Yes, thanks, it certainly makes sense to see what happens in 2020. If all the externals come together for this one we still have to know we are not in California.

Zaiger and Company produce a "black kat" from Cal that hit the shelves up here about a month ago. Maybe the pits on them could make a good apricot rootstock because the hybrid patent looks interesting. They are the big black plums (you have to look the true fine print name on the box) and they are solid firm for shipping but very delicious. Still prefer delicacies as such straight (softer) from the tree though.

The last apricot in my yard I had died also. It was a late blooming species selection from a more northly source around China called Hunza apricots. It was even more prone to disease than regular apricots. I saved a small scion and had that grafted to a couple other plums successfully and I get my pollen from them every year. They live on because they are covered up during rainy season, and I do this religiously.

**This is the research page; Iron chelate efficacy and freeze prevention idea

There will always be the hunt for better apricot  cultivars that make a difference if any can be found. I have also noted a few 'puget gold' mostly failing in the Seattle suburbs while living there before for a while. I think to get all you can from apricot in PNW other than the shelter idea from rain, is that you must find adequate summer soil moisture conditions, which PNW arid conditions add so much stress on the limited genetics apricots are adapted for.

One example is a (mostly failing) puget gold downhill from my heights location in Vancouver that is growing near the river upstream from the so far producing one in my opening topic. The upstream pugetgold is completely different soils consisting of rocky deposits from the historic george deposition of rocky deposits. Then nearer the PDX airport (downstream) the soils consist of differing texture.

**miner end note to the meaning in the referenced reading article "INA". INAs meaning is as it refers to "ice promoting proprties".

Last Sunday while I was at the scion exchange in California Monteray Bay district I found from the locals that apricots are short lived trees there. When of bearing age they produce very well for several short years then start to decline and die. This is new news to me of apricots that they also bloom around Monteray bay in March, later than our.local valley conditions here. Which gave me a new opinion of maybe why apricots were crossed with plums for so many breeds of plum-cots, because plums can stand the mild California winters there and don't need the same dormancy requirements as apricots do here

On July 13th per my 1st post concerning a healthy local apricot tree. It had dawned on me this is the 'moorpark' seedling selection I had planted 15 years ago when the Columbia river trail was very new. I had just forgot this until a month ago. For years I had given up finding where I planted that, but she came back to me. The mother moorpark was at an old lady's home just before it also was temoved due to the conversion phase into a lawyers office. The lady proved to me it is true that some cultivars are more adapted locally than others.

The same apricot seedling still running ever much more productive compared to even last year. This year I had to rely on a picture from earlier in it's season. Reason being that when visiting the tree today it had already been picked over and being "caught on" by public. 

One nice thing about apricots is the self fertility and even though there were no bees seen at blossom there had been several hours of wind that arrived to do the job. Rarely seen in flowers are the pistil and anthers at the same length and almost touching each other.

Picture from today of this local apricot tree and tracing from the original moorpark.

<-- click image to enlarge

I still can't remember if I planted the one there, or if I had all 3 there when 2 got lost and planted elsewhere but forgot where. Nothing wrong with it yet so the test of endurance continues.

@Crankyankee:

The expert we know as Bob saw your post. He registered here as "robertpurvis" then decided to email instead and he opted to partially address to you as follows;

>> I registered for the forum, but I could not figure out how to respond to the question about apricots for USDA Zone 6a in eastern Connecticut.  The best apricots to try and grow in CT would be those from the Rutgers University breeding program, the Harrow breeding program, or others that have proven themselves back East such as Tomcot, Florilege, Puget Gold, and Alfred.  The requirements as I see it for that person's location would be high tolerance for disease and a later or extended bloom period.  You can post this for me, just give me credit.  Maybe sometime you can help me get through the process of being allowed to participate in the forum.  Connecticut, in my opinion, would be slightly less difficult than Portland or Seattle, for growing apricots.

// end of paste.

I think something must happen when people first sign up and can't post. I think where people stumble is not knowing that a mathematical quiz is a necessary thing before the post is ever lodged. There are 8 more new entries of people along the bottom none of which have posted yet either. 

Your question on Rootstocks: Well I don't think anybody has really done anything wide scale in that area for apricots. I would say it's a big risk to try anything other than peach or apricot rootstocks. The last thing to try is nanking plum because tests in Oregon around the 1960s show that nanking rootstocks made prune trees pretty susceptible to our disease pressure thanks to our rains. Peach under prunes were tested fine.

With the help of lining up a string of text from the original hard copies sent me on Dec. 2006, here is the link previously omitted that confirms my explanation:

effect about rootstock

The discovery of the post mark on the envelope helped me determine that this apricot planting in heavier soils occurred after 2006.

RE: >> that could be the kind of project I would be able to do with a Frost Peach

I've gone that far too John. I've had Frost peach die of leaf curl planted in my front yard without cover because of having purchased it in the latter 1990s on a 'St julien A' rootstock. Then years later my next Frost was on 'Citation'. It lasted much longer until the time it got too leggy (blind wood), but had good crops by then. 

I wanted to hit home on the point to avoid previously made mistakes of having too much faith in dwarfing rootstocks for stone fruits. (rootstock choices are very complex)

My "citation peach" having had crops isn't good data since it's only one tree and it had been sheltered 3-4 months under cover in each of every dormant cycle. -You have to remember that I'm in Vancouver Heights with fast soil percolation (ie sandy based soils). 

Other than all the finer details of roots etc; -this seems to be our season of leaf curl on many plums around.

>> no idea what happened.

Sorry to see that. With age a tree either gains health or loses it. When losing it could be a cause of predation from soil borne diseases such as nematodes. Else-wise may what link I posted May 8 on the harm of using dwarfing rootstocks apply here? 

About 25 years ago I can remember the offering of 'pugetgold' apricot as ungrafted by Raintree nursery. They put them out for a dollar each and not for profit and as long as you were reputable they would giveaway more than just one. Feedback was expected and don't know if any ever came. 

I think I talked to Sam about this once and learning that apricots are hard to root so it seemed to fall into place for me that this was really a push from meetings Sam had with then nearly retired Dr. Anderson or others. And elsewhere there are reports that apricot roots tolerate specific nematodes better than all other rootstocks so to me it makes sense that apricots could perform better on apricots over any other rootstocks.