Page 24 - ALG Issue 4 2020

fruit...
apricots
Varieties:
Tomcot
Reliable in cool climates, it crops early in mid-summer, producing large, orange fruits with a crimson blush.
Alfred
A traditional cultivar with medium-sized fruit and orange flesh. It needs good soil and a sheltered, sunny site.
Moorpark AGM
A late cultivar with orange- red fruits. The fruit is golden-orange with an attractive, crimson flush.
Aprigold
A dwarf tree reaching 1.2- 1.5m (4-5’) after ten years. It is ideal for a pot on the patio in John Innes Compost No3. It crops heavily, with delicious, orange-gold fruits.
Flavorcot (syn. Bayoto’)
This Canadian cultivar is renowned for its reliability and frost tolerance. It produces juicy, orange- red fruit, ripening in late summer.
If you have ever tasted a ripe apricot straight from the tree, you will not believe that it is the same fruit as
the insipid supermarket specimens
or shrivelled scrap in the trail-mix.
It is believed that apricots were first domesticated in China and were brought to England in 1542, by John Wolf (originally Jean Le Loup), gardener to King Henry VIII. By 1782 a Wigan nursery had published a catalogue with 14 varieties of apricots. However, until recently fruit available in supermarkets were unripe imported crops with little taste. In recent years cultivars have been bred that now produce fruit that can be farmed in the UK. The fruit can be used in sweet and savoury dishes, jams, liqueurs and dried.
Apricots are closely related to peaches, almonds, plums, and cherries and cultivated throughout the temperate regions of the world, especially in
the Mediterranean. The common apricot, Prunus armeniaca, is the most widespread species but four or five other Prunus species are called
Apricots can be grown on allotments but can be more difficult due to their sensitivity to frost
apricots, for example the Japanese apricot, P. mume.
Apricots can be grown on allotments but can be more difficult due to their sensitivity to frost and may need to be grown under cover in northern areas. Pick a suitable cultivar for your region and choose a sunny sheltered location on your plot; fan-trained against a south facing wall is ideal. Trees can
be planted bare root in autumn whilst the soil is still warm and containerised trees can be planted all year when conditions allow. Blossom arrives early and may need protection with fleece or polythene; they also benefit from hand- pollination. Keep the tree well-watered and the area around free from weeds, mulch in spring with well-composted manure.
Thin the fruits once they are around the size of walnuts, leaving one fruit per cluster and prune in spring or from the end of July to late August, when the sap is rising. Apricots bear fruit in late July and August on shoots made the previous summer and on short spurs from the older wood. Harvest when ripe as the fruit does not ripen off the tree.
Apricots can be affected by silverleaf, canker, aphids and spider mite.
Apricots grown on Torrinel, a semi- dwarfing rootstock, produce a smaller tree, around 2–2.5m (6.5–8 ft) suitable for an allotment and modern varieties have been specifically developed to crop successfully in cooler climates.
24 Allotment and Leisure Gardener