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scottfsmith

Apricots 2014

Scott F Smith
9 years ago

I forgot to put this up earlier.

Tomcot - Unfortunately peach tree borer has infected this tree, I was not looking at my apricot trees closely enough. Hopefully it will come back but it produced only a couple (excellent) fruits this year. I might put in another tree of this guy, its worth it.

Nicole - This is a relatively new California cot. Good tasting cot, good acids and flavor. Lots of spotting on them however. They seem to be in the category of apricot that does not size up well if it gets a lot of spot on it, and it looks to be pretty susceptible to that. Need to keep a few more years but probably not a winner for my climate.

Robada - Very sweet fruits with an unusual flavor in the skin that I like a lot. There is a touch of astringency in the skin even at fully ripe, it adds to the flavor. Not a lot of aroma though. They are not sizing up well due to high susc. to spotting in spite of sprays to prevent. Overall seems similar to Nicole in terms of spotting/sizing but a more unusual flavor and sweetness level. Worth keeping a few more years to see if I can get them sizing up better.

NJ-21-107 - This was recently released by Rutgers/ACN. It is getting some brown rot shoot blight. Also getting rot on some fruits; its clearly more prone than the other new NJ varieties. Taste is very good, Tomcot-like with a touch of Orangered thrown in. Overall this is a new "winner" apricot for the mid-atlantic, the brown rot issue is relatively minor and other than that its a winner on all counts.

Orangered - Excellent taste as usual. Getting significant brown rot on a few fruits. Another winner.

Yakimene (white) - A very good large white apricot. All it needs to do is set more.

Zard (white) - This tree set a huge load for the first time. Maybe it finally grew up. Had curc problems on it but even after thinning those out had a big load. Fruits are very small but excellent tasting; meaty and richly flavored. Bird resistant with white coloring. Flesh is on the soft/mooshy side. Squirlz cleared out the last half of the crop.

Shalah (white) - these are ripening around Zard time but fruits are larger. Very sweet, excellent flavor. So far better than Zard. Squirlz got most of the small crop.

Lasgerdi Mashaad (white) - Light, delicate and sweet. A different dimension compared to Zard/Shalah but also excellent. Squirlz got rest of the small crop.

Moniqui (white) - bloomed like crazy but then dropped nearly all the flowers. It looks like peach tree borers weakened the tree like with Tomcot. Too bad, this has been my best white apricot overall since it has been setting reliably.

Afghanistan (white) - Only one fruit with squirlz swiping it. Yet another white cot that is not setting reliably for me.

Overall, in the winner group we have Tomcot, NJ107, Orangered, and Moniqui. Zard may join soon if it decides to keep setting. I sprayed Nicole and Robada thoroughly so I am a bit doubtful I will be able to do better on their spotting but will try. Both should be good in dry climates.

Scott

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