Apricot is a noble tree with an early flowering period and tasty fruits, which contain many vitamins and microelements useful for the body. Properly and on time, winter pruning of a fruit tree can become an obstacle to the emergence of a large number of problems associated with the development and fruiting of an apricot. How to competently carry out the pruning and crown formation procedure?
Benefits of winter pruning
Peach pruning sequence by year
Apricot fruits are in one of the first places among other fruit trees in terms of their medicinal properties and nutritional value. Although such a plant is large, it requires a rather impressive plot of land in your garden and attention, but it is worth it. In order for an apricot to pleasantly surprise its owner with beautiful delicate white flowers and a pleasant smell in the spring, and in the summer season with a lot of sweet juicy fruits on the branches, it should be properly looked after. One of the important points in this matter is the winter pruning of apricots. Since this procedure is a serious operation, somewhat painful for the fruit tree, you need to decide on the choice of time of year.
In winter, experienced gardeners advise pruning branches and forming a crown because the plants are still at rest during this period, which can make apricot pruning more gentle. A properly pruned tree will be able to grow and develop normally.
It is important to know that pruning is best done on the day when the temperature on the thermometer does not fall below minus 8.
Indeed, if pruning is carried out at too low a temperature, the plant will be too fragile, and the wounds obtained after cutting the branches will heal for too long.
Since the crown of a light-loving fruit tree is quite well branched, has flexible and thick branches, when pruning it, gardeners set themselves the following tasks – to promote the annual formation of new viable shoots and maintain the culture in a healthy state. What are the obvious advantages of pruning apricots in the cold season? Since there are no leaves on a tree in winter, you can normally see what condition the crown of the plant is in. This will give you the opportunity to decide how to cut the branches.
The procedure, carried out in winter, reduces the stress that the culture has at any other time of the year. With the onset of cold weather, wood freezes, so it is much easier to cut it; in winter there will be no unwanted scratches when using a hacksaw or secateurs. It is in the winter season that it is possible to position the stairs as conveniently as possible, without worrying about accidentally damaging other trees located in the immediate vicinity of the apricot in your garden area.
If you do not form a crown for young trees, they will not normally bear fruit, and will also have low immunity to various kinds of diseases, it will be possible to observe the drying of the branches, as well as the depletion of the plant by too early abundant harvests. If you carry out pruning, following all generally accepted standards, correctly form a crown, then you can be sure that your garden tree will grow viable, healthy, will bear fruit for a long time and with high quality. 
Although the apricot has the ability to give annual growth, it still cannot form the required number of lateral branches, so it is realistic to achieve their increase only with the help of timely pruning.
Crown formation scheme
As mentioned above, the apricot crown is quite branched, and young trees have the ability to quickly increase its volume and form summer shoots. Therefore, after a certain amount of time, the shape of the crown of a fruit tree from an inverse pyramidal shape becomes wide pyramidal. The apricot tree cannot independently control the number of fruits on the branches, which are too prolific, already having branches at a young age that reach a length of about one meter.
They move away from the tree and form sharp corners, and such a crown is not strong enough. On most of the emerging ovaries, fruits are formed, thus, a serious problem arises – overload in fruiting. The main purpose of winter pruning is the possibility of new strong shoots appearing annually. For most areas where industrial cultivation of apricot takes place, a sparse-tiered crown type can be called characteristic. There are also schemes for forming the crown of a tree according to the type of bowl or single crowns – the so-called non-tiered species.
Pruning scheme for an apricot tree in winter
Restorative pruning of a tree is usually carried out if it froze in an overly harsh winter. In this case, only the affected branches are removed, and new ones are formed from the young ones. As the fruit tree grows and the annual growth decreases, it is necessary to carry out rejuvenating pruning by transferring the main skeletal branches. Of the young shoots, it is necessary to leave only the most viable, having a normal arrangement, in order to subsequently be able to transfer them to fruiting, and remove the rest.
In ordinary garden plots, it is customary to use such a type of crown formation as flattened when pruning. This is due to the fact that summer cottages have a limited size. Three – four main branches of the tree must be laid so that the distance between them is not less than 40 cm, and also singly, which will significantly affect the strength of the base of the plant and can positively affect the illumination of the crown. That is why, when forming a sparse-tiered type of crown, at a close distance of about 20 cm, it is permissible to place several branches at most.
The last step in creating a tree crown from branches that are at an angle of about 50 degrees can be called the transfer of the main conductor to a branch, which will already be somewhat weaker. If possible, when planting a shielded additive, two branches that grow opposite should be directed along the row. In the first year of apricot life, it is recommended to cut the branches short on the sides by about half of the entire length, and the central conductor – 70 cm from their base.
It is customary to leave a distance of about 30 cm between the end of the side branches and the upper cut of the main one, and the branches that are at an angle of 90 degrees are cut out “into a ring”. According to the parameters of the departure of the main branches of the fruit tree, the angle in the upper part of the crown should not be less than 55 cm, and in the lower part – less than 45 cm. With the timely reduction of the main branches and the main conductor of the plant in the second and third year, one should follow the rules of subordination. This means that for varieties with rather weak branching – such as Pineapple, Orange-Red, Superior – the level of pruning should be gradually increased, and if apricot varieties have medium or strong division (Red-cheeked, Ruby, Golden Summer), this process advised to relax.
Video “Pruning apricot”
The recording shows how to properly prune an apricot and how to correct past pruning mistakes.
