Topic: Apricot advice needed please

[Grandma]

In the twenty years that I've had my little apricot tree, I've never had a crop anything like this year's!  :o Unbelievable - especially as there was a (light) frost when it was in full flower! My question is - (and I know how lucky I am to be asking it ;)) -  should I thin out the fruit as I do with the Victoria plums? If so when to do it? Or will nature take its course - survival of the fittest?

Thanks for any help!

[prink13]

Wow Grandma - they look yummy!

I'm afraid I don't know if they should be thinned etc. I only have my neighbours Bullace plum trees, and we did nothing with these, they went mad last year and we had over 70lbs plums

Kathi

[Grandma]

Kathi -  it always seems a shame to thin out lovely, healthy plums but, when I don't do it, as they fatten up, they all scrunge together and turn brown and furry and yucky and whole bunches have to be thrown away  :( Just don't want the same thing to happen to the apricots!

Maybe Bullaces don't grow so big or in such tight clumps as Victorias? 70lb! Wow! Are they cookers/jammers or eaters?

And yes  ;D they are SO yummy! (Best eaten outdoors so the juice can drip off the elbows ;) ) So different from the dry, tasteless things bought from the shops  ::)

[Baccy Man]

For apricots, peaches & nectarines any fruit thinning needed should be done after the June drop (which can occur any time between early May and July) as the fruits approach one inch in diameter. Sometimes the tree drops enough fruit so no further thinning is necessary but more often that not there are a few clumps which do need thinning out.

[Grandma]

Thanks Baccy Man  :-* I didn't know apricots had a June drop - (Do plums do it too? I don't remember the Victoria ever doing it ??? Perhaps I just didn't notice  ;))

 So..... I'll just have to wait and see what nature - (and the ruddy squirrels >:() - leave for me!

[Baccy Man]

My apricots, peaches, nectarines, plums, cherries, apples, cider apples, pears, perry pears, & gages all have a June drop although the majority do it while the fruit is still tiny so it is easily missed. The peaches, apricots, gages, plums & cider apples rarely drop sufficient quantities of fruit so I usually have to hand thin them afterwards.