Lefrosta

Apricot ‘Lefrosta’ is a rare cultivar of Prunus armeniaca preserved and studied within Czech apricot germplasm collections.

Its most clearly documented characteristic is the frost tolerance of its young fruit. Long-term trials carried out at the Horticultural Faculty in Lednice found ‘Lefrosta’ among a relatively small group of apricot genotypes whose developing fruit showed significantly better survival after spring frost than the standard control cultivar.

This is an important distinction from late flowering. The same research evaluated late bloom separately, and ‘Lefrosta’ was selected for frost tolerance of the young fruit rather than specifically for delayed flowering. It may therefore be particularly interesting where damaging frosts can still occur after fruit set.

Reliable published information about its parentage, exact origin, pollination requirements, ripening season and fruit quality is surprisingly limited. We therefore prefer not to assign characteristics from other Czech apricot cultivars to ‘Lefrosta’ until we can confirm them from our own observations or stronger pomological records.