1st cotton candy aprium harvest

[boxturtle]

some branches I thinned some branches I didn't to see if it made a difference.  Size wise it didnt make a difference...all were a bit bigger then a golf ball.  I prefer my plums green over ripe ones and not a big fan of apricot.  To be honest the main reason I got it was To make the wife happy.   She loves blossoms and they have one of the prettiest of stone fruits.  At green stage it's a clean sour with hint of sweetness no bitter taste at all, so yummy with a bit of salt and crashed chilli.  I don't like the middle stage at all taste like a half rip plum with hint apricot not sour not sweet.  I liked it best when it's ripe where it's soft and fruit easily falls of with just  nudge.   Flavor taste like a plum but where it's soft you get this blast of sweetness with a slight apricot taste.   Taste even better if you refrigerate it.

[shaxs]

I bought one the year as I love apricots but my wife doesn't. She does like plums. I figured a good compromise. Unfortunately, my tree has issues. There's a big sap area coming out of one of the branches. When I asked the nursery about it they said it was just damaged it would be fine. But now it's all dying off above the sap. Should I just cut it below the sap?
My

[Oolie]

I bought one the year as I love apricots but my wife doesn't. She does like plums. I figured a good compromise. Unfortunately, my tree has issues. There's a big sap area coming out of one of the branches. When I asked the nursery about it they said it was just damaged it would be fine. But now it's all dying off above the sap. Should I just cut it below the sap?
My

Mine is doing the same thing.
I read online that they can get dieback if it rains shortly after pruning, so pruning was recommended to be done as soon as harvest is finished.

[shaxs]

I bought one the year as I love apricots but my wife doesn't. She does like plums. I figured a good compromise. Unfortunately, my tree has issues. There's a big sap area coming out of one of the branches. When I asked the nursery about it they said it was just damaged it would be fine. But now it's all dying off above the sap. Should I just cut it below the sap?
My

Mine is doing the same thing.
I read online that they can get dieback if it rains shortly after pruning, so pruning was recommended to be done as soon as harvest is finished.

I have no harvest this year. I'll post pictures when I get home of the damage.

[Oolie]

Mine was showing signs of recovery, but the squirrels beat me to it this year.

There were only two fruit, but the tree really isn't holding its own anymore.

Considering replacing it with a multigraft loquat+gold rush apple.

[spaugh]

Loquat and apple,  no!

These fruits are so much better. 

I planted the cotton candy in Jan of 2018 and its probably 10ft tall (after many rounds of pruning) and full of fruit.  The only stone fruit I ever had that sapped out and died was way over watered.  There was so much rain and cool weather this year, I have barely watered my stone fruit trees and they are all growing like crazy. 

[dmwong93]

I bought one the year as I love apricots but my wife doesn't. She does like plums. I figured a good compromise. Unfortunately, my tree has issues. There's a big sap area coming out of one of the branches. When I asked the nursery about it they said it was just damaged it would be fine. But now it's all dying off above the sap. Should I just cut it below the sap?
My

Mine is doing the same thing.
I read online that they can get dieback if it rains shortly after pruning, so pruning was recommended to be done as soon as harvest is finished.

Possibly from boring insects and the tree is sapping to push out/kill insect or is disease from gummosis.

[shaxs]

It's even worse than when I left. Completely dead above the sap.

[Oolie]

In side by side comparisons, I appreciate apricots much more than this aprium.
A friend had a seedling apricot growing side by side with a cot-n-candy, it was far better.

Though the CnC had some decent plum-like acid, and was juicy, it was severely lacking in body which the apricot had plenty of.

[boxturtle]

Mine was showing signs of recovery, but the squirrels beat me to it this year.

There were only two fruit, but the tree really isn't holding its own anymore.

Considering replacing it with a multigraft loquat+gold rush apple.

how much are you watering it?  Brad is right I probably only had to water my tree twice this whole year.  I did major pruning when the tree was dormant.  I gave it a light prune after harvest.  Try them super ripe since you like more of the apricot taste.  That saying maybe it's better for you to get a multi graft of plum and apricot my problem is I only like my plums green and apricot flavor has always been too overpowering for me.  So this works for me and my 2 year old daughter   Again they have beautiful blooms so the wife adores it.  Brad I'm glad you like yours too I have read that a lot of people don't like it and said it was all marketing.   That's one of the reason I wanted to share my experience.       

[spaugh]

I havent tried cotton candy yet but I will be soon.  Thry are almost ripe.  These are all supposed to be the lowest chill ones available.  Tropic gold bloomed the best but I can tell we dont get enough chill here really for these to do a really heavy bloom like peaches and nectarines do. 

I have 2 apricot trees and 2 apriums.

Cotton candy aprium - havent tried yet

Flavor delight aprium - small fruits, super sweet and rich.  Excellent

Tropic gold apricot - larger fruit, sweet, juicy, excellent.

Gold kist apricot - small fruit, rich, sweet, not super juicy.  Not as good as flavor delight or tropic gokd but still very nice.

[boxturtle]

I havent tried cotton candy yet but I will be soon.  Thry are almost ripe. 

I have 2 apricot trees and 2 apriums.

Cotton candy aprium - havent tried yet

Flavor delight aprium - small fruits, super sweet and rich.  Excellent

Tropic gold apricot - larger fruit, sweet, juicy, excellent.

Gold kist apricot - small fruit, rich, sweet, not super juicy.  Not as good as flavor delight or tropic gokd but still very nice.

oh ok let me know when you do I'm almost out probably have like 7 left on the tree.... try them at different stages

[spaugh]

I like to eat them when theres no green left and they fall off when you lightly tug.  The window of time to get them is 1 day here.  Otherwise they get over ripe and split and or fall off.  They go from sour to amazingly sweet in just a day or 2 here.

[sammmy]

Pushing sap in stone fruit wood often indicates - Borer infestation.

[Johnny Eat Fruit]

I have been eating my Cot-N-Candy Apriums for the past 4-5 days and while I find them good to me they are short of excellent. On a 1 - 10 scale probably a 6 or 7 if you catch them at the right time.

Shelf life is very short and you must pick and eat them promptly or quality is lower. Pick them too early like a hard peach they are not good. Pick them too late they get soft and mushy like an overripe cherry. Their texture is 75% apricot and 25% plum. Taste more similar to apricot with some definite plum influences. They are fairly sweet but lack the rich flavor of good homegrown apricots.  Top tier pluots like Favor Grenade are much better tasting in my opinion. 

Is the tree worth having?  For me probably not as I have limited space and I have already a few branches grafted it onto my Tropic Gold Apricot tree so I will likely remove the CNC Aprium after if finishes fruiting. I will still have some fruit in later years from the (3) Cot-N-Candy grafts I did. Another good but overhyped new fruit cultivar by the folks at Dave Wilson Nursery.

Here are a few photos.

Johnny

[Oolie]

I have been eating my Cot-N-Candy Apriums for the past 4-5 days and while I find them good to me they are short of excellent. On a 1 - 10 scale probably a 6 or 7 if you catch them at the right time.

Shelf life is very short and you must pick and eat them promptly or quality is lower. Pick them too early like a hard peach they are not good. Pick them too late they get soft and mushy like an overripe cherry. Their texture is 75% apricot and 25% plum. Taste more similar to apricot with some definite plum influences. They are fairly sweet but lack the rich flavor of good homegrown apricots.  Top tier pluots like Favor Grenade are much better tasting in my opinion. 

Is the tree worth having?  For me probably not as I have limited space and I have already a few branches grafted it onto my Tropic Gold Apricot tree so I will likely remove the CNC Aprium after if finishes fruiting. I will still have some fruit in later years from the (3) Cot-N-Candy grafts I did. Another good but overhyped new fruit cultivar by the folks at Dave Wilson Nursery.

Here are a few photos.

Johnny

Thank you for the confirmation. It's not just the locations I have sampled it at, but yours as well.

On the topic of Dave Wilson fruit which actually live up to the hype, I have been looking at a number of varieties to add to the grove, I just need some second opinions. Either way, I'm tearing up the CnC this year.

Ones I have been looking at are:
Geo Pride, Flavor Grenade, Emerald Drop, and Arctic Star which I hear is liked by Rob, so that will almost certainly be added.

I obtained a Flavor King from the opportunity table at one of our club meetings, I would like to verify it's worth keeping around as well. It failed to flower this year, hopefully due to size, not chilling requirements.

Tropic Gold seems good enough to keep, but after trying the seedling at my friend's house, I might just graft half the tree over to that one even though they ripen at similar times.

[sc4001992]

Boxturtle, your CnC fruits look real nice.

I have the following pluots/apriums: flavor grenade, emerald green, splash & flavor delight because after tasting these with the others mentioned here (except for flavor king, never tasted), these are my favorites. You can go to the Fullerton Arboretum when the fruits are ripe they have most of the named varieties growing. For my tastes I like the crunchy flesh which is sweet so flavor grenade is the one I love to eat. 

[spaugh]

I tried some cotton candies and they are sugar bombs.  I can see what you mean about not as much body as apricots.  The flesh is more yellow than orange.  They have less acid too.  Its extremely sweet.  I took a brix reading on a couple of them and thry are 23-25 brix.  Took some brix readings on the tropic gold and they were 25 also.

[spaugh]

Ive got all the pluots and nectarines too if you want to sample it Oolie.  Artic stars were good but they are done early.  Snow queen, tropic snow, mid pride, evas pride, spicy zee and the pluots and apriums are ripe now.  And it looks like august pride will be way late along with double delight.

[beicadad]

Hi Brad, how would you rate flavor delight vs cotton candy, snow queen vs arctic star?

[spaugh]

Flavor delight tastes like an apricot.  Cotton candy is the only one that is more of a mix.  They are both really nice fruits but a regular old apricot is just as good. 

Snow queen and artic star are both super prolific and come on at different times here.  Taste is pretty much the same, sweet!  The snow queen fruits all look perfect.  My arctic star and spicy z both had skin damage on some of the fruit.  I assume from thrips but not sure.  These trees are all winners really.  Snow queen is definitely top tier.

[beicadad]

Thanks Brad. Good to know that they are all good. Some of the scions i grafted are budding out.