North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[dwoodard@becon.org]

--- In nafex@egroups.com, Claude Jolicoeur <cjoli@g...> wrote:
> Douglas,
> Thanks for the lengthy notes on hardy apricots.
> So, if I summarize a bit...
> Of the 3 apricots I planted, 2 were Manchurian seedling/selection 
and it is
> understandable that they didn't live. 

I don't know what winter thaws and spring weather are like around 
Quebec City, but they are certainly bad enough from the dormancy 
point of view at Montreal. I would surmise that where maple sugar and 
syrup can readily be produced, Prunus mandshurica is not well 
adapted, and P.armeniaca will often be irregular in cropping - but 
not quite everywhere. In the Niagara Peninsula north of the 
escarpment, apricots are considered a profitable crop to the east of 
St. Catharines, but more marginal to the west. 

Ken Taylor told me that the apricots he had found growing about 
Creemore, Ontario in several old homesteads had been there for the 
best part of the twentieth century (old trees) and perhaps all of it. 
They cropped well most years. The owners did not know what they were 
and thought they were a kind of plum. At least one tree was cut down, 
to Ken's knowledge, because of the fruit littering the yard...!


The other was Morden 604. It did live
> for a few years before its death. Possibly, it was just a bad tree 
or some
> bad luck made it dye, or a wrong rootstock. Maybe I should try 
again...
> 

It's hard to draw conclusions from one tree; there are so many 
variables. I would be very cautious about the rootstock question. 
Nurseries are often quite irresponsible about marginal customers and 
the home-grower market. I recall asking an employee of a garden 
centre at Ottawa why he was selling Bing sweet cherry trees: the 
response was "because people insist on buying them, and if we don't 
sell them, they will buy them elsewhere." If your tree came from a 
growing nursery specializing in the southern Ontario or US markets, 
it might have been budded on a seedling of a commerical apricot, 
which might not have been quite hardy enough. Nurseries also seem to 
have liked Manchurian seedlings in the past. Nurserymen are often not 
well briefed on the requirements of species for which there is not a 
large market, and the market of knowledgeable home growers ( who know 
at least something of what is best for them to grow in their location 
rather than what is sold in the supermarket) is quite miniscule, 
relatively speaking.  

It used to be possible to buy seedlings of Morden 604 in Ontario, and 
they might be the best rootstocks, although it would be desirable to 
grow up a batch and select the hardiest above the snow in your 
location. Some Ontario nurseries sell Harrow cultivars on Haggith 
apricot rootstock. Haggith is a chance seedling found growing on an 
old manure pile near Harrow and selected for use as a source of 
seedling rootstocks. 


> Do you think some of the hardier Ontario apricots could make it in 
zone 4?
> Like Harlayne which, according to my notes, is the hardiest of the 
Harrow
> series.

I don't think they would survive a 20-year test winter, but you might 
get ten years of intermittent cropping from a Harlayne with some 
luck. If you have the space and money, try it.

 Also, it appears the Vinelad selection V60031 is hardy at Bert
> Dunn's place, zone 4b, Ontario. Any others have experience with 
these?
> 
> You wrote...
> >I would suspect soil or drainage or exposure to winter sun or 
perhaps 
> >wind. Apricots insist on good drainage and they very much prefer 
> >sandy soil or sandy loam. If you have clay or clay loam you might 
> >want to consider a plum root perhaps with a compatible interstem.
> 
> My soil si mainly sandy with about a foot of organic topsoil, 
drainage is
> good, not much clay. And I don't think winter sun on the trunk can 
be an
> issue with 5 ft snow cover...

I don't think the trunk alone is necessarily the only crucial area, 
and southwest injury may have something to do with proximity to the 
snow surface (reflection of low-angle sun) not just proximity to the 
ground, as well as scale and mass.

I seem to remember from my reading years ago that coldhardiness of 
trees goes through a daily cycle with bark temperature as well as a 
seasonal cycle. It would seem to follow that bark which is heated by 
a low-angle late afternoon sun would have a minimum time to adapt to 
the low air temperature just before dawn. A tree which suffered 
minimum heating by the sun at any time during the winter would be the 
most resistant to cold.

I remember that my experience with winter killing of apricots was 
that the first sign was the small branches shriveling.

 Also, the site is well protected against cold
> North winds. 
> 
> My cherry trees are not vigorous, but they survive - I have a 15 
year old
> Montmorency and a Meteor. They are affected by this gumming 
sickness, but I
> don't know if it is the lack of vigour that render they susceptible 
to the
> sickness or vice-versa. I also planted an Evans last year - it is 
too soon
> to know how it will do. Wild P.virginiana and P.pensylvanica strive
> everywhere around the orchard. The plums (Mont-Royal, Damas Bleu, an
> unidentified yellow plum (Mirabelle or Reine-Claude type) and 
Brookgold -
> an hybrid) are vigorous and in good health, although only the Mont-
Royal is
> productive - but this is another problem (pollinisation).
> 
> Again, Douglas, thank you very much for your posts. As you 
suggested, I
> should write to Ken Taylor to see what he has and what he suggests. 
Do you
> know if he has e-mail?
> 

I would imagine that he does, but I also suspect that he is not eager 
to give out his e-mail address. There are too many people who would 
rather try to pick an expert's brain in conversation than read an 
elementary book. When you talk to him I advise you to make clear at 
once that you have not only done your homework in acquiring the 
readily accessible information but that you have some experience in 
growing and propagation. You will then find Ken to be most friendly 
and helpful, especially if you talk to him during the winter at a 
time when he is not busy with writing and mailing his catalogue.

Douglas Woodard


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