How To Grow And Care For An Apricot Tree

The apricot tree bears a fruit with a unique taste that no other fruit can boast. Fresh apricots that are picked right off from the tree are luscious. Those who can apricot fruits reliably supply the markets nationwide with delicious apricots that are tree-ripened. The most significant market for apricot fruit came from the incomparable quality, when the apricot fruit is dried.

Scientifically known as Prunus armeniaca L., the apricot tree, like the plum, peach and others, is a member of the Rosacea’ family. Apricots came from the Russian-Chinese border right about 3000 BC.

They were imported to Europe together with the peach seed all the way through the “Silk Road” that stretched camel back trading all the way to the Mideast. The apricot develops as runaway naturalized tree down the modern roadsides in Armenia and Turkey today abundantly.

Apricots were well-known in Greece during 60 BC. The fruit was later brought into the Roman Empire. It is thought that the apricot tree came in the early colonies of America in seed form for cultivating into fruit trees by the 1700′s French explorers in Gulf regions and in California monasteries and the Eastern United States by the Spanish missionaries and explorers.

Cultivating Apricots

Having a tree that bears fruits would be a lot easier if you chose a tree from your local greenhouse. They can recommend the right cultivar for your terrain and climate.

But, if you want to make an effort at cultivating a tree from seeds, know that before they will germinate, apricot stones have to be stratified.

Get the apricot stone directly from an apricot that’s ripe. You need to soak the stone for one day. After that, wrap it in a paper towel that’s damp and put it inside a plastic bag or in a bag with moist and sterilized sand. Refrigerate it at around 4C for one month.

This method is done to help imitate what would occur in nature, which are moist seeds from the apricot fruit would drop to the ground and go through the chilly winter.

When the condition is warm again, like when you take out the stone from the refrigerator, and you sow them into potting mix which is around 20-25C, it will be ready for germination. The hard seed coat can make the germination process very slow so be patient.

Rootstocks

Apricots are commonly developed on 3 rootstocks, which are the Seedling Peach, Myrobolan and Torinel. You should be careful of suckers that come up from the roots. Remove the suckers right away. Suckers belong to the rootstock and if you leave them there to to grow, these suckers will grow into the tree and harm your apricot’s growth.

Pruning

It is best to grow apricot trees in cooler climates. These trees bear fruit ahead of most of the other summer fruits. Apricot trees can still be cultivated in sub-tropical climates, as long as they don't get too warm in the winter because this will cause them to bear fruits earlier.

Position your tree in a place where it will get a lot of exposure from the sun. Make sure your tree is planted in rich loamy soil with proper drainage. Apricot trees grow large so make you you have at least a 5m space for the tree.

Pruning is the key to growing many apricot trees. Apricots, like other drupe types, are grown from second year wood. Therefore, for the first 2 years of the tree’s growth, you should lightly prune the tree so it won’t take a long time for it to bear fruit.

As the tree develops, take out any branches on that crosses and rubs. Also take out the branches grow vertically, in the middle of the tree, however keep all the other branches unharmed because the possibility of bacterial canker as well as the fungal disease silver leaf can be increased by pruning.

After the first two years of the tree, prune it to the vase shape. This allows you to access to fruits easily and it improves the air flow via the branches and it allows the apricots that grow on different branches to get and even amount of exposure to the sun.

It is best to do your pruning during the dry days of summer. It you do it in the winter, the possibility of infection from bacterial canker is quite high. The possibility of silver leaf in wet summer days is high too.

Those growing apricot trees with not much room use the fan shape. But, this will limit the number of fruits you can get and it also weakens the apricot tree especially if the tree is open to the strong winds.

Watering & Fertilizing

Water your tree once every week and make sure you don’t drench the tree roots. After the fruiting period, you may water twice every week.Apply fertilizer in late winter. So the tree won’t be stressed, the next time to fertilize is during its fruiting period.

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