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Silver Creek Nursery Ltd.

Chinese Apricot

Chinese Apricot

History: Chinese apricots (aka Mormon apricots or Chinese Mormon apricots) are a variety whose origins are more or less entirely unknown. Based on the name, some speculate that they may have come from China originally (apricots are native to China to begin with) and then been planted in the US by Mormon colonizers. Their cold hardiness and late bloom time has allowed them to thrive in cooler areas and higher elevations than many other apricots can handle.

Why We Grow It: These apricots are a delightful addition to our chilly Canadian orchards since they bloom late to avoid the spring frosts. Despite the late bloom time, they ripen very early, and produce plenty of fruit to boot! They produce medium-sized fruits that are sweet and tender, plus they are freestone which makes them good for other uses such as canning, baking, and drying. 

    Fruit Specs

    Recommended Use: Fresh eating, canning, drying

    Fruit Size: Medium

    Storage: Keeps 2-3 weeks in the fridge

    Harvest: Late July

    Growing Specs

    Canadian Hardiness Zone: 4

    Soil Preference: Fertile sandy loam, loam, lighter clay loam - nothing very heavy. Prefers average to moist conditions with well-drained soils, avoid planting anywhere that floods for more than two weeks in the spring.

    Flowering Time: Late

    Bloom Colour: White

    Pollination Requirements: Self-pollinating, this variety will produce fruit without an apricot tree of a different variety but will produce more and better fruit if one is present

    Sun/Shade Requirements:

    Full sun (approx. 8-10 hours of sun daily)

    General Growth Habits:

    Hardy, may naturally stay at a more compact size according to some sources, produces heavy crops. Late bloomer, food for areas with late spring frosts

    Shipping vs. Pick Up

    CLICK HERE to see how shipping compares to pick up.

    Shipping: Every year we ship thousands of trees across Canada (except BC due to CFIA regulations). We carefully bag roots in damp sawdust, then box them and send them out via courrier. CLICK HERE to see our shipping policy.

    Pick-up: We also have thousands of trees picked up from our nursery each year. The pick-up options is free, though you must wait until you have been emailed a confirmation that your order is ready to pick up, which will have further information such as hours, locations, etc. We really appreciate if you can make an appointment to pick up, then we can be as organized as possible during our busy season.

    Size at Purchase

    Our grafted fruit trees are graded into three categories, and the size includes the rootstock:

    • 50-80cm whip: may have some minor branching, this grade is like a "b-grade" size tree in industry standards; we include in this price category trees that are over 1m but have some scarring or mild crookedness.
    • 1m+ whip: may have some minor branching, aka feathering. This is like a typical one-year whip in industry standards. 
    • 1m+ branched: these trees must be over a meter and have 3 or more branches 30cm or longer, as well as a central leader. They are essentially a two-year tree in industry standards. 
    • For stone fruits only - 1m+ whip/branched: We have combined these grades based on the way these trees grow and are grafted. Plums, apricots, cherries, and peaches naturally tend to grow more vigorously compared to apples and are more likely to form larger trees with more branches. However, we only chip bud them so they are a one-year old tree by industry standards. Apples and pears are partially bench grafted, and using the knip-boom method the grading becomes more complicated, hence the reason they are split into different grades.
    grafted tree grades at silver creek nursery
    Please keep in mind, bareroot trees appear small if you are unfamiliar with them. Size can vary year to year due to weather conditions and every single variety has a unique amount of vigor (some varieties naturally are smaller and some bigger, much like humans -and when you propagate hundreds of varieties, there certainly is variation). While we remain competitive in our plant size, it's also worth noting we don't use synthetic chemicals to push vegetative growth, therefore you may find conventional nursery stock larger in some instances comparatively. 
    Why plant small? It's best to transplant a tree when it's young so it can establish its roots before it has a lot of vegetative growth. This is much less stressful on it and bareroot trees tend to catch up and even surpass larger potted trees planted at the same time, after a few years.

    Orders that are cancelled last minute due to size (being "to small"), will still incur the applicable cancellation fees if the trees are true to our grading standards as per the agreement of sale when the order was placed.

    Rootstock
    Size
    Regular price $65.00 CAD
    Regular price Sale price $65.00 CAD
    Sale Sold out
    Shipping calculated at checkout.
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