Yes, it sure was a long and bitterly cold stretch of weather and I'm pretty sure there won't be any blooms on several types of plums such as the 'Greengage' ... too bad, I sure love that one, got it from you Konrad, it's delicious!

I would not go as far as saying you won’t get any flowers on the greengage. The green gage I have flowered and fruited last season and it was just as if not colder than this winter and much longer. Youre in zone 4 also I think there Is a good possibility your greengage will still flower. These are a fairly hardy European plum the ones I have in my yard are more prolific than mt royal is in our climate And that has been touted the hardiest of Euros

Well, I guess only time will tell for the 'Greengage', that brutal February weather had brought several nights in and around -40 C and that's a definite zone 3 rating, I might begrudgingly have to change my zone as listed here.

mt royal is still a very nice fruit and if you have space why not let it be?

Calgary didn’t dip below -30 a single day in February. We did have many -20 days and a few were minus 28-29 . It was prolonged cold at those temps and looking today lots of my less hardy apricots and peach Grafts are completely toasted.

Konrad do you plan on bringing any of the best capilano wood to the scion exchange ? I might try and make it this year I’d much rather just order through email and pay for express mail ? There is a couple others I am looking for also.

Working close to Riley park again. Went to see the apricot trees there and to my surprise it looked like the calgary parks team were removing all the trees on that end of the park? I did go look at the apricot trees as I notice two were not doing well years before and they maybe complety dead now every branch I could touch was crispy.

The really cool pink flowering one now has developed some serious cankers and I bet will be dead in the next five years. Two in the middle were still looking ok but never really ever made fruit anyways. These last two winters have been bad here last year we did have well into the minus 30s in Calgary and this winter was about 25 days of minus 20 or colder here without a break . These trees are also quite large and old so it maybe close to the end for them anyways. I wonder if Alcan would be able to give his estimate on the age of the Riley trees as he seen them long before I was around.

Does not sound right to ask this question...Is it still possible to harvest scion wood from a tree that has bacterial canker?

It’s a perfect question I truely do not know the exact answer . To be on the safe side and not risk anything at all than no.

But pruning it higher up on the tree from a healthy area would have little risk if it was just a canker caused by cold and as long as it was not a serious disease that you could see spreading up and around the tree.

You will experience cankers on your apricot trees in Calgary I can almost guarantee any of you this . North of airdrie has an advantage over us and that is they don’t get chinooks or as much winter sun as southern Alberta does.

Im not a tree expert but on first sight the cankers I seen on that tree were undoubtedly caused by our freeze thaw freeze thaw cycle we have. Some years it simply happens from to much cold. We had a very cold winters the last two That could have been from last year ?

honestly, I think you are fine if you are taking healthy 1 year old growth as far from the canker as possible (eg. whole other location). I would do a 10 second 10% bleach wash then 10 second clean water rinse prior to grafting. I would be grafting it to fresh rootstock though and planting away from my trees. I would NOT be grafting to one of my healthy trees. I would ONLY do this if the infected tree is something special that I can't get elsewhere.

Can read a bit more here:

https://pnwhandbooks.org/plantdisease/host-disease/cherry-prunus-spp-bacterial-canker

Thanks guys for the replies. I was thinking of grafting my bro-in law infected apricot to my western sandcherry bush.

I said the wrong words!

From what I saw on the Riley tree was winter injury not a bacterial canker or dieseses. it’s common with apricot trees in southern Alberta probably northern also but I can attribute it to our very sunny winter days and chinooks. I think the sun is overlooked a lot in southern Alberta and we blame mostly on chinooks freeze thaw but there are many days in winter it will be minus temps and my decks thermometer facing south says 10 degrees. calgary is the sunniest major city in North America although daylight hours are longer in Edmonton in summer months on average if you look it up Calgary and Medicene hat are at the top of the list.

I guess the only way to tell is to get sample of the infected tree and have it under microscope?

If you know what to look for I guess you could say a microscope is the only way to know.

I am in a marine influenced climate and the wet conditions favor bacterial disease of the kind illustrated in that link HFcanuk listed. We get apricots in flowers every year but the bacteria emerge from growing unstoppable infections all winter long in the wood then emerge into each flower as quickly as pollen does from the outside. When pollen and bacteria enter the ovary the bacteria always wins and the consequences are infertility. In the cases of the sweet cherry trees in the link, they are always fertile while still being under the same bacterial systemic pressure the way apricot trees are. Still a mystery why it renders only apricots to infertility.

Once you know what you are doing with the way to handle and avoid diseased scionwood the way I do is to gather in a timely way and treat the scionwood for overnight in a water bath of antibiotics used to treat aquarium water for fin fungal problems of fish. I learned that trick as actually handed down from somebody I met at Devon AB once. Here is some of that advice of the same stuff but a different horticulture purpose altogether.

http://forums.homeorchardsociety.org/wp-content/sp-resources/forum-image-uploads/rooney/2018/02/HOS-antibiotics.png

Use it at your own risk though. I mean you wouldn't be willing to cover fresh fruits of apricots would you?

PS. I don't think your threat from bacterial pseudomonas is your biggest first problem. The pss may be secondary after cell damage due to sunscalding, chinooks etc, which my birth city is Calgary, but per Matt's comment about me, sorry I can't claim the Rily trees ages.

Another reason I think pss is not a primary issue at Riley is because I am understanding that trees are still friitfull. Therefore any pss, if any, is localized to damaged areas. But if you would like to treat scions in such a way to improve any traces of pss in the scions I would certainly do so. Pss of any trace amounts will move through the scionwood and into the graft and flourish there in the same manner as apricot flowers and eat the lunch in the graft to the point the plant itself will wall off the graft in a form or measure of self protection. I personally think it may be such that way why apricot flowers drop out here in the wet west.

I am an avid aquarist and have been using metronidazole and kanamycin to treat winter damaged areas on my trees Just by cutting out the wound and applying this along with hydrogen peroxide treatment first. I would not buy the Walmart fish medication and as Alcan said “at your own risk” the big risk is not the medication being left on the fruits or plant. It’s actually creating immune super bugs. If you don’t follow through with proper dosing of antibiotics the bacteria could develop immunity.

I have an apricot tree that developed a wound last year . I started treatment by cleaning the entire area of the tree with bleach solution . Than sprayed copper all over and around the tree. And removed the the wounded area with a sharp razor . I than made a mix of kanaplex and metro both are sold at pet land in Alberta (ive used to treat my freshwater sting ray collection as you see my avatar is a white stingray) and applied to the localized area only. A few applications over a week once or twice per day for at least 5 days. The wounds healed but leaked sap all summer last year. This year looks a lot better I follow this up with a hydrogen peroxide 3% mixed with about 1/2 water and wash all around the tree iand the ground. I would not advise on spraying these antibiotics you can spray hydrogen peroxide though and don’t even need to mix with water if it’s the 3% stuff.

I should add though beware with peroxide also as it doesn’t discriminate.

Not all bacteria and fungus in your gardens is bad in fact most will be the good type and spraying peroxide or copper and using antibiotics could result in you wiping out the good stuff And opening up a window for the bad to take over.

Well the good news about pss gaining resistance is that with years of discontinued use it reverses and again being effected by the same effector antibiotics or copper. Equivalent to being short term memory. Well actually the study I looked at referred to pss verses copper.

Matt: For the purposes of clarity are we in agreement that antibiotics would be good as an intended use one time in an overnight liquid antibiotic scion bath? Here's why it's important to not have pss bacterias in the scion near the graft.

Studies done in Oregon and England since the 1960s have proven that pss can't in normal small numbers overcome plant cell walls. They can feed outside such as on minerals outside leaf surfaces. At which point a grafting cut or other damage performed to plant cells allow the opportunity for them to invade. And then in the case of the graft the numbers of pss multiply quickly enough to destroy the graft.

Which is also possible for pss to enter into scionwood even the moment of collecting it. So just then I was hoping to gain a consensus here to overnight treat scionwood prior to refrigeration storage. Refrigeration just a few degrees above freezing is very activating to pss. They favor low temps. It would be a disaster in my wet climate to gather lively pss cultures and store prunus scions above freezing without treating them. Sealing the cut ends right away would help but these still bother buds when buds are in a state of stress whilst containing unfrozen moisture particules for pss to migrate through and move.

I always say never store prunus scions above freezing, but if you must then use the aquarium water method.

Alcan what doess pss stand for ?

Have you ever ever used hydrogen peroxide sprayed on the trees ? Been reading about it’s effectiveness and trying to find information on how much to dilute it. I usually Spray my trees twice a year with copper but I’ve noticed it may keep the bees away in spring .I’m not certain but always wondered if they can smell the copper and are not attracted Because of it

Pseudomonassyringae pv. syringae?

PseudomonaS Syringae = PSS. When I received correspondence from a plant pathologist that specialized in testing these kinds of diseases he addressed them as PSS.

Same class of bacteria in your mouth that cause plaque and tooth decay. Plants actually try burning away or latching onto the high energy drink that pss love (ie. the fructose etc) when the plants sniff out pss. In effect plants are smarter than people that never remember to brush or that do not restrain to eating excessive amounts of sugar.

The human bodies mode of action is salivary dental flow, which can be google searched as "Dentinal fluid transport and caries" (DFT), which means the cleansing action, or the slow flow of mucus like material through the teeth. Without salivary flow we would all soon need root canals. Then if we never could afford a dentist the bacteria would eventually cause bone disease, then eventually work into the sugary sweet brain. That almost happens to people. If your immune system isn't primed to several light bacterial infections while your young the immune system isn't ready for the almost always fatal middle-life nerve infection.

The action of the plants take are at the cellular level. Cells sniff out and experience memory of things that are hazards. They lack antibodies, but under emergency they do individual cell self destruction such as burning the inter-cellular fuel and feed sources that the invaders need to reproduce new offspring, which when once the trees gone -re-sporulate a new cycle.

Matt said: "Have you ever ever used hydrogen peroxide sprayed on the trees ?"

No. But I know thymol should be effective in trees against pss which is contained in most mouthwash products. You have to dilute it with water to the point of having about 5-6% alcohol content in order to not interupt the plants growth cycle.

Wow looks like I started a hot topic :) Alcan, are you aware of "Hardy Fruit and Nut Trees of Alberta" group on Facebook? It will be good to have you in the group. Your knowledge will be much appreciated and there are some fruit experts quite active there too. I guess the requirement are 1. Facebook account and 2. The admin letting you join :)

Alcan do you think there is any relationship between what I’ve experimced or think I’ve experienced here using copper? I spray horticulture oil also while the tree is dormant to kill aphid eggs. Ive notice the bees might on my trees likely because they are the only ones blooming in the neighbourhood For the first couple days. Than they go away ? My big worry is they get copper powder on them and that’s why they never come back. Or perhaps the oil smell ?

Matt: It kind of makes sense that copper may do harm for bees however I don't spray copper so I don't know this. My ocean influenced climate and solution to combat pss on the tree is sheltering them from winter rains. The pss populations all around my non sheltered trees become very high whilst under shelter the pss don't have a chance. They have swimy spinning little tails that can't work in dry conditions. You by spraying copper for a pss cure in Alberta where it is rather dry you may be treating the symptoms. Your causes of tree stress needs to be identified. For example -what's stressing your tree(?). -Tree stress is one of the things that predisposes itself to pss and other things. In other words a microscope to detect the identity of pss is a waste of time if the Riley apricots have developed root problems due to voles, nematodes, delayed graft failure etc. Pss is inactive in the soil.

Norman: Thanks! I may do that sometime in another season. It's very busy now. I almost have prunus nigra in bloom to which my Owen T plum pollens need to be pollinated with to produce better northern plums.

Any sick apricot can still be rescued by the treated methods per pss antibiotics. The only difference is to either green-bud before summer when the ebb of pss is low, or collect dormant scions in November before the chinook weather systems start causing tree stress and do the overnight thing right away before the storing of scions.

Here too are the walmart fizz tabs which are the most economical option compared to Matt's.

These jungle aquarium medications were very cheap but the two I listed maybe $2-3 more. I buy bulk quantity unbranded from United States as I treat thousands of gallons of water so doesnt really matter.

So the one on the right side is an ich treatment ? It’s a freshwater parasite and the main chemical in it is a dye that is so powerful it turns the silicone green in your aquarium after one treatment. If you had a box of powder form you could literally turn a lake green. It’s similar to another more effective product for ich called methleyne blue I commonly use breeding my discus fish. You would not get any benefit using this on the trees in fact I did a bit of research as I wanted to use methylene blue on the wounded areas of one of my trees I’m trying to save and a study done in the early days they injected this into trees and found the die made it up into almost all the upper branches and killed the trees.

They other product on left sides main ingredent is nitrofurazone. I’m very aware of this it’s a cheaper fish medication and not nearly as effective as kanamycin in aquatic applications. It’s economical because the main ingredient nitrofurazone a 1/3 of the cost and is widely used in koi aquaculture. I could see this being effective for Fungus or bacterial infections in localized areas .

Alcan can I am not treating my trees as they are not sick merely a preventative measure. spraying copper was never intended on being a cure it’s a preventative only and works well in Alberta as it’s dry here and doesn’t wash off the trees the next day When it rains. I can still see some of the copper on my trees from last spring .

I did find a company years back that was selling these injectables for trees. It came with a syringe and contained metrodazidole which i used to treat parasites and bacterial infections in fish. From my nearly 30 years of keeping and breeding fish I’ve discovered kanamycin to be much more effective and faster. But also a lot more powerful and a bit more expensive. At $10-15 per pack at any petstore it’s not really much more expensive than the nitrofurazome from Walmart As it probably treats double the water volume. They also use these in human medications. If one does a google search you’ll likely find it in creams and pills ect.... and for veterinary use as well

Have a few blooms starting to pop out this year but looks like it may be a fruitless year once again in Calgary and not due to late frosts .

Anybody else having luck with apricots this year ? Next few weeks look favourable to take us into frost free part of May. If you have some blossoms unaffected by the prolonged cold we had this might be a year to get Lots of fruit

I have a few buds starting to pop on a small tree, for me it is a little early yet.

Konrad your correct .that tree also has been producing probably more than ever in the last few years as we did have that nice warm Few year trend which seems over now :( And it was in good condition no oozing wounds after all those decades I was impressed with its condition.

It to me appeared to have all the lower branches dead but the upper still had some living tissue in some smaller branches I was able to harvest.

Somebody should talk talk to one of the horticulture groups in Edmonton and possibly have that tree cleaned up pruned all dead branches off this summer and possibly feed it a good fruit tree fertilizer this spring . I’ve found that after a harsh winter when the trees come back and a bit of fertilizer they recover and next year are back on track.

My apricot trees here in Calgary did not suffer any die back and have a few blossoms not many Maybe a dozen on each tree.

Excited that a few new ones survived winter for me. Sugar pearls (white fleshed) survived Planted in the ground.

The other day I grabbed my bike and rode to the experimental farm. The Gabe-C apricot never got blanketed and very fortunately had only 1 to 3 inches tip damage and a very full bloom everywhere below 3 feet high.

I have Gabe A & B ..seems dead, also most of the Capilano..looks like one small graft is still alive. The Casino seems to be hardier.
Don’t think anybody will be heaving a bumper crop this year lol

I bought a Bakers Gold Apricot and it seems to be doing well after planting. New variety out of Jeffries nursery in Manitoba. I should have posted in the Far North forum and the rest of you would have seen it.

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/5728219/bakers-gold-apricot-nw-calgary

Has anybody gone to the capilano tree lately to see if it recovered

Konrad went to check it out three weeks ago and there was few green patches up very high up the tree.

My Bakers Gold has been growing crazy. Almost 2 feet of new growth on some limbs. Aside from fertilizing when I initially planted, I haven't given it anything. A lot of rain and some hot days has been good for starting trees. I've probably only watered it two or three times since May there has been so much rain.

Of course I'd still like to get my hands on a capilano to plant in the front yard. The Riley tree also sounds interesting.

Please join “Hardy Fruit and nut trees of Alberta“ on Facebook. some conversation about apricots and other fruit trees that might interest you.

All three of my capilano grafted to plum in my low spot died out completely, two trees grafted onto apricot stock on higher ground are alive, out of town at my orchard.

Tender seedlings of Capilano
get weeded out automatically in my low spot from winter kill...here some transplants...

The mice killed my Capilano but the one I grafted for my grandson did survive. I did have good luck with Konrad's Capilano seedlings though, 4 out of 4 survived.

It is early in their life yet, plenty of hard winters to come that can take them out.

My Gabe A came thru with flying colours, I had two blossoms that I tenderly protected until the cat knocked the tiny fruit off. I try to keep my distance and not get too attached. LOL

Wow..Even had fruit on Gabe!
What was your coldest? Think one of my Gabe was pushing from below.

I do realize now that my low spot nursery has some benefits lol ..You’ll get rock hardy trees.. don’t think they’ll ever get winter killed.

Last winter wasn't as bad as the one before, I believe the lowest temps without windchill were -40C. It is hard to remember because unlike when I was young, they now factor in the windchill and people talk about -45C when actually it is only -35C with one heck of a wind. So when one person remembers the winter as brutal because it was windy, I think it was fine as long as my fruit trees survived.

The Gabe A is now about 4 feet tall, kind of willowy and the branches that blossomed were under the snow line. Above the snow there was not much tip damage, maybe 2 inches. I will also add that where it is positioned is on the south side of a deck so we pile all the snow on top of it all winter.

What are the chances of some of the Capilano apricot seedlings having some decent fruit? Or is that almost impossible considering the seeds don't really come true to type.

Aw...under the snow, now that makes sense, ..don’t know of any trees giving fruits this year..even in Edmonton.
According to Gabe, about half of the Capilano seedlings should have decent fruits.
Many of my seedlings Voles destroyed also, to help pushing/growing back again in spring, I dug around the main stem a little, down to the first roots..most have grown back into a bush...was thinking maybe Voles done me a favour so the bush will be low and under the snow and flowering for me lol..the Russian/ Siberian method.

I’ve read online that apricot seeds do tend to grow true to form . Depending what pollinated them as it’s possible something else in that neighbourhood is doing it or one of the other trees.

I do have some exciting apricot Variety

Moorpark apricot is extremely hardy and survives Calgary. All my moorpark grafts survived and are thriving this year . Moorpark is supposedly one of the best apricots in the world and I do hope with a bit of love I can be growing them here In a few years. I don’t know enough about it’s flowering hardiness yet but from what I seen it’s just as hardy as my trees