Apricot
Prunus armeniaca
Sun-warmed stone fruit — basil nearby is said to improve its cropping.
Spacing & sowing
- Plant spacing
- 11 ft 6 in
- In-row spacing
- 9 ft 10 in
- Between rows
- 14 ft 9 in
- Square-foot density
- Not suited to SFG
Calendar (from your frost dates)
- Plant out
- at the last spring frost
- First harvest
- 100 days after the last spring frost
- Harvest ends
- 60 days before the first fall frost
Growing
- Type
- Fruit · Perennial
- Botanical family
- Mixed / other
- Sunlight
- Full sun
- Watering
- Moderate
- Soil
- Deep, fertile, well-drained
- Feeding
- A balanced feed in spring, with compost laid on as mulch.
- USDA zones
- 4a–9b
- Frost tolerant
- Yes
- Flowering
- February
- Pruning
- Confine pruning to summer; this is not a tree to cut in winter.
- Overwintering
- Cover the blossom with fleece when frost is forecast; training against a wall helps it through.
Through the year
- Feb–Mar Flowering
- Mar–Apr Bud Break
- Apr–Jul Fruit Set
- Jul–Aug Harvest
- Aug–Oct Growing
- Oct–Dec Leaf Fall
- Jan–Feb Leaf Fall
Harvest
- When
- Late July–August in the UK on a warm wall or under glass (earlier in warm US zones); trees crop in 3–4 years. The window is short and the whole tree can ripen inside a fortnight.
- What to look for
- Uniform deep orange-gold with no green, flesh giving slightly under gentle pressure, honeyed aroma, and the fruit twisting free easily. Apricots gain no sugar after picking, so leave them until truly ripe — the difference between shop and wall-ripened apricots is the whole point.
- How to harvest
- Lift and twist gently with fingers cupped around the fruit; they bruise like peaches. For drying or jam a day or two before full softness is ideal.
- How often
- Every day or two over the brief 1–2 week window; check the sunny, upper fruits first.
- Storing the crop
- A few days at room temperature or up to a week refrigerated. One of the best fruits for preserving: halves freeze, bottle, and dry beautifully, and apricot jam is first-rate. Eat or process fast — they don't hold.
Companions
Garlic, Chives, Nasturtiums, Comfrey
Pests & problems
- Aphids Small sap-sucking insects — greenfly, blackfly — that cluster on soft new growth and excrete sticky honeydew. Squash by hand, hose off with water, and encourage ladybirds and lacewings.
- Bacterial canker A bacterial canker of cherries and plums: sunken oozing patches on the bark that girdle branches, with shot-holed leaves and dying buds.
- Brown rot Fruit rots brown on the tree with buff rings of spores, then mummifies. Remove all affected and mummified fruit promptly, on and under the tree.
- Silver leaf A silvery sheen spreads over leaves of plums and cherries, followed by branch dieback. Prune stone fruit only in summer, when infection risk is lowest.
Garden allies
Beneficial predators that hunt this plant's pests — grow their favourite flowers nearby to recruit them. companion plant
- Aphid midge Aphidoletes aphidimyzaHunts Aphids
A tiny midge whose orange maggots paralyze aphids and drink them dry, twenty or more each. Sold as a greenhouse biological control and resident outdoors wherever there are small nectar flowers and an unsprayed aphid colony to find.
- Assassin bug ReduviidaeHunts Aphids
A patient ambusher with a curved beak it drives into whatever it catches — caterpillars, beetles, bugs, and the occasional bee, so count it a generalist rather than a specialist. It will jab a careless finger too, so admire it and leave it be.
- Big-eyed bug Geocoris spp.Hunts Aphids
A stubby 3 mm bug with enormous wrap-around eyes, working the soil surface and the low foliage for aphids, mites, thrips and insect eggs. It is the main natural check on chinch bugs in a lawn and it is killed outright by insecticide.
- Damsel bug NabidaeHunts Aphids
A slender, mantis-armed bug that grabs aphids, small caterpillars, and thrips in low crops and meadowy edges. Leave a strip of unmown grasses and flowers for it to overwinter in.
- Dragonflies & damselflies OdonataHunts Aphids
Aerial hunters that take mosquitoes, midges and small flies on the wing all day, and whose larvae spend a year or more clearing the same insects from the water. A pond with planted margins and no fish is the way to have them.
- Garden birds PasseriformesHunts Aphids
Both things are true: birds strip your currants and a brood of blue tits takes several thousand caterpillars out of one fruit tree in a fortnight. Net what you must and welcome them everywhere else — a nest box near the apples is worth more than a spray.
- Green lacewing Chrysoperla carneaHunts Aphids
Its bristly larvae — "aphid lions" — impale aphids, mealybugs, thrips, and mite colonies, eating hundreds a week. Adults feed on nectar and pollen from small open flowers and overwinter in hollow stems left standing.
- Hoverfly SyrphidaeHunts Aphids
Bee-mimicking flies whose legless larvae graze aphid colonies clean while the adults pollinate. A ribbon of shallow, nectar-rich flowers kept in bloom all season recruits wave after wave of them.
- Ladybird (lady beetle) CoccinellidaeHunts Aphids
The gardener’s favorite ally: adults and their alligator-shaped larvae each eat thousands of aphids, plus scale, mealybugs, and other soft-bodied sap-suckers. Grow flat, open flowers for the adults and never spray a colony that ladybird larvae are already working.
- Minute pirate bug Orius spp.Hunts Aphids
A pinhead-sized true bug that is the best natural check on thrips, and happily spears aphids, mites, and insect eggs too. It needs pollen when prey is scarce, so keep something flowering nearby.
- Parasitic wasps Braconidae & TrichogrammaHunts Aphids
Tiny, stingless wasps that lay eggs in or on caterpillars, aphids, and moth eggs — the white cocoons riding a hornworm are their calling card, so leave that caterpillar be. Umbel flowers with shallow nectar keep the adults fuelled.
- Praying mantis MantidaeHunts Aphids
A sit-and-wait ambusher that snatches caterpillars, beetles, and anything else that wanders close — friend and foe alike, so count it a mixed blessing. Tall, structured plantings give it perches and egg-case anchors.
- Soldier beetle CantharidaeHunts Aphids
Soft-winged beetles seen mating on flower heads in high summer; adults and larvae both take aphids and soft grubs. Open composite flowers are their landing pads and hunting grounds.
- Spiders AraneaeHunts Aphids
Webs, ambushes, and night patrols make spiders the garden’s steadiest generalist predators, taking whatever flies or crawls past. Mulch, ground cover, and undisturbed corners keep the population dense.
Did you know?
Apricots blossom very early, so a sheltered sunny wall guards the flowers from late frost.
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's herbarium at cottagegardencompanion.com