Apricot trees have fruits with excellent taste. In addition, these fruits are very useful.
For quite a long time, apricots were exclusively plants of a warm climate, however, thanks to the efforts of breeders, they were adapted for cultivation in different regions of a temperate climate.
plant apricot and today it is possible to grow it, for example, in the Moscow region, the Middle lane, in the South Urals, Siberia, etc. At the same time, in warmer regions (Kuban, Astrakhan region, Moldova, Ukraine, etc.), these plants have been adapted for a relatively long time.
Apricots grow without problems on soils with low fertility, but they need to be fed regularly. A characteristic feature of the apricot tree is its high yield, reaching up to 120 kg.
Caring for and propagating the crop is relatively simple, but growing apricots in temperate gardens has some nuances that come from its southern origins.
Getting healthy trees that bear fruit for several decades without taking them into account is quite problematic. The article discusses the features of growing apricots in a temperate climate, taking into account these nuances.
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plant description
The apricot tree has a rounded crown 3.5-8 m high. The stem height is from 0.5 to 1.5 m. The trunk and skeletal branches are covered with brownish bark; in shoots of 1-2 years of age, their color is brown or brown-red. On old shoots, the outer part of the bark cracks.
Apricot leaves are oval, having a slight point at the end. Leaves are 4-9 cm long and 3-5 cm wide. Along the edge they are covered with small teeth. The leaves have short (up to 3 cm) petioles.
The root system of the tree is powerful and extensive. A few large root shoots penetrate to depths of 5 to 8 m, but most of the root system is relatively shallow (50 to 100 cm). Due to the extensive root system, the tree has good stability and does not break under the pressure of the wind.
A special feature of the apricot is a very early flowering, which always occurs before the leaves appear.
Heat-loving varieties begin flowering in March, adapted to a temperate climate - in early / mid-April. The flowers are up to 2.5 cm in size and are predominantly wind pollinated as most insect pollinators are still dormant.
On average, about 30% of the flowers are tied. Despite the fact that the plant is winter-hardy, the ovaries can suffer from recurrent frosts (already at -1 ° C they can die, while the flowers withstand -6 ° C, and the buds -8 ° C). Vegetative buds bloom a week after the end of the flowering process.
Apricot fruit is a drupe surrounded by juicy and sweet pulp. The mass of fruits can reach 80 g, however, the average weight does not exceed 25-30 g. The color of the pulp can have a wide variety of shades - from yellow-green to red-orange.
The skin of the fruit is thin, its color is usually slightly darker than the pulp.Most varieties have a "tan" or blush on the surface. Mostly the stone has a bitter taste, only some varieties can be eaten.
Apricot fruits of the Favorit variety
The fruits ripen in the second half of summer, but not later than the end of August. According to the ripening time, apricots are divided into:
- early - from the third decade of June to the first decade of July; varieties - Lel, Pineapple, Leskora, Alyosha
- mid-early or mid-season - from the first to the second decade of July; varieties - Academician, Kichiginsky, Saratov ruby
- medium-term (the beginning coincides with mid-ripening varieties, and the end falls on the third decade of July); varieties - Favorit, Aquarius, Triumph
- late - from the end of July to the end of August; varieties - Advertising, Krasnoshchekiy Nikitsky, Krasen Kieva, Iskra
The apricot tree is long-lived. The average age, even in the absence of care, can reach up to 50 years. With proper care - up to 100 years.
Active fruiting also lasts a long time: it starts at 3-5 years of age and lasts 35-40 years.
The tree is very hardy and frost-resistant. Unlike the related peach, many varieties of apricot (even those of exclusively southern origin) tolerate winter well. Frosts down to -20-25 degrees Celsius are not terrible for them, in addition, they can do more than 2.5-3 months without watering.
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Next, various aspects of growing apricots in temperate climates will be considered.
Choice of landing site
Planting an apricot in spring
Apricot does not like cold wind. It needs to be planted in a protected area, located on the sunny side. Shade or partial shade for the plant is unacceptable.
The southern slopes are not a very good option for growing a tree, because they will experience an active growth of the green part to the detriment of the formation of fruits. It is best to plant the plant on hills with an even level of soil.
The groundwater level should be no higher than 1 m, so that the roots are not in the moist layers of the soil, as this will be detrimental to it. The upper level of the soil (up to 50 cm deep) should be well ventilated. Therefore, loose sandy loam or loam will be the optimal soil for apricot.
The acidity of the area where the apricot will grow should be neutral or slightly alkaline. It is recommended to do its annual liming.
Planting seedlings
The distance between rows in apricot plantings should be 1-1.5 m wider than between trees
Seedlings should be planted after the flowering period of the plant has passed (second half of April). Plants are planted in rows or in a checkerboard pattern according to the scheme 4 by 5 or 4 by 6 meters.
You can choose apricot seedlings for spring planting in special nurseries according to the following criteria:
- height - not less than 50 cm
- number of branches - 2-3
- the number of buds on each branch is at least 5
The apricot pit has a diameter of 60 cm and a depth of 50-60 cm. Before landing, you should carry out preliminary preparations:
- A month before planting, dig a piece of land with a diameter of 1.5 m at the site of the pit to a depth of 40 cm and completely remove the remains of vegetation
- Rotted manure (up to 3 buckets) is brought to the dug-up area and left in this form until planting
- A month after digging, a hole should be made, at the bottom of which there is drainage, sprinkled with a 10-15 cm layer of earth. Next, fertilizers should be applied: 1 bucket of humus and 1 kg of superphosphate. Up to 10 cm of excavated soil is poured on top of the fertilizer layer and 10 liters of water are poured.
Next to the young seedling, it is desirable to place a support in the form of a peg.
A few days after this, the seedling is placed in a hole and sprinkled with a layer of excavated soil. In the case of poor soil, it is recommended during the planting process to sprinkle the seedlings with soil taken from more fertile areas. In this case, the root neck should be 2-3 cm above the ground level. Then the tree is watered abundantly (10-20 liters of water).
Growing apricot from seed
How to grow an apricot from a seed
Apricot is one of the few trees that grow well at home directly from the seeds. The advantage of such cultivation is the increased adaptability of the plant to the climate of the area.
In addition, an apricot grown from seed almost always takes on the characteristics of the mother plant.. The disadvantage of this method is a longer growing process (sometimes consisting of several years), since it consists of two parts: obtaining a seedling and its further adaptation or transplantation.
Planting technology using seeds allows you to plant apricots for the following periods:
- immediately after harvest
- 1-2 months after harvest
- next year in the spring
How to grow an apricot from a seed
The landing process itself for each of the listed dates will be the same. The differences will be only in the preliminary preparation of planting material.
Below is a step-by-step instruction for planting seeds:
- The soil should be prepared in advance in the same way as when planting seedlings (digging the earth, fertilizing, a pause before planting for 1 month, etc.) However, this does not form a full-fledged pit 60 cm deep, but a small trench with a depth in 10-15 cm. From each other, the trenches are located at a distance of 50-60 cm
- Dug trenches are watered with a small amount of water and bones are placed in them at a distance of 10-15 cm from each other.
- After laying the bones, the trenches are covered with earth, which is not immediately watered, but first mulched with peat or humus. The height of the mulching layer is 5-7 cm
- Using a watering can with a small divider, watering is carried out so that the mulch is completely saturated with moisture.
Bones from a freshly harvested crop do not require any additional preparation - they can be planted immediately.
If the landing is carried out in the middle of autumn, the bones necessarily need special storage conditions until the moment of disembarkation. They should be placed in damp sand and stored in a cool, dark place, maintaining adequate humidity levels at all times.
Apricot seeds successfully stratified
In the case when seeds are planted next year, seed stratification is necessary. This procedure simulates the stay of seeds under the snow. It consists of two stages:
- pre-drying
- direct stratification
Drying is carried out in a dry and warm (+ 20-22 ° C) room with a low level of humidity and constant ventilation. The duration of this stage can be very long - from 4 to 7 months, depending on the timing of the harvest. In any case, it should be completed by mid-February.
To carry out stratification, the bones are placed in a moist substrate, the role of which can be played by coarse river sand or sawdust. The substrate is poured into a rectangular plastic container, which has holes for ventilation.
The container is placed in a room with a low temperature (from +4°C to +7°C), where it should be from 1.3 to 3 months.
The end of the stratification process will be marked by cracking of the stones and the preliminary germination of the embryos. They should not be transplanted into open ground immediately, you should wait until the end of flowering of adult plants, that is, wait at least until the beginning of April.
In the case when the seedlings were planted in the fall, the seedlings are transplanted to a permanent place at the end of April. If stratified seed was planted in the spring, seedlings are transplanted to a permanent place in September of the same year.
Vaccination use
Successful grafting with a cutting (in a split) apricots on a plum
If there is no time (or desire) to grow an apricot from a stone, you can use a faster and more efficient way to get varietal trees - grafting.
The advantage of this method is that using a minimum of material for propagation, you can get the required number of fruit trees in a relatively short time.
Already in the 3rd year after vaccination, they are able to bear fruit. (when planting with a bone, this period is delayed for 5-7 years). It is precisely because of the combination of these factors: cheapness and relatively fast precocity that vaccinations are most often used among all methods of planting / propagating plants.
As a scion, cuttings more than 15 cm long with more than 5 buds should be taken. In addition, experienced gardeners often combine seed growing with grafting. For this, an annual plant, which was grown from a seed, is used as a scion. The plant is used as a whole, completely cutting it off at the root.
But the situation with rootstocks has many more options for implementation. The best option is a variety of adult apricots, well adapted to these climatic conditions. You can use wild apricot species that are up to 3-4 years old.
However, that's not all. Apricot can also be grafted onto trees that are not the same biological species with it. Most often, apricot grafting is used on stock from:
- cherry plums
- cherries
- turn
- sand cherry
- plums
Well accustomed grafting in the cut (budding) on a non-varietal rootstock
At the same time, one should not forget that each apricot variety will develop better on a particular rootstock. Sometimes there are cases of incompatibility of the scion with the stock, for example, the Kompotny variety does not take root in any way on the plum.
There are also varieties, like Alyosha and his hybrids, which can take root on anything without any problems; cases of grafting of this variety on apple and pear trees were recorded.
The method of grafting determines the time of its implementation. So, for example, grafting with cuttings is carried out mainly at the beginning of the warm season. And inoculation in the cut can be done at almost any time, except for autumn.
Taking into account the fact that sap flow is more intensive in spring, it is best to carry out vaccinations from mid-April to the second decade of June. In spring, an average of 4 out of 5 vaccinations take root.
In some cases, growing a seedling from a stone at home in large pots is used. This method justifies itself if young seedlings for some reason cannot endure the winter. Such cultivation lasts from 1 to 3 years, after which the plant is planted in open ground, having hardened it.
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apricot care
Apricot, planting and care
Like any other plant crop, apricot care includes watering, fertilizing and pruning. The easiest way to care for the plant is in the spring. The most difficult period in care is autumn, because you need to properly prepare for the wintering of apricots.
The plant hibernates without shelter and it is necessary to provide it with high-quality watering, fertilizing and pest control.
watering
Watering of both young and old trees is carried out in a specially fenced near-trunk area
The culture is not very demanding on liquid. Due to the powerful root system, the apricot has enough natural rainfall for irrigation. However, in order to provide the plant with normal growing and flowering conditions, up to 4 waterings per season should be made.
The first watering is done at the end of May, it helps the plant in the formation of shoots of the current year. The second is produced in early July - moisture at this time is necessary for the formation of seeds in the fruit. The third watering is needed for normal fruit ripening. It is held in early August.
The irrigation rate is calculated using a simple formula: the number of buckets of water is equal to the age of the tree. Plants over 10 years old are watered with 100-150 liters of water at a time. Some time after fruiting (usually at the end of September) the fourth watering is done; its purpose is to moisten the lower layers of the soil well. Such irrigation is called moisture charging, the water consumption rates for it are up to 6 buckets per 1 sq. m. area under the crown.
As a rule, the soil around the apricot is not mulched, but each watering is desirable to accompany the loosening of the top layer of soil to improve the air supply of the roots.
top dressing
Apricot top dressing
Apricots are fed 4 times per season according to the classical scheme: nitrogenous fertilizers at the beginning of the season, phosphorus-potassium fertilizers at the stage of fruit ripening. The following apricot feeding sequence is recommended:
- At the beginning of the season, the plant needs a lot of nitrogen to form green mass. It is recommended to use organic nitrogen fertilizers in the form of compost, humus or rotted manure in an amount of up to 15-20 kg per tree. Instead of organics, you can use urea or nitrate; its application rates are 40-50 g per 1 sq. m.
- At the end of the flowering process, the plant should be fed with phosphorus-potassium fertilizers. The application rates of this top dressing are up to 4 g per 1 sq. m.
- The third top dressing is carried out after harvest (July or August). At this stage, complex phosphate and nitrogen fertilizers are applied. Application rates of nitroammophoska or superphosphate are up to 25 g per 1 sq. m.
- Since the harvest of the grown crop has already been made, top dressing can be implemented in another way - foliar. To do this, the fertilizer is diluted in water (concentration 20 ml per 10 liters of water) and apricot leaves are sprayed with the resulting mixture.
- Final feeding is done in late autumn. It consists of a mixture of minerals, including phosphorus, potassium and calcium. It is recommended at this stage to add ordinary wood ash under the tree in the amount of 0.5 kg per trunk
Disease and pest control
Clyasterosporiosis or perforated spotting has a characteristic symptomatology, it is difficult not to notice it
Apricot is most often affected by fungal diseases: cytosporosis, moniliosis, brown and perforated spotting. The main pests are aphids and codling moth. The treatment of some apricot diseases (for example, the Vals mushroom) requires not only the use of special means, but also meticulous adherence to the correct agricultural practices for growing the plant.
Apricot diseases and pests can be a serious problem, unless steps are taken to eliminate them completely at the end of the season. So, for example, if you do not remove and destroy the foliage at the end of the season, you are guaranteed to get the whole "bouquet" of pests and diseases in the next.
Valsa fungus is a fungicidal disease characteristic of apricot. Treated with special antifungal sprays
Preventive treatment of fungal diseases is carried out in early spring by spraying the branches of the plant with a 1% solution of copper sulfate or a 3% solution of Bordeaux mixture.
Pest control is carried out by standard methods - the use of insecticides. As such, preparations based on pyrethroids (Karate, Cypermethrin) or neonicotinoids (Aktara, Confidor, Mospilan) are suitable. In case of increased resistance of pests, the use of organophosphorus agents (Aktellik, Pirimiphos) is allowed.
You can also use trap belt.
pruning
Properly formed apricot crown
Pruning is necessary for apricot for normal life and development. The crown of most varieties is prone to thickening, in addition, young shoots tend to appear almost anywhere in the tree, regardless of age. Excessively thickened trees bear fruit much worse than specimens with a thinned crown.
Pruning is carried out up to three times a year: at the beginning, middle and end of the season. Usually, sanitary is performed in the spring, corrective in the summer, and shaping in the fall. With sanitary pruning, everything is simple - every year at the beginning of spring it is necessary to cut the apricot, removing dried, damaged and frostbitten branches.
The recommended rules for shaping pruning are as follows:
- remove all excess shoots growing inside the crown
- remove shoots from branches older than 4-5 years
- remove non-fruiting branches (up to skeletal)
- remove branches with too many fruits
Sanitary pruning
The last rule needs clarification. Since the yield of apricots can be very high, it is not uncommon for branches to break off, burdened with fruits. Therefore, such branches should be removed.
The criterion for selecting overly fruitful branches is as follows: one fruit on a branch should have at least 20 leaves.
Pruning also involves the removal of its offspring and overgrowth around the tree. Usually, most apricots are purchased as grafted seedlings, so the rootstock will be rootstock genetic material that does not match the characteristics of the grafted variety at all.
If you do not cut these offspring, they will only be an extra load on the root system.
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Currently, apricot is one of the most popular crops in the temperate zone. Due to the large varietal diversity, this species is perfectly adapted to almost any growing conditions. The agrotechnics of the plant is of medium complexity and for its successful cultivation it is necessary to strictly follow the rules of planting and care.
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GROWING APRICOT (SECRETS OF GROWING APRICOT IN HARD CLIMATE)
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