Wow Carla I'm sorry to hear that!! So you think bacterial canker? I talked to a roadside grower near Modesto recently who said he quit planting apricots long ago because they didn't live long enough to pay out. But I didn't get a reason.

Is it on the rootstock or higher up? What root are they on?

I lost some cherries here outside my greenhouse to bacterial canker. The dead ones were all Krymsk 5, none on Gisela 5, 6, or 12 or any other of several rootstocks.

Carla, I'm sorry to hear it. I've been frustrated by simpler apricot issues (I think I tend to drown them), and I'm still trying to get a lasting, reliable tree.

Yet all around me my neighbors have neglected, ancient trees fruiting over-prolifically year after year! I hope you get their results and not mine.

Good luck to you,

Mark

Ouch. I'm surprised canker is so bad for your cots, my climate should be a lot worse for canker but I have never even seen a single major canker on any of my dozens of cots. Like fruitnut I also suspect whatever rootstock they were on, trees that die like that are not getting fed.

Scott

"My peaches have had almost NO curl and are doing fantastic"

This may have to do with the our rainy season being so dry. My neighborhood is full of peach trees that usually have curl. None of them have it this year.

They are all on different rootstocks, so that's not the problem.
At first I suspected the dormant oil had "sealed in" the pathogen, because it was the first time I had ever tried applying that spray. But looking at the local garden stores, a LOT of their potted and bare-root apricots either have dying branches or are also dead. So I think somehow it is just a bad year for it. Or maybe the dormant oil is the culprit. I don't know. I just know I am watching my precious and rare apricot collection going going gone, now that the whole trees are collapsing and not just a couple of branches.

Not all of them, so far at least--I still have my Orangered and Robada trees, and my Nicole I bought last year is doing great. And my Katie/Tomcot/Royal Rosa combination trees have only lost a couple of branches so far.
I rarely hope for the heat to set in, because I like it in the 60's, but this year I am glad for my trees we are forecast for the 80's today!

Carla in Sac

PS Can anyone tell me how to post more than one photo here?

Carla, call your local Master Gardeners or your local CRFG chapter to see if anyone can offer up a suggestion to save your apricots. My gosh. How awful. And, to post multiple photos, I just upload the photos I want to post to Photobucket.com. Then, you'll want to copy the HTML code string (not any of the other options, JUST the HTML code) and then paste that code right into your message. When you then click on "Preview Message", you should see your photo appear right in your message. I feel so badly for you! Let's see what's causing this collapse. I've never seen that before here in California.

Patty S.

I planted one of those $29.95 "super sweet" apricot trees from Lowe's last spring, and it has failed to leaf out, but is now sprouting up from the roots. For some reason, the graft failed over the winter. This tree grew fine last season and is over 10' tall.

None of my other fruit trees, including 3 other apricot varieties, have had this problem. If this is a disease, I tend to blame the nursery that propagated the tree.

I'm 100 miles north of sacramento, and my blenhiem apricot died. It had blossoms and started to leaf out, then just died for what seems like no reason. My flavor delight aprium is also starting to wilt, it has only grown a couple inches. Usually by this time of year it would have well over a foot of new growth. My cot n candy and flavorella are still going strong.

I've lost trees on the North side of my yard after growth started in spring, also. They're in very sandy soil on various rootstocks. Last year and the year before.