
Question:
I have an Apricot tree that is four years old and getting pretty big. Should I prune it? How often? At what time of year, and how much should I cut it back?Answer:
- Like other deciduous fruit trees, Apricots are pruned yearly.
- Ideally, pruning before the rainy season begins to prevent Eutypa, a bacterial disease. is recommended. The disease enters through the pruning wounds. Europa causes branches or sections of the canopy to die suddenly in late spring or summer.
- You'll need a ten-dry period during the rainy season in January and February.
- When pruning, remove about 25% of the growth each year. All varieties of Apricots maintain the same general growth habit, so the same pruning rules apply to all of them.
- Prune out enough branches to evenly shape the top, selecting old wood whenever possible. This spacing allows sunlight to penetrate all parts of fruit production.
- The majority of the fruit is borne on one-year-old wood. Fruiting buds, called spurs, are easy to spot. They are located in clusters on the branches. A single bud is a vegetative bud. The long whip branches that grew during the summer are the fruit-producing wood for the coming year, so do not cut them too freely.
- The outside branches of apricots tend to lower each year with the weight of the fruit and foliage. They may be cut off the tree without damaging the tree. Replace these branches with new branches from the inside growth.
- Apricot wood is brittle, so care should be taken not to let the branches spread laterally to great a distance. Favor erect growth whenever possible. A sturdy framework is desired even at the expense of fruit production.
- Many garden centers have pruning demonstrations in January, and YouTube has videos.
Question:
The trees in our neighborhood have grown all around us, so we have virtually no areas of full sun in our yard. Our fruit trees (peach, nectarine, cherry) are not doing well, and we are replacing them. Are there any varieties of fruit like Asian Pears or Persimmon that can produce reasonably well with only six to seven hours of morning and early afternoon summer sun?Answer:
- Six to seven hours of sunlight a day is sufficient for growing al fruit trees.
- Full sun does not mean sunlight from sunrise to sunset. It's the cumulative hours each day of direct sun from March through November.
- I would only consider persimmons if the area received little or no summer irrigation.
- Also, pruning the branches farther apart allows more light into the center and shady side of the tree.
- The trees that you are replacing are not declining due to reduced sunlight. Older trees under constant summer irrigation often decline from root rot and borers. Pears, Asian Pears, and Apples are watered frequently, while the rest are watered less often.
- I would identify the different problems so they can be avoided with the replacement trees.