Backyard orchard: apricots

by Jackie French
Tuesday, June 28, 2005

How to grow
Not for subtropics or areas with heavy late-spring frosts; DON'T grow apricots in humid areas - the fruit will rot. Don't bother pruning - pruned apricot trees get bacterial gummosis.

Try to prune apricots as sparingly as possible - they can suffer horribly from gummosis which often begins with pruning cuts. Apricot trees can become very large when they are grown in the correct spot in the appropriate climate and it is best to plant them with an eye to their eventual spread rather than trying to jam them into too small a space. Crammed up apricots get more brown rot and leaf spot.

Brown fruit rot - spray with Bordeaux in winter when the tree is leafless; in fruit fly prone areas grow early varieties or not at all, or grow plumcotts - a plum-apricot cross that fruit fly don't like so much; use splash-on bait.

Harvest
Pick when they taste sweet; leave on the tree as long as possible but they'll ripen indoors as soon as they start to turn orange.

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Tip: Try "lamb & potato" or "Low GI"
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