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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Moorpark Apricot

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  • From: Douglas Woodard <dwoodard@becon.org>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Moorpark Apricot
  • Date: Tue, 12 May 2009 15:38:31 -0400


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




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