Low-Chill Apricot Varieties: the Chill-Hour Table
Apricots are the earliest-blooming common fruit tree, which makes chill hours a double-edged number: a low-chill apricot in a cold climate wakes in February and loses its crop to frost, while a high-chill one in a mild climate never wakes properly at all. Matching the variety's chill requirement to your winter is more important for apricots than for any other stone fruit.
These 5 varieties fruit on 300–500 hours — the range that works from coastal and Southern California through the milder Southeast. Gold Kist and Katy are the proven backyard standards of the group; Blenheim is the old California canning legend that still sets the flavor bar. All are self-fertile, so a single tree crops alone. Sorted by chill requirement, lowest first — and remember the frost caveat: in a borderline-cold spot, pick the HIGHER-chill end of this table, not the lower.
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| Variety | Chill hrs | Zones | Ripens | Notes | Where to buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gold Kist | 300 | 7-9 | Late May to June | sweet-tart, good fresh and for canning — A true low-chill pick that fruits in warm-winter zones and ripens 3-4 weeks ahead of Blenheim. | Buy from $108.95 |
| Katy | 300–400 | 7-9 | Late May to early June | mild, sweet, sub-acid, juicy; best fresh — A popular low-chill apricot for warm-winter regions; Dave Wilson lists it around 400 chill hours, a bit higher than Gold Kist. | Browse growers |
| Autumn Glo | 500 | 4-6 | August to September | great tasting fresh apricot — By far the latest apricot on USU's table, ripening after every other cultivar.Chill spec of 500 hours or less is from Dave Wilson Nursery, which lists its range as zones 7-9 against USU's 4-6 - treat the zone range as unsettled and check locally before planting. | Browse growers |
| Blenheim | 400–500 | 7-9 | Late June | sweet, aromatic, richly flavored fresh and dried — The California heirloom benchmark for flavor, but it blooms early so it needs a mild-winter, low-frost site. | Buy from $91.95 |
| Flavor Giant | 500 | 5-8 | Early July | firm texture, mild flavor; good fresh and cannedDave Wilson Nursery specs it at 500 chill hours or less, making it the lowest-chill self-fertile pick on USU's table. Note the two sources disagree on range - USU lists zones 5-8, Dave Wilson lists 7-9. | Browse growers |