North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Douglas Woodard <dwoodard@becon.org>]

When I lived on Amherst Island near Kingston at the northern edge of 
Agriculture Canada zone 6a during the test winter of 1980-81, a 
neightbour had Harcot and Goldcot on Myrobalan. His conclusion was that
Harcot was marginally hardy there, and Goldcot was hardy but not by 
much. From other reports I would expect Harlayne to be a little hardier 
than Goldcot. Note that Harcot is said to be not fully compatible with 
Myrobalan, and my later experience bore this out.

In 1980-81 I had the impression that what apricots found hardest to take 
was not the minus 30 C. and more in late December/early January, but 
minus 20 C. in March after a very long warm thaw in February.

I believe that Ken Taylor's "Precious" from Creemore is probably pure 
Prunus armeniaca, probably of Russian ancestry. I noted that the Ontario 
Fruit Grower's Association around 1900 used seedlings of Russian apricot 
as subscription premiums, and I have a notion that the old trees at 
Creemore may have come from this material, or be their seedlings.

Mr. Purvis of the NAFEX apricot testing group reported that Precious was 
of lower quality than popular apricots with him, especially being 
softer, but was unusually reliable in cropping. I think that Precious 
and its siblings and seedlings are worth testing in zones 5 and 4. 
Possibly some of the Russian apricots that Summerland has tested would 
also be worth trial and using for breeding in these zones. I will try to 
locate my booklet and relay their summary.

It is especially beneficial for apricots to have protection from 
low-angle sun from the southwest in late winter.

Doug Woodard
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada



rmelrose@danvilleVT.net wrote:
> Doug wrote about Moorpark apricot:
>
> Following Claude below I would like to be a little more positive about 
> apricots in the cold northeast.
> After killing many, many apricot trees in Zone 3b/4a Vermont  -- including 
> one Moorpark -- I have finally had
> a little success with a Westcot. I tried a(nother) different spot, this one 
> is on an East-facing slope, quite
> open but protected all along the North by pines, which are only about 30 feet away. It has been there, 
> growing slowly, for 6 years now and flowered lightly for the second time this Spring. This is so encouraging
> that I planted 3 more apricots this year -- Harogem, Harglow and Goldcot. We 
> have deep snow cover until
> early April at least which helps, but have brown rot, black knot and other 
> scourges.
>
> So there is some hope!
>
> Richard
>
> > Perhaps Claude Jolicoeur could comment.
>
> Unfortunately, not much. All apricot trials I did ended rather rapidly. 
>
> It seems that the "Prairie hardy" apricots that live well in much colder
> places like Edmonton don't appreciate the climate in the North East. Doug
> calls that "Dormancy problems"... These apricots usually are from the
> species P.mandshurica or are hybrids that include this species. Examples
> are Morden 604, Scout, Westcot, usually hardy to zone 3, but as far as I
> know always a failure in the North East. If there is anyone out there in
> Quebec, Ontario, Maritime provinces or New England who is having success
> with any of these please let us know!
>
> The other apricots (including Moorpark) - these that produce high quality
> fruit and are used commercially, are from the species P.armeniaca, which is
> not hardy here. I doubt that any of these apricots would survive in a
> location where sweet cherries and peaches are not fully hardy.
>
> There might be hope however with the Harrow series. These are apricots
> released during the 1980's by the Harrow station in Ontario. Their name
> usually starts by the letters HAR. Some of them do include some
> P.mandshurica in their genealogy and hopefully this would make them hardier
> without causing dormancy problems. The 2 selections that have been said to
> be the hardiest are Harogem and Harlayne, with Hargrand and Harglow
> following closely. I would try one of those. I know someone was growing
> Harogem near Quebec, but this was quite a few years ago and I haven't had
> news recently.
>
> Claude