Might be a plan, Fruitnut. I'll check around. Maybe my local nursery can order a bundle if I can sell them on a variety. They may know some farmer's market growers who might like to trial a variety. Last year they got a "stray" in a bundle of Pluots and I bought it after it leafed out and it became obvious that it was bundled with a different variety. Still had the rootstock tag. Think it's Splash, but we'll see. To me, that's gambling. Now that we're all lusting after Flavor Treat thanks to Fruitnut, I noticed that Dave Wilson has a picture of Flavor Treat at their site, but it's not in their list of either commercial or home varieties. Strange. And Patty, now is the time when you start planting in the yards of friends and neighbors. I'm considering that with a couple of plums from which I want budwood. They should pollenize my trees from across the street, too. I bought a Flavor Grenade for one friend this year, and hope to get another friend a Flavor King. You have to assess how "into" gardening they are and pick easy or more challenging varieties depending on their expected level of care. And maybe drop by for dormant spraying and painting trunks every year. I think this is also a good idea with vegetable and melon seeds. Give a gardener you know seeds of premium varieties in return for a little produce, or buy seed for a local nursery to grow out, with an agreement that they'll call you when plants are ready.

I think the main reason peach seedling is used so often as a rootstock is because peach seed is available by the ton at canning factories. When I was a nurseryman I had to use nematode resistant peach stock for commercial growers. Ordinary seedlings would look great for the first couple of years, then decline very rapidly. Also nectarines grown on ordinary seedling would get bad speckling and cracking on the skin. I used plum rootstock whenever I could for apricots because they are resistant to a few diseases, more salt tolerant, more drought resistant and resist water logging better. There is a trick to getting real good results striking plum root stocks, that's one reason why some nurseries use peach. I found Okinawa (peach) rootstock was a bit dodgy for apricots.

Julie, When we first moved here in 1999, my neighbor told me he grew cherries and apricots in addition to plums and pears. I asked him why he would 'waste' his time and space on them since they usually bloom early, freeze, and don't produce a crop. He told me that the apricots and cherries produced a crop for him just about as often as the peaches and plums. After living here for a few years and going through the ups and downs of fruit production, I can tell you that every year we have a good peach and plum crop, he also has a good apricot and cherry crop. So, yes, I think I am going to go for it and plant both apricots and cherries to go with my peaches and plums. My neighbor is turning 87 years old this year and he just planted 4 new trees--2 peaches, 1 apricot, 1 cherry. He is assuming he will still be around to harvest fruit from those trees in a few years. (Good for him! I like his positive thinking.) As a concession to his advancing age, however, he did plant dwarfs so he won't have to climb ladders to pick the fruit! He doesn't search for any special variety--just buys whatever they have at the feed store or home center store. He doesn't give them any special treatment. G.M., After all the time I spent dreading doing the peeling, I had a brainstorm. Why couldn't I drop the apricots in boiling water for 30 to 60 seconds and then in ice water. That is what I do with tomatoes when I process them and the skin slides right off. Guess what? It worked with the apricots. So, I guess it took me about an hour or so. What a relief! I put the peel and apricot pits in my compost pile. Maybe an apricot will plant itself (although if it did, there is no guarantee it would ever fruit). Oops, sunshine is gone again and rain is back! Dawn

I think you meant nectarine. Same species as peach, just a fuzzless version. Where I live, they both do well, but apricots are much tougher... They are more drought and disease resistant, grow faster, get larger, and live way longer. They also don't really need any special pruning or thinning to give good fruit. All that being said, apricots suffer more in humid climates, and rarely fruit due to spring frosts in most climates. You likely had a did peach tree. Keep trying, and with plenty of sun, food soil, etc, it should grow rapidly. Hope that helps.