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To grow an apricot from a stone, it is enough to throw it into the ground and a sprout will sprout next season. However, real gardeners take the process of stone reproduction seriously. We propose to consider the entire cultivation technology in a step-by-step instruction.
Is it possible to grow an apricot from a seed?
Any apricot grown from seed will bear fruit, but parental qualities are very rarely inherited. However, there are advantages here. If you grow, for example, an apple tree from a seed, then a wild game will grow. The opposite is true for apricots. A fruit-bearing cultivated tree grows, sometimes surpassing its parents in characteristics.
Bones are often planted in autumn. The easiest option is to bury them in the garden. The advantage of this method is hardening over the winter. Minus – eating bones by rodents. Here it is necessary to soberly assess the situation. If there are a lot of seeds, then it is easier to take a chance by sowing a plot on the street. When there is a limited amount of planting material, and even a valuable variety, it is better to grow seedlings with seedlings in a closed way.
Most gardeners have a general opinion that the resulting apricot tree from the stone at home adapts better to the local climate, soil, and is unpretentious in care. If you plant a seedling of the same variety, brought from another region, the plant will get sick for a long time, take root, or maybe even die.
Apricot pits for planting are best harvested from local trees. If there are none or you want to start a new variety, then planting material can be asked from familiar gardeners to send by mail. It is desirable that they live in cold regions, for example, Siberia. Apricot from a harsh climate is guaranteed to take root in any terrain.
Most gardeners argue that it is better not to germinate the seeds in a closed way. The seedling is weak and after planting will not survive the winter. Bones are optimally immersed in open ground. So that rodents do not eat them, they should be planted in late autumn before frost or in April.
How to grow an apricot from a stone: step by step instructions
All planting and caring for an apricot grown from a stone takes place according to clearly planned actions. Only in this way can a fruit-bearing tree be guaranteed to grow.
Step 1. Selecting and preparing seeds for planting
Bones for planting are obtained from ripe fruits. It is even better to take overripe apricots. The pulp should separate well. This sign indicates the maturity of the planting material. However, there are varieties in which even overripe pulp does not separate well. More often this is observed in apricots, which bear small fruits. This is a kind of half-wit. It makes no sense to grow them at home, except for the stock.
If possible, they collect a lot of bones. Not all of them will germinate, and from the resulting seedlings there will be an opportunity to choose strong seedlings. Before planting, the seeds are washed and left filled with clean water. Pop-up instances are thrown away. There will be no sprouts from empty spaces. All the bones that have settled to the bottom of the container are pulled out of the water and immersed in manganese. Further actions are aimed at hardening. Planting material is placed in a bag of cotton fabric, sent for three months in the refrigerator. Hardened bones when planted in the spring quickly adapt to the temperature of the soil.
Step 2: When to Plant Apricot Kernels
To germinate an apricot seed at home, you need to choose the right time for planting in the ground:
- Autumn is an ideal time for sowing outdoors. The optimal landing month is October.
- Spring is also a good time of the year, but the seedling will turn out to be less hardened. Sowing is carried out in April.
- Summer is the worst. The planted stone will sprout during the period of fruit ripening, but the tree will not get stronger by winter and will disappear.
The middle of spring or autumn for sowing was not chosen by chance. At this time of the year, the activity of rodents decreases, the earth creates optimal temperature conditions for the adaptation of planting material.
Step 3. Planting an apricot with a stone
Before autumn sowing, the seeds are soaked for 24 hours in water. If the process is transferred to the spring, then in the winter they are hardened in the refrigerator. Before sowing, grooves 6 cm deep are prepared. The bed is placed in an illuminated area, closed from cold northern winds. It is desirable to make the soil loose. Good results are obtained by adding a mixture of sand with humus. Planting material is laid out along the groove in 10 cm increments, sprinkled with earth, watered.
Step 4. Care of seedlings
In order to grow an apricot from a stone, the seedling must be given proper care. The first year, young sprouts protect from birds that love to eat greens. Shelter is made from mesh or plastic bottles with a cut off bottom. When the apricot seedlings grow up, the strongest trees are left, and all the rest are removed.
The main care of the plant is timely watering. To preserve moisture, the soil is mulched with peat. From the very beginning, the seedling is formed. Remove excess side shoots, cut off the top so that the crown forms a ball. In the second year of life, the first fertilizing with humus is carried out. For the winter, a young seedling is covered with fallen leaves.
The video shows the process of growing apricots:
Step 5. Where and when to transplant an apricot grown from a stone
It is not enough to grow a seedling from an apricot seed, it still needs to be transplanted correctly and find a suitable place in the yard.
Transplantation is resorted to if mass crops were carried out. In apricot seedlings, 50% of the crown must be cut off to speed up new rooting. If pruning is ignored, the tree will freeze in winter.
The transplant process consists of the following steps:
- 2-3 hours before digging, the seedling is abundantly poured with water. The earth will soften, the root system will be removed with less damage and a lump of soil.
- With a shovel around the trunk, they dig a deep trench to the maximum. The root system, together with a lump of soil, is hooked with a pitchfork and transferred to a piece of film. If an apricot seedling needs to be carried far, then it is placed with its roots in a container with sawdust.
- A hole is dug in a new place at least a month before transplantation. If the process is carried out in the spring, then the hole can be dug in the fall. The size of the hole should be twice the size of the root system.
- The place for the hole is chosen on the south side. At the bottom of the pit, drainage is made of chopped branches and rubble. Part of the hole is covered with fertile soil mixed with compost. From fertilizers add 0,5 kg of superphosphate, 0,2 kg of ammonium nitrate. With increased acidity, 1 kg of lime is mixed.
- Apricot seedlings are carefully lowered with their roots into the hole, covered with the remains of a fertile mixture of compost and soil. A ring-shaped rim is raked around the tree to hold water.
Immediately after transplanting, the apricot is watered daily, maintaining moderate soil moisture. You can reduce the intensity of watering after the full engraftment of the tree.
Step 6. Secrets of growing apricot from the stone
To properly grow an apricot from a stone, there are several secrets:
- the variety is selected, taking into account the climatic conditions of the area;
- planting material is collected only from overripe fruits;
- southern varieties are not planted in cold regions;
- due to low germination up to 30%, a lot of seeds are sown with a margin.
The first harvest, if you plant an apricot from the stone, can be obtained in 6–7 years, provided proper care is taken.
Growing apricot from the stone at home
When there is little planting material, and even a valuable variety, it is possible to grow an apricot from a seed at home using a closed sowing method. In a flower pot, the seedling is guaranteed not to be destroyed by a mouse or a bird. However, the seedling will turn out to be weak, it will take a long time to adapt to weather conditions after transplantation, and in winter it may freeze.
Stratification of planting material
Before planting an apricot seed at home, the planting material is subjected to stratification. The process begins with soaking. Planting material is immersed in water for a day. All floating copies are thrown away.
After soaking, the bones that have settled to the bottom of the container are mixed with wet sand, poured into a plastic box from under the cake. Planting material should not be in close contact with each other. The box with the contents is placed in the refrigerator for three months.
For the entire time of stratification, the humidity of the sand is maintained. If mold appears, it is carefully washed with a piece of cloth dipped in a solution of potassium permanganate.
When the sprouts hatch, the planting material is removed from the refrigerator to the room to adapt to the heat. A week later, you can plant in flower pots.
How to grow an apricot seed in a pot
Apricots should be planted in pots from the stone according to the same rules that were used for open ground. The difference is the growing process itself:
- Apricot tap root requires the use of a deep container. Cut plastic bottles or half-liter disposable cups are perfect.
- A drainage hole is cut at the bottom of the planting tank. A thin drainage layer is poured from expanded clay or small stones. The rest of the space is filled with soil with humus.
- Initially, you need to properly plant an apricot seed in a glass. Sprouted planting material is buried only with a root. Deep planting cannot be done, otherwise there is a threat of rotting of the root neck.
- Sowing is lightly watered with water at room temperature, covered with a film, left in a warm, dark place for germination. Periodically, for ventilation, open the shelter.
- After the appearance of a full-fledged sprout, the shelter is removed. A glass with a seedling is placed on the south window, the air temperature is maintained at about +25оC.
When the apricot from the stone at home grows to a height of 30 cm, the seedling is ready for transplanting to the street. This should be done only in the spring, after hardening.
Transplanting an apricot grown from a stone in open ground
Planting a seedling from a pot is carried out only in the spring, when warm weather is fully established. The hole is prepared in the same way as when transplanting from open ground. The tree is watered abundantly a couple of hours before planting. The root is removed from the cup along with a clod of earth, lowered into the prepared hole, covered with soil, watered. The first days the seedling is shaded from the sun until it takes root. Be sure to install protection from birds from the grid.
Culture aftercare
Young apricot seedlings do not require special care. It is enough to observe timely watering. Organic matter is added from dressings in small quantities. Initially, the tree can start up low side shoots. In order not to get a bush, the extra branches are cut off. The crown is formed annually until a full-fledged tree is obtained.
Will an apricot grown from a stone bear fruit?
With any method of planting, it will be possible to grow a fruit-bearing tree from an apricot seed, but the first harvest can be expected around the seventh year. Varietal characteristics are rarely preserved. Most often, the quality of the fruits surpass their parents. However, in rare cases, a wild game may grow. The offspring of a new culture is unpredictable. If a wild tree has grown, cultivars are grafted onto it or uprooted.
Conclusion
In fact, even children can grow an apricot from a seed. Even without special preparations and adherence to technology, many summer residents have acquired trees that bring delicious fruits.