Attached link from CRFG lists low chill apricots for your area.

Even the best apricots are bitter and astringent unless fully ripe, ie soft. Sometimes they fall off the tree before they are fully ripe. Holding a day or two at room temperature will soften and ripen the fruits.

Here is a link that might be useful: low chill apricots for San Diego area

This post was edited by fruitnut on Mon, Jun 2, 14 at 23:20

Thanks Fruitnut! I saw that page earlier today but I'd like to get first hand recommendation if possible. I have a beauty plum that I bought based on a similar CRFG document and it has provided 2 plums in 4 years despite being a pretty large and healthy tree.

brown....I have grown many varieties here in SoCal. Please, do not plant a Katy. Despite the hype...it is not a true low chiller (I had one for 12 years before giving it the axe). Royals (Blenheim) are marginal producers...depending on chill hours for that winter. I now am growing a "Goldkist". It is my final hope of getting a great producer. Most apricots just really need more chill. goodluck

Tropic Gold, probably either a seedling or sport of Blenheim, is reputed to fruit more reliably than Blenheim in Southern California.

I find the flavor to be outstanding, as good as Blenheim. As for the fruiting, to me it doesn't seem much different from Blenheim but my tree is only a few years old. I had a phenomenal crop in June 2017 of both Tropic Gold and Blenheim. Rancho Bernardo is 10 miles inland from coastal San Diego.

Royal Blenheim certainly can produce fruit on the border between 10a/10b, though not as prolifically as the other two low-chill cultivars. The delicious fruits you had were probably Blenheim.

I also want to point out it can make a lot of difference what spot the tree is planted in. Some place that gets a little partial shade, with less afternoon sun is going to do better, since bouts of warmer Winter temperatures can really detract from effective chill accumulation.

Saying that Tropic Gold is probably Blenheim is tempting but somehow it was patented. So it is claimed, and the patent office was persuaded, that there is a demonstrable difference.

I will see if it indeed fruits better than Blenheim over time. Here is the story from LE Cooke on its origin, which suggests either a seedling of Blenheim or perhaps more likely a sport.

http://www.lecooke.com/le-cooke-blog/Tropic-Gold-Apricot-History.html

It would by no means be unusual to have a sport of Blenheim with unique characteristics. I have two such trees growing in my yard right now (Autumn Royal and Steindorf Blenheim).

If you look at San Diego nurseries, Tropic Gold seems prolific. You often see fruit on the container trees. You tend not to see that for most varieties. I too wonder if it is simply Blenheim but I am testing it for myself. I actually am going to graft Blenheim onto my Tropic Gold tree and compare how that branch fruits.

I would be curious to know for those in So Cal with a mature Tropic Gold whether they get fruit every year?

Here in hot and dry Inland SoCal, Blenheim was our market apricot and does very well for fresh eating. I used to eat them till my belly was full to bursting 30 years ago. I would advise planting a Blenheim absolutely if you were a bit more inland but I'm not sure how your cooler weather would effect the fruit. I just planted my own Blenheim 3 years ago and got my first fruits this last Spring.

James: I agree about the grafting comparison one to another as things in so many cases are influenced greatly by the same rootstock. Look what happened when they vegetable grafted long and round peppers. Not only an immediate change of shape occurred but it was inherited! :)

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304423812002798

To me your Tropic Gold patent example and the pepper grafting also reminds me of something similar in a Rainier cherry that turned into a "Redlac sweet cherry", as per that patent being desribed as a hybrid. But one must question with our lack of understanding inheritance just where to draw the line of a new cultivar name.

We at HOS test orchard such as myself there, alias name=Rooney (home orchard society . org), can be also somewhat "goaled" to proving anything with apricot works here. One old apricot tree around that has been circulated with the longest repoir (name forgotten) is one that is recently tested at HOS of which is the last tried replacing a Wenatchee Moorpark. What ever the name of it is an old friend from Alaska I had when we lived there has made collecting apricot clones a business and hobby which of all things had this one in more eastern Washington as a "shy bearer" according to Bob Purvis. I think it unconventionable that there it is not producing whilst here it is at least better than all the rest and a mystery... of possible apomixis.

To further try and solve this I would be pleased to locate something out of your source from Tropic Gold only if by chance you know of any virus free praternal material. My speculation is that the resultant offspring would could inherit 100% (or apomictic) or more favorably a sexual blend from both sides, in order to find some combined good traits from each side praternal/maternal sides. Such as production and quality from the female and from the male's possible contribution to whatever is making a sure crop west of the mountains.

Sorry if this logic sounds hard to follow but to me this makes sense as there is a certain mystery remaining unsolved to this point with apricots where the early pollination and fruit set goes wrong during cool and wet early spring exposures. Elsewhere like further north on Edmonton Canada (far_north forum, apricot thread) little apricots can take 25 degrees to a greater below freezing even than we in our coastal positions.

I have had pollen from California mailed up by researchers to me several years ago from late blooming hunza apricots. Which turned out very viable for quite some time even going through the mail. Anyways, I had to ask??