Tom, that variety is considered one of the most difficult to grow in NJ. I have never tried it myself. Tomcot and Jerseycot are winners.

Scott

My limited experience with Tomcot was futile- not hardy enough for my z6 conditions. I expect Jerseycot will be and have had success with Hargrand, Harlayne, Goldcot, Alfred and a few others. I wouldn't even consider growing the CA bred Blenheim.

Hman,

Of those you mention, do you find any that are particularly late blooming. You may have seen in the latest Pomona, Bob Purvis indicated Alfred was one of the later bloomers. Can you confirm?

Hman, it sounds like you had the wrong variety, Tomcot is hardy to 4 or 4b according to all the sources I have seen.

The article below is a good summary of apricots good for different regions of the country.

Scott

Here is a link that might be useful: apricots link

Tom:

All things considered, I can't think of an apricot more appropriate for you than Tomcot. Your neighbors won't believe it. Tomcot has been a consistent producer for me of high-quality fruit in an area that can be difficult for apricots. This spring, I had a recorded 22F on March 21, and another mid 20's a couple of nights later when the apricots were nearly in full bloom. April has given me 4 nights in the very low 30's, but it's over now. Bloom period of this variety lasts more than 3 weeks, so even if some of the early blooms are zapped, there are still more to come. I am actually grateful for the March zapping, since otherwise I would have a tremendous thinning job to do on my two Tomcot trees. Last season, these two trees produced over 150 pounds of perfect cots, and it looks about the same this season. We filled the freezer with sauced cots, and I dried over 10 lbs. dry weight. Apricot pies are in a class by themselves.

In past years, I tried over a half-dozen California types, and never produced a decent apricot. Problems were poor fruit set, splitting, and brown rot. Tomcot ripens very early -- around June 21 here in Northern Virginia -- and avoids these problems. I have never had one split.

Harvestman may be right about Jerseycot, and I can't account for his bad experience with Tomcot, but I know where I would put my money. Agree with both Scott and Alan that Blenheim would be a non-starter in Jersey, just as it is here. Were those Blenheim trees sold locally? Bad nurserymen.

Plant apricots in full sun. That's where mine are.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Often we may reject a variety based on limited bad experience that doesn't truly represent the qualities of that variety. That's why I stressed my limitied experience with Tomcot. The trees were in a shallow soiled part of my nursery.

Harglow is another I forgot to mention and have recently been forgetting to order- maybe ACN doesn't carry it and I should go back to Hilltop who used to give me larger trees anyway (dissappointed with size from ACN this year!). Harglow does blossom a bit later than other varieties and Alfred seems to spread the bloom a bit. Difference between these so called late bloomers and others seems slight here- but there is a regional element to this. Up here we only get a week seperation from first and last blooming apples (thank goodness, really simplifies the spray schedule).

I've never had a year where later blooming between varieties of a given species has served to advantage the harvest although it obviously increases your odds a bit. Interestingly, sometimes your earlier flowering varieties fare better in late frost as happened one year for me with peaches. Blossums that had already been pollinated when frost came bore some fruit- later blossums did not. I guess that contradicts the first sentence in this paragraph but nevertheless amplifies my point.

I got a Harglow (3/4") from Schlabach's this year, and I'm trying Tomcot as well. Apricots were froze out here in 06, 07, and 09. A commercial peach grower nearby says Goldcot fruits about 30% of the time. I'd really like to find a later blooming apricot, but maybe that's wishful thinking. In the Purvis article, supposedly Alfred, Montrose, and Apache all bloom late. From Hman's experience, sounds like Alfred doesn't bloom significantly later. Anyone have experience with the others? Fruit quality?

My message also suggested that in other regions the difference in bloom times will likely be different than my region. It even varies here season to season as different varieties seem to respond to different stimulus in different ways (angle of sun, temps, cloudiness etc.).

Because I order 2 or 3 hundred trees a year (mines a very small nursery) Schembladts doesn't help me much as a source- no quantity discounts- but they also have Alfred.

Thanks for all the helpful comments here.

Yes, I bought the Bleinheim from a local nursery, and I did ask the owner if the variety was suitable for central Jersey. He said that he gets his seedling from a grower who is careful to match fruit varieties to planting locations. The nursery had the tree outside here potted for 18 months. We bought it after the break to warm weather occurred, and it had a couple dozen flowers on it, so I thought that was a good sign. It's a 5-foot seedling ($40.00). In any event, we planted it in a sunny place, northside of a garage, and after a week, it sported a half dozen small fruits. Does this mean we'll get mature fruit? If so, maybe it's just luck, or maybe global warming is working in its favor. It's true that, in my experience, winters in PA and NJ are becoming milder through the years.

Tom:

Your local nursery owner has told you an interesting story. Nearly all nursery fruit trees are grafted or budded with the scion stock. Seedlings may be used for rootstock, but very few nurseries would sell a seedling tree. His grower may try to match varieties to planting locations, but he missed it this time.

Normally I would suggest you remove any fruit from the tree the first growing season to allow the tree to direct its energy to growth. In this case, however, you might as well leave the half-dozen small fruits (if they don't fall off on their own), and you may have a demonstration of why Blenheim is not an apricot variety suitable for New Jersey.

Tree survival is quite a different issue from producing ripe fruit.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Tomcot took -26F here and still opened 9 flowers on a tree put in one year ago... Have a few more coming from Raintree.

OK, OK, I'm sold, I will certainly try to order a few Tomcots next year. Thanks, folks.

I'm sold too! I was thinking about apricots but not sure what type to get. I'm in NE Ohio. Do Tomcots need pollinators?

Some dude... Yes... I think... I've seen sources that have said they are somewhat self pollinating. The same is true for Seckel pears (mixed pollnation messages), and my tree has quite a few small, but growing larger, pears (its my only pear tree currently)... I'm pretty sure all my flowers dropped on my Tomcot (it wasn't from lack of bees/frost), although i haven't really looked at it closely....

I'll be adding a few more apricots, hopefully by grafting to existing trees. My little Tomcot trees (just little sticks) are growing nicely.

They (apricots)do bloom early! Once the frost got out of the ground and the temp went up, that little guy was ready to go. IF we had snow still (we basically had little or no snow the second half of winter) on the ground, i would have been piling it up around that apricot.

Apricots don't need a pollinator when grown where it's warm but I accidentally discovered that it's a different story where it's colder. They are much more consistant producers with a pollinator here in the northeast. When I started growing them here this was not well known- now it is.