Of Mediterranean origin and flowering in late February and March, out of doors apricots demand a frost-free sunny web site. Bush bushes will be grown solely in southwest and south-east England; elsewhere, as fan-trained bushes on partitions dealing with east, south, or south-west, or in greenhouses.
Apricots favor a moisture retentive, friable and well-drained soil: they object to stiff clay and heavy loam. A pH of 6-5 -tending to alkalinity-is fascinating.
Bush bushes are spreading in behavior. The leaves are broad and coronary heart formed, the flowers white or pale pink, borne singly or in pairs. Apricots are self-fertile and could also be planted singly.
Pressured apricots are ripe from mid July, out of doors fruits to the tip of September. Use them for dessert, bottling preserving and jam making.
Propagation is by budding on to plum root-stocks-Brompton or Frequent Mussel (medium to massive bushes), St Julien (small to medium bushes)-or on seedling peach or apricot.
Cultivation Plant ideally between late September and November, significantly beneath glass, or as much as mid-March, at 4.5m (15ft) aside. Sprinkle two handfuls of bone meal within the planting gap, give a spring mulch of 51kg of well-rotted manure per 10sq m (10 sq. yd), plus 28g(1oz) of sulphate of potash per sq. m (sq. yd). Give 140g (5oz) per sq. m (sq. yd) of primary slag each third yr. Water the bushes frequently the primary season and subsequently in dry spells-mature bushes could wilt badly. Saturate greenhouse soils in February and mulch with spent hops or peat.
Power with light warmth in February to a most temperature of 55°F (13°C), rising to 65°F (18°C) in summer time with free air flow. Syringe the foliage with water day by day. Give full air flow at leaf fall to induce full dormancy.
Shield out of doors blossom from frost by draping remay over the bushes at evening, eradicating this by day to permit pollinating bugs to work. Help pollination beneath glass by hand. Take away the blossom the primary season.
Fruit types each on younger wooden and previous spurs. Preserve a proportion of every. Shorten the leaders by half to two-thirds after planting, laterals to some inches. Subsequently, shorten the leaders yearly by one-third. Tie in a single wholesome shoot per 25cm (10in) of primary department, take away ill-placed and upright rising shoots and pinch again the remaining to 4 leaves from mid-June onwards.
Skinny the crop when the set is heavy, first at pea measurement to at least one fruitlet per cluster then once more after stoning, and when the pure drop is over, to 8-13cm (3-8in) aside. Take a look at for stoning by urgent a pin into just a few fruitlets.
Defer choosing till the apricots are properly coloured, ripe and half readily from the spurs with out tearing.
Apricots are topic to silver leaf, bacterial canker and brown rot ailments, however are unaffected by peach leaf curl. Aphids, wasps and flies are the primary pests.
The next are the most effective varieties:
`New Giant Early’ early July
`Early Moor Park’ early August
‘Hemskerk’ August
‘Breda’ mid-August
`Moor Park’ August-September
Apple tree
Apricots
Blackberries
Grapes
Loganberry
Peaches and Nectarines
Pears
Plums
Raspberries
Strawberries
