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| Opinions please fruit experts! This old apricot tree (approx 50 years old according to my neighbour) in my garden has seen better days, it has obviously had some die back or wind damage in the past and had large branches removed in the middle of the tree but now the centre branch is appearing to wither the growth is quite stunted. I have been told that the tree will split without the middle branch there. Do I have to get rid of it all? it is such a lovely old tree, I am hoping to prune it back to health, even if it means losing the left hand side of the tree just leaving the one large branch on the right, as it is multi stemmed. Currently it is approx 5/6 metres high |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by stockard43 south australia (My Page) on Sun, Jan 4, 15 at 0:25
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- Posted by stockard43 South Australia (My Page) on Sun, Jan 4, 15 at 0:26
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- Posted by harvestman 6 (My Page) on Sun, Jan 4, 15 at 6:22
| My first fruit tree was an apricot, which is still alive and bearing today. I adopted it when my parents bought the house and property it was on in 1963. So apricots can be very long lived as far as stone fruit goes- at least in warm, dry climates. The photograph suggests some cambium issues- diseases or other damage of the bark, but that is hard to evaluate from the photo- obviously there is still plenty of functioning cambium because of the vigor of the tree. Probably nothing you can do anything about anyway. I understand the issue of the trees architecture- the codominance of the two remaining scaffolds do threaten to split the tree apart. I would simply cut back the more horizontal left scaffold somewhat severely- particularly any shoots that shade the right side scaffold. Favor the more upright one and don't let the crop load get too heavy on the left side- crutch it if necessary to protect it during cropping. Keep doing whatever else that is creating that vigorous growth and I bet you get another 20 years out of that wonderful tree. |
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| I have never heard of apricot trees living 70 years. H has given you several good suggestions. In addition, I would recommend an appropriate fertilizer in early Spring. Also, make sure it is watered...although apricots can endure some drought (they often are dry-farmed). |
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- Posted by harvestman 6 (My Page) on Sun, Jan 4, 15 at 11:45
| Fireduck, in New Mexico along the Rio Grande I've seen wild apricot trees that might have been 100 years old- this was in high desert with some summer rain from thunder storms and fairly radical temperature swings. Not an area of very productive farm land- close to Sante Fe where the river isn't large enough to moderate temps. Those trees amazed me when I observed them over 40 years ago. Of course, I'm really unsure of how old the trees were, but at the time they looked very old to me. |
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- Posted by stockard43 (My Page) on Sun, Jan 4, 15 at 22:35
| Thank you for your advice. At least now I have some knowledge about how to keep it going longer and I can boss the tree pruners around a bit more too. I love the tree and always water and fertilize it too, and although the crops are light (30-40 apricots) each one is pure heaven to eat, twice as tasty and juicier than my Moorpark. |
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| Might consider grafting, or getting someone to graft for you, to a new rootstock. It sounds like your apricot is a keeper. (I find apricots next to impossible to graft, but better hands than mine do it regularly). Might be fun to planting a few seeds, both for rootstock and in hopes of getting a new tree similar to the old one. I understand that peaches and apricots tend to come fairly true to type when seeded. |
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