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Apricot (I think) never fruited in 20 years

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  • Apricot (I think) never fruited in 20 years

    Hi all. I have a tree that I planted when we moved in over 20 years ago. I thought it was an apricot but from the leaf shape I suspect it's more likely peach/nectarine. But there's no way of checking because the thing has never fruited or, if my memory serves me right, blossomed. It does get leaf curl but that passes quickly and a bonfire got a bit close a few years ago but it recovered well. I prune it but that's all. Someone suggested I prune it REALLY hard to scare it into life, effectively, but I'm nervous about that.

    Any thoughts? It's only about 6' high on a south-facing slope and reasonably, but not entirely sheltered from wind but does get full sun.

    Does it need a lady or gentleman friend to pollinate (decorously and in private, of course) with?

  • #2
    Originally posted by FBI View Post
    Hi all. I have a tree that I planted when we moved in over 20 years ago. I thought it was an apricot but from the leaf shape I suspect it's more likely peach/nectarine. But there's no way of checking because the thing has never fruited or, if my memory serves me right, blossomed. It does get leaf curl but that passes quickly and a bonfire got a bit close a few years ago but it recovered well. I prune it but that's all. Someone suggested I prune it REALLY hard to scare it into life, effectively, but I'm nervous about that.

    Any thoughts? It's only about 6' high on a south-facing slope and reasonably, but not entirely sheltered from wind but does get full sun.

    Does it need a lady or gentleman friend to pollinate (decorously and in private, of course) with?
    A few thoughts - the leaf shape alone is enough to tell if its an apricot or a peach - apricot leaves are heart shaped - peach leaves are longer and straighter sided.

    Pruning may be the reason it has set no fruit - its quite possible to prune all the flowering wood out of a tree each year - on a peach for example, almost all the flowers are on the new wood from last year ie the ends of the branches usually.

    Another possible culprit is weather - the trees themselves are perfectly hardy, the flowers however are not, and they only flower for a short time - so if the days on which your peach/apricot flowers are ready for pollination the weather is too cold and or too wet, that's it no fruit that year - you can substitute yourself on as a temporary bee and use a small paint brush to move pollen about the flowers, but if the weather is very cold that won't help that much.

    Finally, having a different variety of tree in your garden for x-pollination purposes probably won't help at all because most peach/nectarine/apricot trees are broadly self-fertile and sods' law says that another tree you did plant would inevitably flower on different days to the one you have already

    PS If the tree was mine I'd be asking on here for some pruning off-cuts of other people's trees and trying some budding (grafting) on to my current problem child in the Spring.
    Last edited by nickdub; 29-01-2020, 02:35 PM.

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    • #3
      If it's getting peach leaf curl, it's definitely a peach or nectarine, not an apricot.
      Apricots getting peach leaf curl is basically a complete myth. There was a single recorded case of leaf curl hitting some commercially grown trees in, I believe, Hungary, some 20 years ago, and that's it. No other recorded cases.

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      • #4
        Thanks folks - much appreciated. I've been a bit slack on pruning this year so perhaps I'll try leaving it well alone and see if that helps. The leaves are long and pointy so that confirms that it's either a peach or Nectarine, too, as does the leaf curl thing.

        If I spot any blossom I'll go out and get jiggy with a paint brush :-o

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        • #5
          A peach in blossom is so gorgeous that if you haven't noticed it for 20 years that is probably because it hasn't happened. Even if it has, 20 years is old for a peach tree. I would replace it, bearing in mind that freestanding peaches in Devon are only going to crop in a really good year and that something like an apple would be a more reliable bet.

          Btw the fruit garden at Rosemoor just down the road from you is stunning, and they have fan trained peaches there so you could verify what you've got.

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