Low Chill Apricot Variety Availabilty

Apparo starts with ...
I've wanted to get myself an apricot tree or two for some time but being a Perthite I thought it best to look into low chill varieties; the Department of Agriculture lists the Perth coastal plain as having around 300 chill hours per year. Plantnet list Perth as 500 "hours", rather hopeful I think.

After tralling the net this is what I've found about chill hours for Australian apricot varieties:

Blenheim - 400 hours;
Fireball - 450 hours;
Builda - 500 hours;
Bently - 500 hours;
Daley's Low-Chill Seed Grown - unknown hours

I haven't been able to find anything about Divinity or Newcastle - does anyone know how many hours these need or what sort of fruit they produce?

But during my research I found some American varieties that seem to be truly low chill. These include:
Gold Kist - 300 hours
Flavor Delight - 300 hours (technically an aprium)
Cot-N-Candy - 300 hours (as above)
Katy - 350 hours

Does anyone know if any of these varieties are available in Australia or if they'll be released here soon? Any information about the quality of any of the Apricots mentioned would also be appreciated.

VF says...
Cot-n-candy is available in Australia, is distributed by Flemming's. I'm awaiting my first crop to ripen so can't say first hand anything about taste yet, but supposedly very good; it seems to be a reasonable self-pollinator so no need for a second tree.

Whatever you get, just check if it needs a pollinator. Fireball does, don't know about the others you listed.

Julie 1 says...
The old Newcastle early is the BEST tasting apricot! It makes fantastic jam.

It will fruit in Perth, but may be hard to find. The fruit is relatively small compared to other varieties, and people expect larger fruit these days.

I would rather have quality than quantity any day!

Markmelb says...
I put Cot n candy on my plumcot last year and from that twig have at least 15 fruit to try soon - lovely Apricot leaves - the fruit has a lovely red blush that is slightly furry - not smooth like a plum - that plumcot has taken 6 other plums and 3 prunes as well - cant wait to try shropshire damson - just love that name ;)

Don C says...
I bought a Newcastle Early from Yalca fruit trees this year. Daleys don't stock it (nor do most other places). I'm not sure that they can send to WA though, and they may not be sending stuff out again until next winter. From memory when in Booragoon, I bought the Newcastle from Dawsons on South Street.

Tommoz says...
Cot-n-candy is not just an aprium but a white aprium. I calculated the ancestry as 84% apricot, 16% plum. Patent lists Tri-gems, Modesto apricots and Splash pluot among others as parents. Claims uniform ripening but a reported problem on forums is the fruit drop. https://www.google.com/patents/USPP17827?dq=cot+n+candy&hl=en&sa=X&ei=1uNvVLyTGOLsmAWK2YCACg&ved=0CB8Q6AEwAA

The best low chill apricot is the Kingston Royal (allegedly), a selection of Royal/Blenheim from Kangaroo Island. I've just had no luck with grafting it so I can't report back. Peter on the forum has it though.

Tommoz says...
Is the plumcot Spring Satin? Dark Skin? That's the one I got, hopefully I'll have better luck.

Tommoz says...
Yeah Mariposa is a late bloomer. Maybe pollination was the issue. Early bloomers include Flavour Supreme and Flavour Rouge pluot and Spring Satin plumcot might overlap better.

VF says...
Have picked all the Cot-n-candy the last week. Fruit drop hasn't been an issue at all. Biggest problem has been ants- they love them, and start eating them as soon as they sweeten. Have also had fruit split with rain (not a problem with my peaches though). Flavor is good to really good depending on ripeness: have eaten several greenish ones which are reminiscent of plum in flavor, the few that have ripened to orange are very soft and taste like a decent apricot with a hint of something else. Looking forward to next year, but with ant barrier in place!

VF says...
BJ, to be honest, I don't know. It never got below 7c this past winter, and only got to 7c maybe 15-16 nights. But chill apparently starts acummulating below 13c, and many nights were 10-12c. As a rough calculation maybe 300-350hrs tops? As for C-n-C, the chill has been revised a few times since it's release, and now it's being promoted as less than 400hrs - this seems to be true. (But I do have lower day temps than Brissie, stops negating of chill so that works in my favour.)

BTW, all plants received from you so generously, are growing well. ☺

Waterfall says...
Hi Guys,

Can anyone tell me when Cot n Candy sets fruit and when they are ripe to pick?

I want to plant one on the south side of my house and this spot only gets sun from the start of spring to around mid March.

Cheers.

Waterfall says...
Thanks Mark, sounds perfect as they will be picked before the spot loses its sun.

Do you grow the spicezee nectraplum too? I'm wondering when they ripen as well.

Chris says...
The problem up here is fruit fly.
I pulled my CC out. They are not on dwarfing rootstock and I found if you keep pruning to keep it to a decent size to net, you ended up with very little fruit as it bears on older wood.

Waterfall says...
I bought myself a cot n candy yesterday, the tag says it grows to around 4m tall/wide but I believe this is in 20 years so I'd consider it semi-dwarf at least.

Planting it involved moving 2 established fruit trees but they were in less than ideal positions so it had to be done anyway.

Waterfall says...
but you can prune back some of the vegetative growth as long as you leave the fruiting spurs. Agreed its not as easy as those trees which fruit on 1 year old wood.

Waterfall says...
I guess I won't get any this summer but I will have a few spicezee nectra-plums to try which are meant to be very nice according to the reviews from the USA.