How to grow Apricot

Requires fertile well drained soil.

Regular crops of good fruit are produced on un-pruned trees grown in good conditions. Trees are very susceptible to wood-rotting fungi entering through pruning cuts, so prune in summer after harvest. Spray with copper-based fungicide in winter to control fungus diseases.

Vase shaped pruning – the main central limb is removed at a young age, leaving an open centre. Instead of having a central leader, the open-centre tree has three to five major limbs or leaders, coming out from the trunk. This training system allows for adequate light penetration into the centre of the tree, minimising shading problems prevalent in higher vigour trees such as apricots.

If your tree looks like it will be overloaded and you have a history of small fruit, you may like to augment the summer pruning – by thinning flowers. Recommendation to remove upward facing buds, buds too close to other branches, and reduce clustered flowers to two. CAUTION: If you live in an area subject to late frosts / hail – you should leave some extra buds on the tree.

Use of sulfur on apricots is destructive. Do not apply! Fixed copper is acceptable.⁴

The fruit which ripens in the Southern Hemisphere between November and January depending on variety.

Ripe fruit is a yellow-orange colour, sunburned fruit is an orange colour, and even though coloured, can be hard and not yet ripe.

The fruit is very sweet is most tasty when allowed to ripen on the tree.³

These estimates for how long Apricot takes to sprout, grow and harvest are from real observations from real gardeners, right around the world.

Many believe the apricot to be from Armenia. The scientific name “armeniaca” was first published in “Pinax Thatri Botanici” by Gaspard Bauhin. It was consitered an “Armenian apple” and was thus named: Mala armeniaca. Later in “Species Plantarum” (published 1753) Linnaeus also used the name.⁵⁶

Pliny the Elder mentions a type of peach the that ripens in summer an called it “praecocia”⁶ or “abricots”⁷, “abricot” being Middle French.

United States Marines have a superstition stating that Apricots (in any form) are bad luck. The story goes that in WW2 a platoon of AAVs was attacked by the Japanese. The main cargo was Apricots.⁸ Some modern Marines have also had incidents involving apricots or apricot pits.⁸

¹ Apricots of Armenia

² agf.gov

³ For details on soil PH, harvesting, tree size

⁴ Home Orchard

⁵ “Linnaeus, C. (1753). Species Plantarum 1:474.”

⁶ The Illustrated Guide to Trees and Shrubs

⁷ THE XV. BOOKE OF THE HISTORIE OF NATVRE, WRITTEN BY C. PLINIVS SECVNDVS.

⁸ Marines.mil