North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[JoanRRosenberg@aol.com]

St Julian is a decent rootstock.  So is myrobalan. My drainage is poor and I 
have a high water table.  I don't think that is what killed the Citation.  I 
have lost one tree on Citation, the others are all doing quite well.  Most of 
them are apricots or pluots.  Citation has hardiness problems in zone 5 and 
north.  It is also susceptible to root-eating insects if you have them.  Buy 
your trees bare root.  When they come in containers, dump the soil, put the 
roots in water to clean/examine them for bugs.  As a novice it never occurred 
to me that a potted tree from a nursury could be carrying termites or 
carpenter ants or other root eating insects.  But I found out the hard way 
that they can.  Also voles and tree shrews can really feast ( and you won't 
see those creatures unless you have a cat that hunts them, and mine do).  
Also sometimes you get a bad graft.  I have learned that some nurseries have 
good trees and others sell stock that dies within 3 years no matter what you 
do.  Also some places send stock not true to name.  You have to be careful 
whom you order from and research what you select. As for black apricots, I 
have a TlorTsiran that may fruit this year.  It bloomed last year, but did 
not fruit.  They need lots of chill hours.  If you are in a warm zone, maybe 
you should consider them an experiment.