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I am thinking of buying an apricot tree - when is the best time to plant? Would a patio tree be more successful in a pot? Thankyou for your help.
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The choice of tree is up to you the only thing to watch for is the flowers getting frosted as they are one of the earlier ones to appear -
Apricot trees grow fine in the ground, though if you have limited space, pots are an option. I have some trees in my polytunnel and hand-pollinate them.
Best to get one of the newer varieties, if you can find one at a reasonable price.Comment
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I have Early Moorpark as a free-standing tree in the garden. It does fine and I have a crop most years. I don't currently hand-pollinate.
My only complaint is that on rootstock St. Julien A, apricot trees grow far too large, given a good soil. I have to remove the top half of the tree every 2-3 years after picking the fruit otherwise it would reach 6-7 m high I think.
If you have a good soil, you might encounter this problem. I strongly suggest you look for a more dwarfing rootstock. My plum trees are on VVA1 and stay a good size for pruning and picking from the ground. I don't know if apricots are available on VVA1.Comment
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I have my moorpark in a 50ltr tub and I hand pollinate with great results, along with a Aldi red haven peach, and a nectarine under cover of the back greenhouse, as I don't think they swim very well, a necessity round here, but do go for it as the taste of the fruit straight off the tree is amazing..Comment
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How do you deter leaf curl and dieback ... by spraying? E Anglia used to be the best place to try peaches as free-standing unsprayed trees. Peregrine did well in a garden I knew in Cambridge decades ago (light soil, low rainfall), i.e. the opposite extreme from you in terms of climate.Originally posted by BUFFS View Post
BTW, anyone know if apricots crop more heavily if pollinated by a different variety? Some fruits which used to be labelled self-fertile are now thought to do better with pollen from a neighbour. I've already planted Flavourcot, given the performance of Early Moorpark, but I'd add a 3rd. tree if the extra cross-pollination would increase the crop.Comment
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I don't think the need for x-pollination is vital with new varieties. I have a young tree of one of the "cots" which had about 9 flowers on it this spring, it set 6 fruit after I helped out with a small brush, which developed fine and then the mice ate all but one :-(Comment
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Thanks. I know apricots are 'self-fertile' but I sometimes see reports that tree X or Y 'crops Z% better with cross-pollination'. I'd like to know the result when your tree's larger. I'll monitor the performance of my tree with a 'partner'.
In 2017, ants climbed the perennial plants and shrubs under the apricot tree - it has a fairly short trunk - in July and got onto the branches of ripe fruit. They then made some small holes in 20-25% of the fruit, which rotted.
But that's the only problem I've encountered growing apricots. All it needs is more pruning of the 'understorey' in 2018.Comment
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[QUOTE=Hereford fruit grower;1564219]How do you deter leaf curl and dieback ... by spraying? E Anglia used to be the best place to try peaches as free
My stone fruits stay out of the rain in that back greenhouse, and it is north-facing, with another variety we would probably get more fruit but we are less than half way through our three types of apples,raspberries, goosegogs, blue berries, blackcurrants, plums and damsons, so I don't think that the need for more apricots, peaches and nectarines is very pressing. As they have always spent autumn and winter under cover we have never had any leaf curl or die back.they get good soil, cover , plenty of water and a feed in the early (Feb) spring, I hand pollinate with a kiddies paint brush for at least two weeks and that's the work for the year, every 4-5yrs I lift out any thuggish types and treat the same as my bonsai, so though some are not dwarf when I have finished only the small branches grow much, my peach is about three and a half foot tall with loads of branches and I let it grow about 1-2ins max a year, I never try to keep them warm, three large windows are open permanently, even when we get the big storms, just blows away the cobwebs and they seem to thrive on it..Comment
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"apricots crop more heavily if pollinated by a different variety?" Well if you add a 3rd tree, you should end up with 50% more fruit eventually which is a significant increase.Comment
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Cross-pollination doesn't necessarily demand more than one apricot, as there are plum/peach/apricot hybrids so presumably the pollen of any of that lot would do. It might require some clever use of the greenhouse to get them to flower simultaneously, though.Comment
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I don't have a problem with plums. 12 varieties (!) seem to give so much cross-pollination that even Coe's Golden Drop crops quite well. Early Rivers has to be thinned by 80-95% to give fruit of a decent size (my experience 2015-17).
I've never heard of anyone growing plums or apricots in a glasshouse. I can see that being under cover keeps peaches or nectarines healthy, because they don't like our rain much. (Also cherry orchards in Herefordshire are now all under polytunnels, apparently for the same reason.)Comment
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Like my apricot and peach trees because the blossom comes out in the greenhouse about mid January and it starts another season. Move them out with the bedding plants and some years get a lot.
Bob.Comment
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