Spring must be here, apricots flowering

[starloc]

Ive been watching the buds on the trees for a week or two hopeing it would warm up a bit and today ive got the apricots flowering and some of the peaches have 50% flowers open , the crab apple has got flower buds ready to open

All these are pots at the back of the house, identical trees in the front of the house and in the ground arent flowering at all yet, probably as they warm up in pots quicker and the rear of the house is far more sheltered

Theres not a bee in site though , so its paintbrush time again, i did see a bee a week or so ago..... but only the one

[chris]

wow, already? Mine is just showing signs of budding up!

[starloc]

It was a bit worrying overnight, ice/frost all around the road outside but not in the back with the plants, the one apple tree closest the wall had some frost on the stems, the rest was fine

[chris]

Yep, light frost here too (-1) I think a light frost is ok - you can always wrap it up in fleece (obv make surethe fleece doesn't rest on the flowers!) or if it's in a pot, bring irt to a sheltered place?

Last year, i did the same with my aprigold - ina nd out the garage every night. Got down to two fruit, and just before they ripened they blooming split!

Gonna bang it int he ground this year I think.

[starloc]

Ive always covered it with fleece , till last year when i just ignored it and it was ok even with very hard frosts in the road outside, so ive decided not to bother covering it and hopeing for the best
it had just a few fruit on it for a few years but last year, i got loads of fruit on it, they where nearly ripe and the squirels got them, i eventualy ended up at one branch of ripe fruit that the squirrels found it harder to get at

mines in a 75 litre pot, i just chuck some sulphate of potash on every spring and some bone meal in the autumn, its too big to get inside now as its about 15 foot tall and 8 foot wide but only 4 branches
i never pruned it till last year , i just planted it about 4-5 years ago, in mid summer last year i pinched the tips a few times and now it has hundreds of 6 to 8 inch mini branches/fruit spurs from all the branches, and so many more flowers

[chris]

Ahh, mines only a dwarf Maybe I'll grab a larger on once the garden is sorted.. mines only in a smallish pot at the moment! Probably about the size of a B&Q bucket!