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Apricot or Common apricot (lat. Prúnus armeniáca) - belongs to the genus Plum from the Pink family, common in European countries, the plant's homeland is China.
Other names: zherdel, zheltoslivnik, morel, Armenian apple, Armenian plum.
Apricot is a fruit tree, less often a shrub, grows up to 8 m in height, its life span is more than 50 years. Begins to harvest 3-5 years after planting. The leaves are dark green in color, oval in shape, slightly pointed towards the edge. The flowers are fragrant, white with a pink tint, large in size, bloom until leaves appear.
Types of apricot:
Common apricot (Armeniaca vulgaris) is the most famous species, which is notable for its low winter hardiness, the temperature should be at least -25, -30 ° С. The tree grows up to 8-15 m. Ripe fruits are yellow, sometimes bright orange, large, juicy, sweet, fragrant.
Siberian apricot (Armeniaca sibirica) is a small tree, only 3 m tall, with large leaves and beautiful, densely spaced white flowers. The fruits are small, unsuitable for consumption, the plant is valuable for its decorative properties. During the flowering period, the Siberian apricot looks like an elegant white-pink cloud.
Manchurian apricot (Armeniaca manshurica) - adapts well to the harsh climate, is able to tolerate both excess moisture and severe drought. It has a wide openwork crown, the height of the tree is about 12-15 m. It looks especially beautiful during the flowering period and in autumn, when the leaves are transformed into bright colors of a red hue.
Trees for growing in Ukraine - popular varieties:
Early varieties:
Medium varieties:
Late varieties:
Purchase of seedlings. The first thing you should pay attention to when choosing a seedling is that it should not have thorns, they are found only on wild-growing varieties. The aboveground part of the planting material should be moderately moist, and the root system should not be damaged by frost.
Annual seedlings have thick branches, a trace of grafting and live buds are required.
Location and landing. This is the lightest and most thermophilic representative of stone fruit crops. Choose an elevated landing site with adequate lighting and protection from strong gusts of wind. The best time to plant is early spring. The most suitable soil for apricot is light loam.
The planting pit is prepared in autumn, the approximate size of which is 80x80x80cm, be guided by the size of the root system of the seedling. Drive a peg in the center of the pit so that it rises 50 cm above the ground. Gravel or crushed stone, poured into the bottom of the pit, is suitable as drainage. Mix the soil taken from the pit with peat in a 2: 1 ratio, add 500 g of superphosphate and 2 g of ash. After you mix everything thoroughly, pour it into the pit and leave it that way until planting.
Before planting an apricot, make sure that its root system is intact, remove any rotten or dry roots. After lowering the seedling into the hole, so that the root collar remains at ground level, start sprinkling the roots with soil. Gently tamp the soil, pour 2-3 buckets of water into the trunk circle. Further, based on weather conditions, repeat watering 2-3 more times with an interval of 10-15 days.
Sun-loving apricot, with fragrant juicy fruits and beautiful flowers and bright leaves, is afraid of excessive moisture, severe frost and wind. If you want your tree to please with a beautiful appearance and a generous harvest, it is important to follow the care recommendations.
Fruit culture, in addition to the main goal - to get useful sweet fruits, is grown as a colorful decoration of a garden or park.
Watering. Apricot especially needs watering:
Calculation of water for an adult tree: 45 liters of water per 1 square meter of the trunk circle. In case of drought, increase the watering rate by 1.5 times. If groundwater flows nearby, watering should be reduced.
Loosening, mulching. To prevent the growth of weeds and create favorable conditions for the growth of a young tree, immediately after planting, the area around the seedling must be mulched. It is best to mulch using peat, sawdust or compost in a layer of 8-10 cm.
Top dressing. You can provide the required amount of nutrients with the help of organic dressings, as well as trace elements and potassium. Apply organic fertilizers after the end of the dormant period, in early spring. In summer, the tree needs nitrogen fertilization. Closer to autumn, start making potassium-phosphorus fertilizers.
It is recommended to fertilize the plant with mineral fertilizers in early autumn.
The calculation of fertilizers is based on the age of the plant. On the trunk circle, a two-year-old tree will need:
At the age of 4-5 years, the feeding rate doubles, and already an adult 9-year-old plant needs:
Trimming and shaping. After planting, the skeletal branches and trunk should be cut. The most suitable crown for an apricot is a sparse-tiered one.
It is enough to leave 5 skeletal branches, which are placed at intervals of 40 cm from each other.
At the beginning of spring, it is necessary to shorten the fruiting branches in half, this will give the development of flower buds. Also thin out the canopy periodically to ensure better light transmission. Anti-aging pruning is done after harvest. Try not to overdo it, mature plants do not like pruning too much, this can negatively affect the generosity of the crop.
Flowering and fruiting. Get your first crop 3-4 years after planting. The fruits ripen quite early, the harvesting time differs depending on the purpose of use. For fresh consumption, you need to wait for the final ripeness of the fruit; for canning, slightly immature fruits with hard pulp are suitable. It is recommended to harvest the fruits in dry weather.
Reproduction and grafting. There are several ways to grow apricots.
Growing from seed - carried out in June-November. The pre-moistened bones are placed in a container with sawdust or wet sand and removed to a cool place;
Reproduction by grafting is effective from April to May. For this, a cutting of a fruiting apricot variety is grafted onto a seedling stock. This method of grafting allows you to get seedlings with better garden characteristics.
Diseases and pests. The main pests of apricot are aphids, black goldfish and hawthorn butterfly caterpillars. The best protection is regular inspection of the plants; if pests are found, they are mechanically cleaned or sprayed with infusion of dandelion, tobacco. In more advanced cases, you need to spray the tree with Bordeaux liquid, the treatment is carried out after the leaves fall.
Fungal diseases that can weaken the apricot: moniliosis, verticillosis, clasterosporia, viral wilting. After the spread of a disease caused by a fungal pathogen, flowers, fruits and plant shoots may die. Timely preventive and curative measures will help. All affected leaves and fruits are removed from the tree, branches are cut off. After that, the plant is treated with special preparations.
Apricots are also trapped by viral diseases, the causative agent of which is a living organism: plumpox, ringpox, viral wilting. You can prevent infection and prevent the development of disease if you choose only healthy plants for planting, do not forget to apply fertilizers. When pruning, treat hands and tools after each tree. An effective method of prevention is whitewashing the trunk with lime mortar and copper sulfate.
Apricot in winter. After harvesting, the stem of the plant should be whitewashed, this will protect the apricot from pests that can settle in the bark of the tree for the winter. A protective coat made of roofing felt or roofing felt, which should be wrapped around the trunk, will help to protect the apricot roots from frostbite.
The usefulness of the fruit. Apricot seeds contain 50% fat oil, similar in chemical composition to peach. It is used for cosmetic and medicinal purposes, added to liquid ointments, creams, and injection solutions. The fruits have a high content of carotene, pectin, also tannins, citric, malic, tartaric acid. In juicy, sweet fruits, there are many useful vitamins that have a beneficial effect on the body. Fruit purees, juices, jams, liqueurs are prepared from them.
Despite all the usefulness, apricots also have contraindications, because of the high sugar content, it is worth limiting consumption to people with diabetes mellitus and suffering from various gastroenterological diseases.
PHOTO APRICOT
