North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Bill Garthright <billg@inebraska.com>]

What got me started on fruit was that I originally wanted to grow some apricots in my yard. ... I'm in St. Paul, Mn which should be zone 4a.

I'm in zone 5, so my experience might not be useful. But my apricots grow great here. The problem is that they almost never produce fruit, because the blossoms freeze. They don't seem to have any problem with our winters, but here on the Great Plains, the spring weather is too variable. We almost always get warm weather followed by a cold snap. And whereas my plums and pluots can usually take that just fine during bloom, my apricots can't.

For the record, I've got a Goldcot and a "Super Hardy Chinese" (also called Mormon or Chinese Golden, I think) apricots. The Goldcot is a beautiful little tree, really lovely. Last year was the only year I had apricots from either one, and the Goldcots were very small. I suppose I didn't thin them enough. The Chinese apricots were much larger and also very abundant. But unless I can delay their blooming, I'm not expecting apricots again for awhile.

PS. Note that the squirrels really did a number on my apricots, despite the electric wire I've set up around them. As it turns out, they don't eat the fruit. They just destroy them to get to the seed. I've heard that some apricots have edible seed and some don't, but I don't know if that applies to squirrels or not. If it does, well, that would make a huge difference here.

Bill
Lincoln, NE (zone 5)

http://garthright.blogspot.com/

--
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