conclusion, which is why I am dedicating myself to covering my trees. I'm in the process of putting up trellises and hopefully espalier them so they will be a cinch to cover.

Aside from that, late blooming is your best bet.

The problem with late bloom is many varieties advertised that way don't hold up to the promise. I have grown dozens of apricots and the only truly late bloomers I found are Zard, Canadian White Blenheim (which I think could in fact be Zard), and some Hunza varieties. While later varieties do help, it seems like most years I get only one more week of closed buds from them; it can be up to two weeks. So, bud hardiness ends up being important as well.

If you are covering them you could try the aluminum bubble wrap insulation for the whole early spring. It keeps the tree colder in the spring since the sunlight is reflected and the ground is still cold. I noticed my figs under the cover were behind the ones I did not cover.

Scott

Milehigh,

Please post back how your Zard and Hoyt Montrose apricot do in terms of bloom timing.

I've been in dialog with Scott about Zard for a few years now and he's concluded his Zard blooms with his earliest peaches. I'm curious if you see the same thing in CO.

At one time I had 6 varieties of apricots (some supposedly late bloomers or reliable) like Jeresycot and Tomcot and they bloomed too early. I pulled them out.

Scott got me interested in Zard based upon how it performed in his locale, and based on Scott's testimony (and that of Rutgers) it's supposed to be very sweet.

I also ordered a Hoyt Montrose for this spring from Purvis. He claims it blooms slightly later than Zard in Idaho.

I'll check tomorrow to see how things are going. Last year on this very date we got down to 10F, so I sure hope we can have a better year this year. I will keep you posted.

It's a beautiful day today in Colorado! 68F and sunny!

Goldcot is in full bloom. Zard is at first bloom (50% opening). Hoyt Montrose, Tilton, and Chinese are at 25% first white (although Hoyt Montrose has one in shuck).

Toka is in full, full bloom. Elephant heart is at first white.
All other trees, including peaches and cherries, are at red calyx or lower

What I am seeing with Zard and Hoyt Montrose is a more spread out blooming cycle. Goldcot has most of it's blooms on the same schedule, but Zard and Hoyt Montrose are more spread out in maturity. All three of these trees are in their 3rd leaf, if I recall correctly. With one bloom on Hoyt Montrose in the shuck already, I am beginning to wonder if it a spread-out bloom cycle that is what saves many of the blossoms. (There is probably a scientific term for spread-out-bloom-cycle, but I am unaware if it)

The only reason I bought my Goldcot is because it was the last tree left at Costco and I felt sorry for it. It was marked down to $10.00. It surprised me by making a comeback. At least it gives me a marker to compare with.

My Tilton and Chinese have been neglected and have spent their lives in 18 gallon pots that I have buried and dug up every year. I decided to replace them with Zard and Hoyt Montrose and have not found a home for them yet. It seems to me that they might not be so bad after all, as they are in timing with Zard and Hoyt Montrose. Maybe I will find a place for them after all.

Thanks Milehigh,

I talked w/ Purvis last night. He more or less indicated the same thing - Zard and Hoyt Montrose bloom earlier than peaches in his locale, but they overlap w/ peach bloom. To me that seems consistent with what you are saying.

Purvis told me last night Hoyt Montrose blooms 3-4 days later than Zard. Perhaps he was referring to main bloom (not first bloom).

Scott:

Is Hoyt Montrose different than Montrose? And how sure are you that Canadian White Blenheim is the same as Zard?

Not that is probably matters here. This year I guess from lack of chilling I got zero bloom on Sugar Pearls, maybe 1% on Orangered, and poor to decent on Tomcot and Robada, all outdoors.

Mountainhighgirl, hope you've got your apricot cover in place. Hear it's going down to 17F Sunday night!

Thanks for the confirmation Scott,

Everything is blooming together here this year. Strange. First bloom on peaches was Thurs. After two days of warm windy weather virtually all peaches are in full bloom. Euro plums are at the same stage as peaches (full bloom). My only J. plum Shiro also bloomed at the same time.

Apples and pears are in tight cluster, with some pink showing on some apple clusters.

With 25F coming up day after tomorrow, all the stone fruits will be toast.

If we keep fingers crossed hard, we might "just" squeeze by,..lets hope so!

fruitnut,

According to Mr. Purvis, "Concerning the difference between the original and the Hoyt Montrose, the main difference is that the Hoyt's fruit is larger. Both the original and the Hoyt bloom late and ripen late, and both are self-fruitful."

I have asked Mr. Purvis if I can share what he writes me and he has said it's okay, but I still feel wierd just publishing it. In this case I think it would be useful to just copy and paste what he wrote to me about when I asked if Hoyt Montrose was patented:

"Rhonda, rest assured that the Hoyt Montrose is not patented. For that matter, Dr. Lloyd Rosenvold, who found the original Montrose apricot tree, never tried to patent it but instead shared freely of the pits and scions produced by the tree. A Mr. Hoyt (not sure of his first name) in northern Idaho planted one of Rosenvold's Montrose pits and found that that seedling produced larger and better apricots than the original Montrose, but he too made no effort to patent it.

I obtained my Hoyt Montrose wood from Dr. Roger Eichman, DDS, who lives on one of the islands in Puget Sound, and I was fortunate to be able to graft and grow a tree of it. Dr. Eichman in turn got his scions from Mr. Hoyt, according to my notes. Here at my location, the Hoyt Montrose blooms even later than Zard although this is only based on one year of observations (2012). The Hoyt has also proven to be amazingly adaptable to wet conditions (NW Washington State and western NY State [Wayne County]). Fruit quality is good, but not quite as good as Robada, and it ripens late also. The situation with the bloom is that the Hoyt requires a lot of chilling hours as well as a lot of heat units to break dormancy and blossom, and for the latter reason it is very poorly adapted to the San Francisco Bay area.

So take good care of the Hoyt Montrose; it is the apricot cultivar that is probably your best bet for Colorado's highly changeable weather."

Thanks milehighgirl!! I got the Montrose that's sold by LE Cooke. I just read somewhere else that could be Hoyt Montrose. But I'll look for the Hoyt Montrose for purchase next winter just in case.

Also sounds like it would be worthwhile to plant seeds of both if one has room.

I grew Canadian White Blenheim, perhaps same as Zard, the fruit was good but it was very vigorous and didn't set well at all. I cut it down after a couple years.

Also I'm glad to see Purvis likes Robada fruit. It's been my best eating until I tried Orangered last year. I'd plant all those and Tomcot in CO. Then put up a shelter so as to get fruit every year.

I'm putting in a shelter apart from my greenhouse. It will be ~20x30ft, 7.5ft tall, covered with bird/hail netting all year, and covered with frost blanket during spring freezes. I've already got about 48 trees planted; mostly peach, nectarine, apricot, and pluot.

Yikes, hope you folks can dodge that cold bullet.

Re (Hoyt) Montrose, I noticed last year Bob rated Hoyt's flavor very highly and Montrose not so good. So, the Hoyt seedling, which is much more common than the original, is probably the way to go.

While we are talking about Bob, he runs the NAFEX Apricot group which puts out a nice newsletter every year. You can also get to know other apricot enthusiasts. Several people posting here are members and I think its worth the $7 to sign up.

Scott

PS Olpea today the Zard is at about 60% bloom and the earliest peaches are at about 10% bloom. Montrose has too few blooms to make much of but they are all open now.

Everyone's trees are far ahead of mine.

Two of my apricots, Tomcot and Montrose (from Burnt Ridge- I'm not sure if it is a Hoyt) are in a warm micro-climate in the yard- up against a large, South-West facing rock wall. The Tomcot is just getting to "first white", while the Montrose is "red calyx".

Elsewhere in the yard, Harlayne is just getting to "red calyx".

I also have some potted apricots, which I keep on the North side of my house (delaying them a bit):
Hargrande- red calyx
Sparks Mamoth- almost to red calyx
Tomcot, Montrose, Goldcot- further behind, mostly at tip-swell

I'll be adding OrangeRed and Early Blush, which should arrive soon from ACN.

This year seems to be pretty late, which I suppose is a good thing. We've had some pretty nice weather for the last few days (around 70) and 50's and 60's predicted for the next 10 (lowest low of 32). I thought last year was late (which it was compared to the strange year before), but at this time last year, I had apples with tight-cluster. This year, most of my apples are at green tip, with a few at half-inch green.

Fruitnut,

I'm putting in a shelter apart from my greenhouse.

How are you going to deal with rain run-off when you have the frost blanket on? I'm trying to figure out a way to drain rain/snow. I have the trees from one end of my yard to the other so I having a dilemma on how to do this. There is no room to put slanted walls as in a high tunnel.

The frost blanket will only be up during an actual freeze, probably 2-6 nights most years. We are even drier than you in spring. It's just not something we have to deal with not during a spring freeze. We average ~3 inches snow a year. Rain will go right through the frost blanket.

I'm a little concerned about an unusual snow on the hail netting in winter. So I may take that down after harvest is finished, at least the flat piece on top.

The real weight issue is hail during the growing season. I think my setup will be strong enough to not collapse under the weight of hail. But that will be the big test.

How common is it to get frozen ppt followed by a freeze after the trees are in bloom in your area?

Fruitnut,

My goal originally was to extend the season here. I was hoping to have my yard covered for six weeks before and after first and last frost, giving me a much longer season. I have plans to plant veggies in between the rows of trees. I'm thinking mainly of tomatoes and peppers that really do better with a longer season.I am rethinking my goal and realizing that I wouldn't have to cover the whole orchard, just the most vulnerable part.

Last year, on June 1st I believe, we got several inches of heavy wet snow. It quickly melted and didn't damage even my figs that I had brought out.

I was able to get quite a lot of plastic that had been replaced at a local tomato growing greenhouse. Since I have it I'd like to get the best usage. Drainage is my biggest dilemma with the way I set up my BYO.

Could you put up a wire or support of some kind over each row and let the plastic sag down between rows. Then when it rains/snows if it doesn't drain out the end, poke holes at the low points for drainage.

You are only going to want poly up during a freeze, too hot otherwise. So could you fasten it on one side. Then have ropes attached on the loose corners so that it could quickly be pulled across when approaching critical temperature. Turn on the heater and remove as soon as the freeze passes. It can't be closed in with clear poly even on a cool sunny day without possible heat damage.

My shelter will be covered with frost blanket or tarp only during freezing nights. It will be uncovered during the day even though it doesn't heat up under frost blanket like clear poly. And water runs through frost blanket. I'll be using Agribon 50, 70, or another type even stronger.

Fruitnut,

I believe you are correct about the plastic. Also, I have worried about zoning here. It seems there is nothing else to do here in Denver for the zoning department except to hassle people who actually produce something more than Kentucky bluegrass. (Although with recent droughts they are being a little more lenient.)

I suppose if I only covered my trees when it frosted I would have the same effect of extending the season without having it constantly covered.

My trees seem to have come through the recent cold spell fine. I don't know how cold it got here but the news said it was down to 19. Weather.com says it got to 31. That's a huge difference. I covered the apricots and asian plums and they all look fine. Maybe it takes a few days to see the damage?