Late-blooming apricots?

[ameno]

Does anyone have any experience/suggestions for late-blooming apricot varieties?

I have an apricot tree in my garden at the moment (don't know what variety it is, I got it cheap about six or seven years ago) and the tree itself does well, and always has plenty of blossoms, but the crop is always in single digits. It starts blooming late February usually, and finishes by mid-March.
Some years the blossoms get frosted, most years they don't (my garden is quite sheltered) but there are no insects around to pollinate them yet. I've tried hand pollination, but never had any real luck with it (doesn't help that half of the blossoms are out of reach).
So that being the case, can anyone recommend a variety that blooms in late March or April? My plum trees always bloom at this time, and they always give a good crop without need for frost protection or hand pollination.

[TrixC]

Apricots are early blossoming fruits, that’s why they’ve never been widely grown in the UK whereas plums have. The apricot varieties with ‘cot’ in their names (tomcot, flavorcot etc) have been bred to be later flowering and therefore more suitable for our climate but that’s relative, my Tomcot flowered a couple of weeks ago. I don’t think you’ll find one that blooms in April.

[nickdub]

Any chance of putting some horticultural fleece over the tree at night when the flowers are out and for a few day following ? that would probably give the fruit a bit of a chance in most years

The only other option I can think of is to move it / prune it hard to put it in a place where it gets more protection like against a wall.

All top fruit flowers are v sensitive to frost and if the frost comes at the wrong time even -3 is enough to wipe out a whole plum crop say for that year

[ameno]

Any chance of putting some horticultural fleece over the tree at night when the flowers are out and for a few day following ? that would probably give the fruit a bit of a chance in most years

The only other option I can think of is to move it / prune it hard to put it in a place where it gets more protection like against a wall.

All top fruit flowers are v sensitive to frost and if the frost comes at the wrong time even -3 is enough to wipe out a whole plum crop say for that year

The tree is sadly far too large to protect with fleece. I tried once, and knocked off more flowers in trying than I would have protected.

Besides, frost isn't really the issue most years. Most years, the last proper frost in my garden is late February (last year was definitely a problem, but that was exceptional).
It's lack of pollinating insects which is the problem, and I just can't seem to get hand pollination to work. Half the blossoms are too high to reach, anyway, and when I go around the others with a soft paintbrush I just can't seem to pick up any pollen from them.

[veggiechicken]

Hi ameno and welcome to the forum.
Where do you live? There may be someone local to you with knowledge of apricots.
I bought a Moorpark apricot about 6 years ago and I'm still waiting for it to flower.

[ameno]

I live in south Somerset, in a town centre, so it's fairly mild.

An old friend of mine actually had an apricot tree in his garden (same town as me), and the one time I saw it (in May), it was covered in small green furry fruitlets, so clearly that one is successful. He doesn't know what variety it is, though.

To be honest, even a week or two earlier would probably make a difference. So if anyone grows multiple apricot varieties and can say which (if any) blooms later than the others, that would be very helpful.

[nickdub]

The tree is sadly far too large to protect with fleece. I tried once, and knocked off more flowers in trying than I would have protected.

Besides, frost isn't really the issue most years. Most years, the last proper frost in my garden is late February (last year was definitely a problem, but that was exceptional).
It's lack of pollinating insects which is the problem, and I just can't seem to get hand pollination to work. Half the blossoms are too high to reach, anyway, and when I go around the others with a soft paintbrush I just can't seem to pick up any pollen from them.

Given your circumstances I think your options are either to leave it be and enjoy it as plant and hope in the odd exceptional year you get an hour or two when the flowers are out which is warm enough for pollinating insects, or to get rid of it and plant something-else like an apple or a plum, which naturally flowers later .

[Mark_Riga]

I bought variety moorpark about 5 years ago and it is covered in blossom now, but I am in Cheshire, a couple of weeks north of you. may be. A bumble bee took a look at it a couple of days ago but flew off, probably looking for dandelions. A solitary honey bee and some flies were buzzing round it Yesterday so will have to see, though cold mornings are forecast here for the next few days.

[flynch]

When you're hand pollinating are you drying the pollen at all?

I've got a plout that flowers at the same time, the first year I tried hand pollinating with a paint brush without really researching it. None set. After watching some videos online, the next year I cut off some of the flowers and pulled off the pollen grains into pot. I left them to dry indoors until the pollen was falling off on the pot when I moved it. Had a good crop off that that year. You could really see the difference in the amount of availabile pollen between the dried and fresh grains. If you think about it in nature the pollen would be dried by the sun.

I've got some of the cot varieties of apricot but no fruit buds yet

[ameno]

I always tried to hand pollinate on a bright, sunny day, precisely because on damp days the pollen was too damp to transfer properly. Unfortunately, living in the south-west as I do, often there are few if any such days in the short period the tree is in bloom.
I never thought to try removing flowers to dry the pollen indoors. Seems a bit wasteful. I suppose alternatively I could carefully cut off just the anthers with a small pair of scissors and dry just those indoors. That way I'd have dry pollen and the flower would still be on the tree available for pollination.

[Nicos]

I know this is a French link but have a look at the varieties available....

https://www.pepinieres-escande.com/w...-ENOct2016.pdf

They have an April flowering one called Calima.

So there are late flowering ones around!

[ameno]

After much digging, I have found at least one variety that looks suitable: Kioto.

Apricot Kioto® for sale | Buy Prunus armeniaca from Lubera |

I can buy it from Lubera, and it will be sent to the UK (have to wait until this autumn for stock), and it is a late bloomer (late march/early april) and reliable cropper, crops from a young age, and even has somewhat lower vigour than many apricots, so should stay at a more manageable size.

Here are some accounts of people growing it in the UK, including one person who bought it from the above site, lives in the North (never would have thought you could grow apricots up there), and even got fruit from the tree in the first year they bought it.
Apricot update report - 4th June 2015 - The BLOG of www.gb-online.co.ukThe BLOG of www.gb-online.co.uk
https://www.mandycanudigit.com/fruit...86999511718750

[Nicos]

Looks really good!
It's in that list I posted -have to say that I rather like the look of it
Do keep us updated on its progress!