North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Alan Haigh <alandhaigh@gmail.com>]

Apricots are known for dying mysteriously  in much of this country.  They
are weak trees in the northeast- that's for sure, and I've seen many die on
several sites.  On my site they tend to linger and give me few fruit without
ever really thriving- I have to assume it's weather related.  But even
healthy trees right on the edge of the Hudson River with all the weather
moderation provided not so far from its mouth have died on me after mild
winters.  I assume it was spring cambium injury.

Purvis suggested the Rutgers releases would be an improvement due to their
parentage, but on my site Early Blush has come in weak this season after
looking good for 3 seasons and giving me some fruit last one.   It's not
about to die and if I prune it back hard it may get its vigor back but I
should probably just give up on apricots at my site and filch them from my
customers better located.  That said, I planted 5 trees on a dffierent part
of my property this spring hoping I'll finally find the right spot.

Alfred is my only truly vigorous apricot but 7 days of continuous rain and I
noticed a lot of the green fruit were beginning to rot the other day.  I'll
probably salvage a few with a rescue spray of Indar but Alfred tends to get
real spotty fruit and growing it against my south wall makes the air
circulation very poor.