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Yay for apricots

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  • Yay for apricots

    Just harvested and eaten the last 5 greenhouse grown apricots - been away for 2 weeks so my waterer ate the other 25. They squirted juice like a ripe peach does, an experience I have never had with a shop bought apricot. Biggest difference home grown vs shop bought of any fruit I know. Just posting to say if you have ever considered growing them the answer is a definite yes!

  • #2
    Well done!...good to hear you don't get leaf curl

    Maybe you need to change your holiday dates for next year!
    "Nicos, Queen of Gooooogle" and... GYO's own Miss Marple

    Location....Normandy France

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    • #3
      I've only once in my life had home-grown apricots. Like no other apricot I've ever had since or before. Congratulations.

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      • #4
        My apricot tree didn't produce again this year. It did seem like maybe a dozen or so flowers had pollinated, but all the fruits fell of when still small
        I'm getting rid of it this winter, replacing it with a late-flowering variety, plus another late-flowering variety in a space I'm going to open up near it.

        Also, I'm convinced apricots getting peach leaf curl is a myth. Mine has been outside for seven years now and never gotten even a hint of it.

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        • #5
          Having read this I want one. Can you give me some tips all you apricotty people. Do they need to be in a greenhouse up here in "sunny" Yorkshire? If so can they stay in a pot and how much space do they need? How long before you get a crop?

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          • #6
            Originally posted by greenishfing View Post
            Having read this I want one. Can you give me some tips all you apricotty people. Do they need to be in a greenhouse up here in "sunny" Yorkshire? If so can they stay in a pot and how much space do they need? How long before you get a crop?
            Apricots are too vigorous for pots, with the exception of genetic dwarf varieties like Aprigold. That variety is very small, though, so I'm not sure what the yield would be like.

            Apricots are perfectly winter-hardy, so winter cold isn't an issue. If anything, they are more likely to struggle in a mild winter
            Summer shouldn't be an issue, either. They ripen pretty early, so if you have a mild summer it might be delayed a couple weeks, even a full month, but it will still ripen before autumn comes.
            The main issue is late frosts. Apricots flower early, and late frosts will kill the blossom and developing fruits.

            I wouldn't want to grow an apricot as a free-standing tree that far north, but it could still work outdoors against a sunny south-facing wall. Choose a late-flowering variety, though. This is the latest flowering variety I was able to find that one can get delivered to the UK, and I shall be buying one this winter:
            Apricot Kioto® for sale | Buy Prunus armeniaca from Lubera |

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            • #7
              Mine is Goldcot. It's in a 24 in pot and has to stay there as outside is too wet and windy and it would outgrow is welcome in the greenhouse border. So far so good. .

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              • #8
                I've just harvested 11-12 kg = 80-90 apricots (yes, large fruit, especially this year). Early Moorpark. The birds used not to go near them but seem to have learned by trial and error that these bright orange apricots in my garden are more delicious than blackcurrants. A few were being pecked.

                Given that they obviously like my garden, a small Flavourcot tree was planted in 2017, it's growing nearby and might crop a little in 2020.

                I can't help thinking that to fruit growers rather than gardeners, apricots need much more dwarfing rootstocks, like VVA1 for plums. Anyone had experience with this?

                My tree, planted 2012, would be 6-7 m high without severe pruning twice since then. Beautiful to look at, if left to grow ... but impossible to harvest the top two-thirds of the fruit as a falling apricot soon spoils.

                Also apples on M9 and pears on quince C yield 'clean' fruit in a very small space but apricots on non-dwarfing stocks seem to yield much the same from a large tree 7-8 m across and due to crossing branches, shading, etc the fruit isn't of the same uniformly good appearance as my apples or pears. 50% perfect-looking apricots = OK for home gardens but commercial growers would need more than that.

                But despite that quibble ... yumm. 10% are ripe and soft. The others'll ripen steadily until early/mid-August I hope.

                Incidentally, hand-pollination of part of the tree back in Feb-Mar made no difference. The crop was uniformly distributed.

                Added as an edit: This is not quite the whole crop. However, the ones left on are still very firm and underripe.
                Last edited by Hereford fruit grower; 18-07-2019, 01:29 PM.

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                • #9
                  we had a great crop from our apricots (in a north facing lean to greenhouse) and we have just finished the last of our peaches and nectarines, which were superb, all that early sunshine worked real wonders, they are usually good but this year was the best, the warm weather we hear about actually reached us and was suitably enjoyed, our first proper summer since 2006 I know, but I want another one next year =more juicy fruit...

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                  • #10
                    Most of our apricots were blown off the tree due to high winds where we are sometimes.

                    The remaining two have been eaten by insects so presumably were quite tasty.

                    The tree was a christening present to my youngest child and is growing well. I want to fan train it but am petrified of messing it up!!!

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                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Stan79 View Post
                      Most of our apricots were blown off the tree due to high winds where we are sometimes.

                      The remaining two have been eaten by insects so presumably were quite tasty.

                      The tree was a christening present to my youngest child and is growing well. I want to fan train it but am petrified of messing it up!!!
                      you would not do too much damage if you started to train it but, as I understand it, any cutting has to be done in the warmer months, if I remember correctly... and do it in stages, don't chop too much off at one time..

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