Please report back on which ones are sweet! In Iran I think all apricots I've had are sweet and delicious kernels. Perhaps you can find some Iranian varieties. I think Scott has found some Iranian varieties like Shekar Pareh and Zard perhaps from Afghanistan??? I just spoke with my grandmother actually she says I am mistaken--we have bitter kernels in Iran as well but they are less common and cheap fruit. Shes says the bitter kernel ones generally have darker yellow skin, smaller fruit, and poorer overall fruit quality. I wonder if anyone has ever tried Tomcot kernels!!! I am nursing my small Tomcot tree back to health probably won't produce for a few years.

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.

Hi ncrepair, Would you please tell me what state you live in or the general location or zone where you live? What Costco did you purchase your Chinese Apricot from? Also, I would love to know about the site where you are growing your apricot tree? Is it on the north side of your yard? Is it in a higher ground area or down in a valley? We had a Mormon apricot on the far south end of our lot that died a few years after we planted it, from a gusty wind storm that snapped the trunk. We have a Moorpark apricot on the south end of our lot too, just north of where the Chinese Apricot was and it's still alive, but unfortunately we only get a crop about every 8 - 10 years. We are located about 40 miles south of SLC in Zone 5b: -15F to -10F or 3A if you're using the Western Garden Book's zoning (they have their own separate zoning tables). We have a place on the north side of our lot where we could plant a Mormon apricot, but don't want to do a repeat and not get any fruit! I'd love to know the secret to your success! Also, do you or anyone else here know if the Chinese (Mormon) Apricot can be kept smaller--10 to 12 feet tall? Our Moorpark has a huge trunk and is very tall, as it's about 22 years old. We love the apricots on it, but getting a late frosts usually prevents us from getting more than a couple each year. We tried Christmas lights one year, and it didn't work for us. Has anyone ever tried leaving a sprinkler on under it all night to circumvent a late frost? Does that work? Many thanks!

Casino is made by a company in grand forks bc. It's not nearly as hardy as capilano here for me. I've had issues with my casino perhaps I got a crappy tree or roots. The two trees in Calgary the Riley ones make nice fruit especially the one that flowers pink. If you guys don't want to drive down yourselfs I will send you some as much as you want in mail it's not far for me to drive but hours for you guys. Not very hard for me to do for fellow hobbiest. It grows just as hardy as capilano. I've never tasted capilano but the fruit looks a big better off your Edmonton tree in pics nicer orange apricot. Hopefully I get capilano fruits. Im not entirely sure what capilano trees I have grafted I'd love if somebody up in Edmonton would cut some for me and send me a bit of it this spring.