Apricot pruning: spring, summer, autumn

Apricot pruning is an important and useful procedure. It affects the condition of the tree as a whole and, ultimately, its productivity, quantity and quality of fruits. Correct, timely pruning procedure allows you to form a beautiful crown, improve the health of the plant and strengthen its immunity to diseases and pests.

Goals and objectives of pruning

Apricot pruning is a complex undertaking that solves several problems. Its goals are the following:

1. Formation of the crown; without pruning it will grow greatly.
2. Without pruning, the inner branches of the apricot tree quickly age and die.
3. Abnormal growth of shoots leads to the fact that the fruits become small. Pruning allows you to get a better harvest.
4. An abundance of apricots on an unpruned tree can lead to numerous branches breaking under the weight of the ripening fruit. Pruning normalizes yield.

In addition, it helps to rejuvenate and extend the overall life of the tree.

Kinds

There are several types of apricot pruning. They arise from the tasks that are set before carrying out this event, and they are as follows:

• sanitary;
• restorative;
• regulating (standardizing);
• health;
• rejuvenating.

Each of these types serves a specific purpose.

Regulating pruning of apricot

Normalizing or regulatory pruning is carried out with the aim of artificially limiting the yield. The apricot fertilizes all the flowers, and without such a procedure the tree will very quickly become depleted. Rationing the harvest allows it to preserve its strength, while increasing not only the mass and quality of the fruit, but also the years of productive life.

Rejuvenating apricot pruning

This type of pruning is used for old trees. It allows you to stimulate the development of new shoots on which the harvest will be formed. In fact, rejuvenating pruning gives the tree a second youth.

Formative pruning of apricot in spring

Formative pruning allows you to make the crown of the tree such that all fruit branches have enough light. This is of great importance for culture. Typically, pruning and shaping the apricot crown is done according to one of two types:

• sparsely-tiered;
• without tier (cup-shaped).

It is necessary to form the desired crown configuration from the first year of planting apricots. When the length of young shoots exceeds 0.4 m, you can start pruning.

The sparse-tiered method involves forming a crown of 5–7 skeletal branches located at a distance of 30–40 cm from each other.Pruning is carried out as follows:

1. In the first year, a quarter of the shoot is removed. In this case, you need to leave the two main branches at a distance of approximately 0.3 m from each other. The rest are removed under the ring. After this, the branches are trimmed so that their end is 0.3 m below the top of the cane.
2. The following autumn, the same procedure is performed with other side shoots. In this case, the ends of the branches should be cut at a height of 0.4 m below the top of the main conductor.
3. In subsequent years, this distance increases by another 15 cm.
4. The branches that reappear on the central conductor are generatrix. Therefore, shoots over 0.6 m are cut in half; short ones do not need to be touched. The branch that has grown above the whip is left, but the whip is cut out completely.

Weak side shoots with at least 10 leaves can be pinched until they assume a horizontal position. Over time, they too will become part of the fruiting crown.

The flattened (cup-shaped) crown shape is used less frequently. In this case, 7 skeletal branches are left at a convenient distance. In this case, fruiting occurs earlier, but the quality of the crop deteriorates.

Sanitary

Sanitary pruning is done twice per season. The first time it is done in early spring, before the start of the growing season. The second sanitary cleaning is done in the fall, after the leaves fall. During sanitary pruning, dried and broken branches are removed. At the same time, the shoots are inspected for infection with fungal diseases, and the affected areas are also removed.

When to prune an apricot: in spring or autumn

The crop is pruned both in spring and autumn. In addition to this, there is also summer pruning, the so-called chasing.

Apricot pruning in spring

Spring pruning of apricots is done before the juices begin to flow, usually this is the period from the end of March to the beginning of April. In addition to sanitary, formative and supportive is done.

Apricot pruning in spring, the diagram and procedure are presented in the video.

Video about pruning apricots in spring for beginners.

Summer pruning of apricot

Apricot pruning in summer is done in early June in order to rejuvenate the tree and increase the quality of the harvest. It consists of two stages:

1. The branches of this year of life are shortened, leaving 20–30 cm.
2. After 15–20 days, 2–3 of the strongest shoots are selected from the resulting young shoots, all others are cut out.

As you can see, there is no specific pattern for pruning apricots in summer. It is produced once every 3–4 years and stimulates the tree to increase productivity.

How to prune an apricot in the fall

Apricot pruning in autumn is done in mid-October. At this time, broken and damaged parts of the crown are removed, and the imbalance between fruit and leaf branches is corrected. The scheme for pruning apricots in autumn is very simple: all fruit shoots, with the exception of skeletal shoots, are cut off by a third. Work with large branches is postponed until spring. For beginners, pruning apricots in the fall can be reduced only to sanitary matters.

Tools and materials

For work you will need the following tools and materials:

• stepladder - for working on the upper tier of the crown;
• garden pruning shears - for thin shoots;
• lopper for larger branches;
• hand saw (hacksaw) - for thick trunks;
• garden knife - for stripping and processing the cut;
• copper sulfate - for disinfection of instruments and wound surfaces;
• garden varnish - for final processing of the cut site.

Apricot pruning depending on the age of the trees

At different stages of apricot life, pruning is done differently. Spring apricot pruning is presented in detail below.

How to properly trim an apricot after planting

After planting, pruning and shaping of the first-year apricot is carried out as follows:

1. If the seedling does not have side branches, then it is reduced to 80–90 cm.
2. If there are side shoots, when pruning a young apricot, the most powerful ones are shortened by exactly half. The rest are cut into a ring.
3. The main conductor is shortened so that it rises 30 cm above the other branches.

Throughout the season, thickening shoots (growing inside the crown) are removed.

How to properly prune a two-year-old apricot

The main purpose of pruning 2 summer apricot seedlings in the spring is to form new stem branches. To do this, do the following:

1. Several branches are selected, located at a distance of 30 cm from each other and from last year’s shoots. They are cut so that the upper ones are shorter than the lower ones.
2. There should be 40 cm from the last branch growing towards the top of the conductor.
3. Some of the current year's shoots on skeletal branches are cut off. For fast-growing varieties, half is removed, for others - 1/3.

Last year's shoots, which have already been pruned, are shortened slightly.

How to prune an apricot 3 years after planting

The third year of life is the time of formation of skeletal branches. During this period, the following pruning is carried out:

1. Repeat the same as in the second year, the whip is cut off completely.
2. Overgrown branches that come from the trunk, but are not skeletal, are trimmed.

How to prune an apricot 4 years after planting

By the fourth year of life, the apricot crown should be fully formed. Fruiting begins at this age. For the next three years, only sanitary and health-improving pruning will be required.

How to trim an old apricot

Once every 3-4 years, an adult apricot will need rejuvenating pruning. By this time, fruiting has completely stopped on old branches. The procedure is done as follows:

1. Only 20–30 cm are left from several skeletal branches.
2. If fruits are set only on the outermost distant shoots, all skeletal branches must be cleared of growth in the spring. By summer, new fruit shoots will grow on them.

A video about pruning an old apricot tree in spring is presented below.

How to trim a columnar apricot

Columnar apricot requires mandatory pruning. Otherwise, it will quickly lose its decorative effect. From the moment of planting, all activities will be aimed at forming a tieless straight crown. Pruning a columnar apricot is done as follows:

1. The first year seedling is shortened to 0.8–0.9 m from the ground.
2. The side branches are cut off, leaving 3-4 shoots growing along the main trunk. They are cut so that they are 20–25 cm below the conductor.
3. All shoots that form on the branches at an acute angle are removed in the summer.
4. In subsequent years, a column is formed by cutting off the main shoots.

After this, the shoots are shortened annually by 15–20 cm.In addition, sanitary cutting is carried out, and branches that do not bear fruit are removed.

Caring for the crop after pruning

After finishing the work, all cuts must be treated with garden varnish. It can be purchased in specialized stores or made independently. The easiest way is to take wine alcohol and mix it with fir resin and yellow wax, heated over a fire (proportions 1:10:1). This varnish can be applied with a brush. Its viscosity does not depend on temperature.

Instead of garden varnish, you can use oil paint based on drying oil. Sometimes the sections are simply covered with clay. However, you need to make sure that the putty is not washed away by rain before the wounds heal.

Watering, fertilizing and loosening the tree trunk circle will help the tree quickly regain its strength after the pruning procedure.

Secrets of proper apricot pruning, or 8 useful tips for beginning gardeners.

1. Do no harm. The first pruning should be done with an experienced assistant or study the issue well in theory.
2. Everything is good in due time. Each event must be carried out within its own time frame, otherwise the tree may simply die.
3. Less is more. Too much pruning can result in a long recovery.
4. Cleanliness is the key to health. The instrument used to perform the operation must be disinfected with copper sulfate. It is also used to treat wood cuts, then the wounds are covered with garden varnish.
5. If you hurry, you will make people laugh. Don't rush when pruning. All cuts and cuts must be made carefully, trying to cause as little damage to the tree as possible.
6. Seven times measure cut once. Precise pruning is the key to a beautiful crown.
7. Help the weak. Tree pruning is very stressful. Do not forget to carry out restoration measures after pruning, feed and water the apricot.
8. As it comes back, so will it respond. If the procedures are done correctly and on time, the tree will generously reward you with a good harvest.

Conclusion

Apricot pruning is an important part of agrotechnical work carried out with the crop. Without it, the tree will become sick and the yield will drop greatly. Pruning is the key to apricot’s long life; this procedure should not be neglected.

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