[Market-farming] Pricing Ripe Apricots?

Glen Eco Farm glenecofarm at planetcomm.net
Mon May 12 00:27:32 EDT 2008


About 12 years ago I planted three apricot trees on a south facing slope 
where I felt there would be good cold air drainage and a decent chance of 
getting a crop once in a while in our zone 6 climate (borderline for peaches 
and apricots).  I got the first fruit set around 2000 and lost the whole 
crop when the fruits reached about marble size, I assume caused by some no 
see um pest (codling moths?) that got to them.  I got another fruit set in 
2004 and this time, determined to improve my odds a little of getting a 
crop, I relaxed my "do it organically" standards enough to allow going after 
the pests with a combination of chemical fruit tree spray and Surround 
during early stage fruit development.  As the fruit began to ripen in early 
June I resisted any furthur spraying.  Then we got  9 - 10 inches of rain in 
a five day period and we basically lost the crop again when brown rot moved 
in with a vengance.  We were able to salvage enough of the rot tainted fruit 
to allow my wife to make a big batch of fabulous apricot jam only to lose it 
in last year's house fire.

After three years in a row of blossom freezes and risking my neck climbing 
on my tractor front end loader raised to the max in order to prune back the 
20' tall top growth that easily grows another 5 - 6' per season, I was ready 
to give those trees the "chain saw at the base" treatment.  Being busy 
enough with other tasks to cause me to put off this "I hate to do it task" 
and the "Maybe global warming will improve my chances of sucess with 
apricots" argument kept me from doing it.  Well guess what.  We had a zone 8 
winter here and another good fruit set. so I am back to babying those trees 
again and intend to spray them up until the day before I start harvesting. 
I have done two chemical applications so far and plan to go with the non 
toxic Surround for the next couple of applications and, God willing, will 
finish with copper applications to hopefully avoid the brown rot wiping me 
out at the end.  If anyone out there knows of a better and safer low 
chemical strategy I'm listening.

I'm also interested in others' experiences with marketing apricots and what 
I should be able to charge for them.  Considering some of the production 
costs and risks I would need to price them pretty steep in order make a 
little on them.  I sure hope my wife can find a little time to make some 
more of that jam.  Anyone who has never tasted any of her raspberry and or 
apricot jam has simply not lived!

Marlin Burkholder
Virginia's Shenandoah Valley

Still waiting for the winter of 2007-2008 to begin.



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