Prunus armeniaca Kioto Options Explained
St Julien A Bush Grows to 3.5m: Delivered as 120-200cm tall in a 12L pot and a bush shape for improved fruiting and disease resistance. 2-3 years old.
Prunus armeniaca Kioto
The growers describe this apricot as having a charming taste, so we assume they taste of Cary Grant, George Clooney or Tom Hanks? They also describe it as sweet so tastes like Julie Andrews or Audrey Hepburn? The Kioto apricot has thin skin so definitely a lot like Donald Trump.
The fruits are an intense yellow-orange colour and are medium to large, but only when compared to other apricots. Compared to footballs, they are small to very small and not good for taking penalties with.
The skin is an intense yellow to orange colour, which our marketing department combined into "lo-wang" (yellow orange) for your convenience. Sharing your sweet-tasting freestones with the neighbours can make you come together, and they can be a third to two-thirds red in colour, especially if they have seen a lot of sun.
Freestone variety which makes processing and eating a lot easier. If you find eating the apricot is hard work and the flesh difficult to bite off, then your dentures might have fallen out.
Kioto has a low to medium sensitivity to cracking so you do not need to be as vigilant and consistent with the watering to prevent cracking when compared to other apricots that are more sensitive.
Easy-to-grow variety with consistent heavy crops and self-fertile so no need for another apricot species planted nearby (though yields improve with a partner).
Prunus armeniaca Kioto Flowering and Harvest Times
Flowers later than many apricots so a good choice for frost-prone areas. Usually, a high-density show of white flowers with a pink tinge turning pure white as the season moves on. Harvest around mid to late July or slightly later further north. If you want to improve crop yields with another pollination partner, then directly compatible with Kioto are Compacta and Pink Marry. Indirectly compatible with Kioto are Bergeron, Robada, and Compacta.
Planting Prunus armeniaca Kioto
Needs full sun and well-drained soil. For best results, use a loamy soil which is a balanced mix of sand, silt, and clay that holds nutrients but drains well. A PH of 6.5 to 7.5 is ideal and more alkaline conditions will be tolerated if draining is good. Too rich in fertility may produce more leafy growth at the expense of flowers which can also happen if you feed it too much nitrogen.
These are ideally trained against a sunny, sheltered wall.
Low to medium cracking risk. Tendency to grow twin fruits.
Other Information about Prunus armeniaca 'Kioto'
Blossoms are wind-tolerant compared to more delicate early-flowering apricots.
Good performance in warm summers without sunscald on fruit.
Bred in France by INRA for cold tolerance and reliability.
Medium vigour so your garden won't be taken over.
Ripens evenly so harvest in one or two sessions.
Consistent harvest even in poor weather.
Good fruit storage characteristics — Shelf life: 4–5 days at room temperature, 7–10 days refrigerated.
Good for cooking, eating, and dehydrating.
Naturally well-structured.
Thinning is important after blossom to maintain fruit size and tree health.
Thinning improves size of final fruits, branch breakages, uneven yearly crop sizes and air circulation.
